Bone-chilling wind, rain greet North Georgians

ATLANTA - North Georgia awakened to a bone-chilling weather this morning and forecasters say before the day is over, several inches of rain are possible in some places and wind gusts up to 60 mph in some mountain areas.

Officials in Pickens County closed their schools for the day, citing widespread power outages.

The National Weather Service issued several weather advisories, including a high wind warning for mountain counties and a tornado watch for southwest Georgia. Elsewhere, most of north and central Georgia are under a flash flood watch and wind advisory. (See separate posting.)

Rainfall totals through 5 a.m. included .65 inch at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, .74 inch in downtown Atlanta and 1.03 inches in Peachtree City.

By 7:00, the Gainesville airport had recorded .69 inch of rain and wind gusts up to 31 mph, creating wind chills at or near freezing.

(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)

File photo.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/12/225197