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Tornado watch issued for north Georgia

ATLANTA — UPDATE

10:00 p.m.: Outages from Georigia Power: Statewide outages ~ 7,500. 2,600 NW part of the state. Metro South 1,900, Metro East 1,000.

9:26 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warning for Dawson County until 9:45 p.m.

9:21 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warning issued for Gwinnett, DeKalb and Hall Counties

8:35 p.m.: Tornado warning canceled for Dawson and Pickens counties.

8:22 p.m.: Tornado watch for metro Atlanta extended until 4 a.m.

8:12 p.m.: Tornado warning extended for Pickens Couny and expanded into Dawson and Gilmer counties.

7:51 p.m.: Chandley says storm cells are forming in Cobb County.

7:35 p.m.: A tornado warning has been issued for Bartow, Cherokee and Pickens counties. It's set to expire at 8:15 p.m.

7:30 p.m.: All tornado warnings have expired. Much of metro Atlanta remains under a tornado watch until 11 p.m.

7:05 p.m.: Chandley says baseball-sized hail is hitting northeast of Rockmart.

7:00 p.m.: Tornado warning has expired for Haralson County.

6:59 p.m.: Floyd County EMA Director says a roof has been blown off a building in Rome. Another business in the area has a missing roof and the windows are blown out.

6:47 p.m.: Tornado warning issued for Bartow, Haralson, Paulding and Polk counties.

6:41 p.m.: Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologist David Chandley says, "Quite likely a tornado has touched down outside Tallapoosa. We're waiting on confirmation."

6:39 p.m.: Thirty-three lightning strikes have been recorded in the last 10 minutes. Burns tells residents, "Get to the most interior part of your house, away from windows and doors."

6:35 p.m.: The storm is moving out of Tallapoosa and headed toward Buchanan. Burns warns of hail associated with the storm.

Severe Weather Team 2 is monitoring a tornado headed into north Georgia on Thursday evening.

"A tornado has been detected by our radar and has been confirmed by the National Weather Service," Severe Weather Team 2 chief meteorologist Glenn Burns said. "In addition to producing the tornado, (the storm) is producing straight-line winds."

Shortly before 6:30 p.m., Carroll, Haralson and Paulding counties were placed under a tornado warning. Burns said the tornado on the ground was near Tallapoosa, moving northeast.

The potential for severe weather is primarily in the evening and early morning hours, and will end by 3 a.m. Friday, Burns said.

Burns said parts of north Georgia would see isolated showers throughout the evening before the squall line arrives.

"Our main threat in north Georgia will be a medium threat of tornadoes, a very high risk of damaging thunderstorm winds and we're going to have a high lightning threat as well and a medium threat for damaging hail," Burns said.


Burns and meteorologist David Chandley will track the storms until they pass out of the area. They suggest that residents keep their severe weather radios on, or download the free Severe Weather Team 2 iPad app to stay up to date when not watching weather coverage on Channel 2 Action News.

The storms are expected to pass just in time for the weekend, which will be sunny and dry with highs in the low 70s and lows in the 40s.

Stay with Channel 2 Action News throughout the evening for up-to-the-minute information on where storms are heading. Burns and Chandley will break into programming if a tornado warning develops.

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