Keep an eye on PowerPlus One Million Doppler radar today to watch the showers move in. Don't get too excited about finding much rain in your rain gauge, though. These showers are moving in to some dry air. Many of them are breaking up as they leave Alabama. We will have some off and on light rain during the afternoon. Rainfall amounts will generally be less than a quarter of an inch. The showers will end tonight.
I feel extra old today. I can't believe my baby girl is turning 10! Claire was born on a record breaking hot day on December 4th, 1998! She is so excited about being "double digits" and "the big one-oh." She has big plans for the next few days. Everything will revolve around Claire through the weekend!!
Here are a few pictures...You can tell she has her Dad wrapped around her little finger:
Lake Lanier continues to drop closer and closer to record low levels. We continue to monitor the low water levels. We just got in some new forecast numbers for Lanier's lake levels for the next few weeks. We are nearing another record low soon. Here are the latest levels:
Record Low Level-1050.79 set on 12/26/07
Level NOW: 1051.15 (19.85 ft. below full pool)
Forecast Levels:
12/12-1050.8 (Just above record level)
12/19-1050.5 (Below previous record low)
12/26-1050.2
1/02-1050.0
Any significant rainfall over the next few weeks would alter these forecast numbers. We will have some rain over the next few weeks...but not a significant amount to greatly change these numbers.
See any snow flurries? Metro Atlanta will only see one or two blowing flurries today...but north Georgia is seeing more. There is a Winter Weather Advisory in effect until Midnight for northeast Georgia. The flurries started there early this morning. It is mainly flurries with some accumulations in the higher elevations. Check out the pictures in our photo galleries here: http://www.11alive.com/life/community/gallerypublic.aspx?plckGalleryID=b9524ff4-1421-48a7-aef9-d766e2b83079
The ground is warm. Most of the snow falling is melting at the surface. The snow is mainly sticking to elevated surfaces, rooftops and on cars. There is some snow on the roads and grass...but the warm ground is melting it. In the higher elevations above 2500ft...temps are hovering around the freezing mark. It will be in those areas that we see some slick spots developing.
We're seeing some sunshine break through the clouds here in the metro area. Temps will be cool with some brisk winds from the west. Winds will blow in at 10-20mph with higher gusts. Any flurries will end tonight over north Georgia will cold air continuing.
We had some good rain this weekend. We picked up 1.2" of rain Saturday and .48" Sunday. More than an inch and a half of rain sounds good...but we are still way behind on our rainfall deficit. Right now, we are 9.34" below where we should be at the beginning of December. Lake Lanier's level came up just a little bit with the rain. Right now we are still almost 20 feet below full pool. Our level now is at 1051.14. Our record low Lanier level was on December 26, 2007 at 1050.79. We will approach that record level once again in the next couple of weeks.
We have a lot of weather to watch as we head into the weekend. It's looking pretty good for shoppers out today. Many areas are seeing a good bit of sunshine mixing in with the clouds. The rain is well to the south today.
We'll begin to see some showers developing here tonight. Those showers will stick with us into Saturday. Take your rain gear to the Georgia/Georgia Tech game Saturday. It will be a soggy game.
Another wave of rain will move in Sunday. The rain on Sunday won't be anything out of the ordinary for us...but the timing is not the best. Sunday is typically one of the busiest travel days of the year. With rain on the roads and runways...plan ahead for some travel delays.
It gets even more interesting Monday morning. Colder air will move in Sunday night as the moisture pushes out. We'll be watching for some snow flurries mainly in extreme north Georgia overnight Sunday into Monday morning. As always...this will be a close call between the moisture moving out and the cold air moving in.
I'll be here with you this weekend. Steve is off Saturday and Sunday morning. I'll keep you up to date on any changes in the forecast.
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are having a great day. I'm having a good day...even though I am working this morning. I am looking forward to heading home after the morning news to a house full of people. I am fortunate to work in my hometown. All of my family lives in the area...and most of my wife's family lives here, too. We usually host the Thanksgiving feast for the entire family.
We're expecting between 20 and 22 people over just after noon today. My wife and mother-in-law are preparing 2 turkeys and the dressing. They are also making a few desserts. Everyone else is bringing a dish or two for the sides. My responsibility is to make the sausage balls. I'll get home and pop them in the oven to serve as appetizers before the big meal. We always have a big spread of food for the feast. I am a little nervous though. When I was leaving for work at 3am today...there was a note on the kitchen table for me to put the second turkey in the oven. Wow...the pressure's on. I hope I did it correctly or I'm in big trouble.
I also had another surprise this morning. A friend in our community brought over a breakfast pastry for me to bring to everyone here at work. Kerry Kruegler's son swam with my daughter on swim team. She called my wife last night and said she felt sorry for the people who had to work to give the news and weather this morning!! She brought two huge pastries over for me to bring to work this morning. The crew loved it! Even though we are working this morning...believe me...we are all THANKFUL to have a job and work here!!
I'll be headed home after the Today Show. We don't have a noon show thanks to the parade on NBC. The house will gradually start filling up around lunchtime.
