National Weather Service warns south Georgia residents to brace for freezing temperatures

ALBANY — After a weekend of rain and wind, southwest Georgians likely will be tossing an extra log in the fireplace the rest of the week as temperatures as low as 20 are forecast here by the National Weather Service.

“We have a front moving east of the Rockies and it will be moving over us on Thursday and Friday,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Ken Gould. “Thursday and Friday we are looking for some very, very cold air and could see some really low wind chill Wednesday.”

Gould said an unusually strong cold front will move quickly across the region with temperatures remaining below freezing until mid-morning Saturday. A hard freeze appears likely Wednesday morning.

The NWS forecasts a high near 52 Wednesday and winds of 10 to 15 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph, resulting in wind chill values which could push as low as 10 to 11 degrees. The NWS calls for clear skies and a low around 20 later in the evening.

The cold is expected to ease later Saturday as the front passes through the region, but Wednesday night’s low is still expected to be around 20, Thursday at 23 and Friday at 29. A warming trend is expected later in the week with a high near 54 and low around 39 on Saturday as a 20 percent chance of rain pushes into the area.

The NWS is calling for a 30 percent chance of rain and a high near 57 on Sunday.

Albany received about an inch of rain Sunday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. There were numerous tornado warning in the area but damage was contained mainly to Mitchell and Tift counties.

Winds in Mitchel County blew the roof off of a house and overturned a camper near Camilla. Brookfield Baptist Church in Brookfield, east of Tifton on U.S. Highway 82, near Tifton, had its steeple blown off. Dougherty County crews were called to remove a live power line which had fallen across the road in the 1600 block of Palmyra Road.

“We were very fortunate in that we had some power outages, but those were take care of pretty quickly,” Dougherty County Emergency Management Deputy Director Jim Vaught said. “We are also fortunate in that it is very rare that we have to endure bad weather for extended periods. Our main problems is most of your power lines are above ground so losing power is common here.

Vaught added that is why he advises residents to have an emergency kit that will carry them through 72 hours of no power. Such a kit, he said, would contain items like canned food, a manual can opener, water, flashlights and plenty of batteries.