Another Cold Night-Some Changes Ahead

Submitted by Chris Holcomb, 11Alive Meteorologist

Saturday, February 25th, 2012, 6:07pm

Winter isn't over yet. It still felt like it for a majority of the day. We started with a low of 34 degrees this morning in Atlanta. Many areas outside the city were around freezing. Temps gradually warmed up with the sunshine mixing in with some high thin clouds. It didn't feel too warm though thanks to the wind. We had windy conditions all afternoon. The peak wind gust was 36 mph. Our average wind speed for today was 13mph.

The wind will settle down tonight. Temperatures will cool off again late tonight and overnight. Lows by morning will move down to 34 degrees. There will be a few areas that dip to freezing again. The wind will shift tomorrow and come out of the east and southeast. That will pick up a little Atlantic moisture and spread a few more clouds into the area. The east wind and additional clouds will hold our high temps in the 50s again.

#2-Surface features showing first front elongating to the north with second Pacific front waiting in the wings

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My Damage Survey of the Rome Tornado

Submitted by Mike Francis, Chief Meteorologist

Saturday, February 25th, 2012, 10:48am

At approximately 10:04 a tornado touched down in Rome, GA.... It traveled around 3 miles with around 95mph winds and at one point it was around 75yards wide. Not a very wide or long tracked tornado, but if you were hit by it it was life changing. I headed up to Rome yesterday to survey the damage myself to see what I thought since the NWS had just issued a statement that it was an ef1. This will be an analysis of what I saw and my conclusion.

Pic #1

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Colder Weekend

Submitted by Chris Holcomb, 11Alive Meteorologist

Saturday, February 25th, 2012, 9:14am

Temperatures this morning were running more than 30 degrees colder than they were at the same time Friday. Friday morning in the 7am hour, it was 69 degrees. This morning in the 7am hour, it was 35 degrees.

Temps will warm a little in the afternoon. We will eventually top off at 55 degrees. That is still 4 degrees below average. The average high for this time of year is 59 degrees.

We will also have to deal with some wind today. We will have winds blowing in from the NW at 15-25mph. The wind will die down tonight as temps drop again into the mid 30s by Sunday morning.

We will warm up this week. By Wednesday, highs will return to the lower 70s. We will also have some rain by midweek with the potential for some thunderstorms.

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Friday Night Webcast

Submitted by Mike Francis, Chief Meteorologist

Friday, February 24th, 2012, 8:14pm

Clearing skies and cold temps tonight, temps will fall off into the mid 40's by around 10pm tonight.

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Cooler Weather Moving In

Submitted by Mike Francis, Chief Meteorologist

Friday, February 24th, 2012, 5:20pm

Short Term

Cloudy skies continue to affect N Georgia this evening, with a strong wind from the north we are pretty chilly. We have gone from 69 degrees at 11am to 58 degrees at 4pm. With the north winds we will continue to bring in cooler air and drop the temps. Later tonight the skies will clear, the winds will die, and we will see temps fall off into the lower 30's. Could even see some upper 20's in the suburbs! Tomorrow will be the better day to get outside for the weekend with temps making it into the low to mid 50's under partly cloudy skies.

Sunday Looks potentially wet

Rain not far enough on the NAM computer model, we will see some light showers here Sunday

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Why No Tornado Warning for Rome the Last 2 Times?

Submitted by Mike Francis, Chief Meteorologist

Friday, February 24th, 2012, 5:04pm

This is from my friend and great reporter John Shirek.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City were not able to issue tornado warnings for Floyd County and other areas of NW Georgia based on their radar data Wednesday night for a simple reason:

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Tornado Watch Dropped for Metro Atlanta Counties

Submitted by Chris Holcomb, 11Alive Meteorologist

Friday, February 24th, 2012, 2:54pm

Tornado Watch Dropped for Metro Atlanta Counties

Quick update: The tornado watch has now been canceled for all metro Atlanta counties. It was originally to be in effect until 4pm. It remains in effect for areas of central Georgia.

Here is the cut and pasted update from the NWS:

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