BREAKING | Ground stop issued at Atlanta airport amid storms

UPDATE: A ground stop was issued Thursday evening at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as storms rolled through the metro Atlanta area.

The stoppage is expected to continue until 6:30 p.m. after being announced by the Federal Aviation Administration due to heavy rain and thunderstorms near the airport.

ORIGINAL STORY: As has been the trend for the past few days, we will start seeing scattered storms in metro Atlanta on Thursday afternoon. A few areas could see a stray shower earlier than that.

“That has been the story of July. After what was a very dry spring across a lot of North Georgia, the rain is back” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

For all of May and June, “we had under five inches of rain, and here we are halfway through the month of July, already almost three inches of rain,” he added.

And we’ll see even more. Scattered thunderstorms are expected each day for the foreseeable future.

That rain should provide some relief to the moderate to severe drought conditions across much of Georgia. It’s also bringing temperatures down.

Highs today will stay in the upper 80s, though a few locations could reach 90 degrees.

The cooler weather is a welcomed relief from the long stretch of 90-degree days. It has been so hot this year, in fact, that if the trend continues, 2024 could be the hottest Atlanta summer on record, Monahan said. Records date back to 1878.

But with projected highs in the mid 80s over the next several days, that trajectory could change.

» For a detailed forecast, visit www.ajc.com/weather .

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