By Clint Thompson
Tropical Storm Isaias is set to become a hurricane before making landfall this weekend along the Gulf Coast. Depending on the storm’s development over the next couple of days, the Southeast region will be impacted, as a lot of rain and some wind can be expected, according to Pam Knox, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension agricultural climatologist.
“We’re going to be east of it, but I think at least parts of western Georgia are going to get wet or are going to get windy,” Knox said. “I think there’s a chance the wind could stretch pretty far to the east because there’s some interaction with the widespread weather conditions. I think we’re going to see rain for sure. We’re going to see a chance of severe weather. I think the wind could be pretty strong, especially in the western counties.”
The potential for heavy rainfall follows last weekend’s weather that included significant rain accumulation, from Friday night to Sunday. While predictions for this weekend’s storm call for another wet couple of days, it is impossible to predict how much considering how the storm may evolve from now until then.
“I mean, the forecast is still evolving, so we don’t know exactly if the path moves farther to the east and more of Georgia’s in play to get really bad weather moves farther to the west then the impacts will reduce,” Knox said. “I think rain across the state, most places will probably get at least an inch. Places in the southern part of the state could get several inches, especially if they happen to be under one of those thunderstorm cells.
“The ground’s already pretty wet from the previous rain. It’s going to be tough for farmers who are trying to harvest.”