Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Atlanta, GA
Issued by NWS Atlanta, GA
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527 FXUS62 KFFC 302033 AFDFFC Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Peachtree City GA 333 PM EST Sun Nov 30 2025 ...Afternoon Area Forecast Discussion... .KEY MESSAGES... Updated at 313 PM EST Sun Nov 30 2025 - Waves of rainfall are expected this evening through Tuesday afternoon. Periods of heavy rainfall will be possible. - Another wave of rainfall is possible Friday into Saturday. This looks like a "cold rain", but some potential does exist for winter weather in far NE GA (~10% at this writing). && .SHORT TERM... (This evening through Monday) Issued at 313 PM EST Sun Nov 30 2025 Rain is underway across parts of north and central Georgia as a cold front pushes into the state from the northwest. Instability is essentially zero, which means the chances for thunder are also essentially zero. Rainfall intensity has generally been light to moderate, and the progression of the front is ensuring that the rain is shifting south/east and not remaining over a given area for an exceedingly long time. Thus, flooding is not a concern. Dense cloud cover and widespread rainfall through the morning across north Georgia have generally capped temperatures in the 40s. Conversely, across parts of central Georgia, temperatures have climbed into the 60s and even low 70s as much less cloud cover has allowed for warming. Parts of central Georgia (especially east-central Georgia) may end up rain-free through the evening as CAMs depict rain decreasing in coverage and slowing in its southward/eastward progression. The overnight/early tomorrow (Monday) morning hours will bring quite a temperature difference from north to south across the County Warning Area (CWA), with lows in the upper 20s to upper 30s roughly along and north of the I-85 corridor, and in the 40s south of that area. Isolated rain may persist overnight, but at this time, expecting that precip will occur to the south of where temperatures will be freezing. Similar to today, highs tomorrow will be much cooler across north Georgia than those across central Georgia. Another wave of rain is expected to arrive Monday evening and persist through the overnight hours as a Gulf low approaches from the southwest. The placement of the low largely to the south of the CWA will likely support bands of moderate to heavy rainfall, and depending on where bands set up, localized flooding cannot be ruled out (especially in urban areas like Atlanta). && .LONG TERM... (Tuesday morning through next Saturday) Issued at 313 PM EST Sun Nov 30 2025 Long term picks up Tuesday where phased waves within the northern and southern branch of the jet will be passing by the CWA and dragging the cold front fully through us. This will bring an end to the rainfall from west to east across the area. Some showers could linger into the late morning to early afternoon from some before clearing begins to happen. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning looks chilly, with low in the 20s and 30s thanks to clearing skies. Shortwave ridging will build overhead in the southern branch of the jet, keeping us clear on Wednesday with highs in the 50s across the CWA. Things are starting to look interesting on the backend of the week. Models are starting to come in with solutions that bring an initial strong trough across the northeast on Thursday that pushes a stalling cold front towards the CWA. More importantly, this wave pushes through the NE CONUS and brings a relatively strong surface high pressure over the northern Appalachians within the AVA on the backside. Our more avid readers may recognize this as a pretty classic setup for cold air damming/"the wedge" across Georgia, which brings cold air streaming down from the northeast into the area. Staggered with this system is another shortwave within the southern branch of the jet that begins to eject slowly into the area late Thursday into Friday. With a nice baroclinic zone established by a stalled cold front, some decent surface cyclogenesis kicks off bringing a pretty potent surface low across the CWA. Moisture is advected into the CWA, isentropically lifted over the wedge, and precip looks to be plentiful, if this does indeed play out. This is also a pretty classic setup to get some winter weather in the CWA...though we may be a bit early in the season and may not be able to quite tap into cold enough air just yet. But more on that. At the very least, widespread cold rain across much of north and central Georgia will be possible on Friday into Saturday. Let`s talk a little about the ensembles and the winter wx potential. Looking at the NBM, there is a clear signal within the "weighted/adjusted" output there is a clear signal for a wedge within the data. Going to the 10th and 90th percentiles shows a wide distribution, with temps in northeast GA as low as 33 on the 10th and as high as the mid 40s on the 90th. To see a bit more what is happening, K-mean clustering of the 500 mb heights on Thursday night into Friday morning shows a clear set of groupings, with stronger wedge setups being favored in those that have a deeper wave in the northern branch (stronger surface high sets up, better CAA from stronger barrier jet) or are amplified with the ridge behind (similar in creating a potentially stronger surface high, but for different reasons). Needless to say, if we see an evolution towards a stronger set up for the high, we may need to start monitoring for some winter weather potential, as high temps closer to the mid 30s may be cutting it close. Right now, would lean away from the winter wx until we see more consistency in the models for a stronger surface high. && .AVIATION... (18Z TAFS) Issued at 1252 PM EST Sun Nov 30 2025 The northern terminals are observing IFR CIGs and OCNL IFR/MVFR VIS as LGT/MOD SHRA push through. These conditions will continue into this evening with SHRA/DZ tapering off by ~03z. A several- hour period of CIG improvement may occur before CIGs return to MVFR around daybreak tomorrow (Monday). At ATL, current light NE winds should pivot to NW ~20z. The southern terminals (MCN and CSG) should see CIGs drop to MVFR this evening with PSBL SHRA/DZ, depending on how far south the front drops. //ATL Confidence...18Z Update... Medium confidence on evolution of CIGs and VIS reductions. High confidence on all other elements. Martin && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Athens 40 49 37 54 / 40 50 100 70 Atlanta 39 51 41 51 / 30 50 100 60 Blairsville 29 49 34 47 / 10 50 100 70 Cartersville 31 52 39 50 / 20 50 100 60 Columbus 46 60 48 59 / 30 50 100 50 Gainesville 39 48 38 52 / 20 50 100 70 Macon 46 60 46 59 / 30 50 90 70 Rome 33 55 42 51 / 10 50 100 50 Peachtree City 38 53 42 54 / 30 50 100 60 Vidalia 49 65 50 66 / 20 50 90 90 && .FFC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$ SHORT TERM...Martin LONG TERM....Lusk AVIATION...Martin