Cover image by Jennifer Kempey showing storms as they entered Habersham around 7:20PM.
A line of strong to severe storms crossed North Georgia from 6-8 PM on Tuesday evening.
Strong winds of up to 60 MPH and small hail, along with torrential rain and frequent cloud to ground are possible with these storms as they push east.
Scattered power outages were reported. In the immediate aftermath, some 72,000 Georgia Power customers and EMC members were left without electricity across the state. Many of those were in Northeast Georgia, where, as of early Wednesday, June 18, around 3,100 homes and businesses remained without power. Most of those outages were in Rabun County.
RELATED Cleanup continues in Habersham after Tuesday’s storm
Short severe summer storm
Wind gusts of 30-40 MPH were common across much of Hall, Habersham, Banks, Jackson, eastern Dawson, southern Lumpkin, and southern White Counties. A weather station in the Brookwood area of Hall County recorded an unofficial gust of 47.9 MPH, with the station at WRWH in Cleveland and another station in Clermont both recording a maximum wind gust of 38.7 MPH as the line moved through.
Emergency management reported a tree down on 115 East near Cleveland, which backed up traffic. An additional tree was reported down on Pine Trail south of Dahlonega.
Sabrina Lynn Stephens of Alto got this eerie shot of the storm’s clouds as they moved through.
Heavy rainfall fell with 1/4-1/2″ falling in as little as 15 minutes. No major flooding was reported, but some ponding of water on roadways occurred as drainage struggled to keep up with the heavy rain rates.
