Winds increase in Middle Georgia Thursday, ahead of Ian
It's going to be getting windy Thursday as Ian makes a more northward trek. Although the path for Ian pushes east we could still see some impacts.
All eyes have been on Ian today as it battered much of the Florida peninsula.
Ian is quickly weakening this evening over land, but is still forecast to be a tropical storm as it pushes into the Atlantic tomorrow.
Above is the latest track (as of 8pm) from the National Hurricane Center.
This forecast track continues the small push east that we have been seeing for the past few updates.
As Ian pushes closer to Middle Georgia, we will start to see more of an influence from the high pressure center to our north.
This will create gradient winds, which is essentially an increase in wind speed because of the proximity of the two opposite pressures.
Winds will be gusting up to 40 mph, especially in our southeastern counties.
Sustained winds tomorrow will be ramping up to around 20 mph.
Highs through the end of the week will be staying in the low 70s.
Friday will be the day that we see Ian make its second landfall, this time on the Atlantic coast.
There are still some questions in regards to where that landfall takes place, and that will make all the difference for our impacts here in Middle Georgia.
In the above model, the center of circulation would push into South Carolina near Charleston.
This would be a best case scenario for us and would end up keeping much of our area dry.
In this model (above), Ian would make landfall closer to Savannah, resulting in rain chances across Middle Georgia.
This solution would keep our wind gusts a bit higher, as well as increase rain totals to about 1-3″ through Saturday.
Regardless, it will be windy through Friday and at least Saturday morning.
In the case of the closer landfall, winds will be gusting up to 40mph and maybe even 50 mph.
These breezy conditions could result in a few trees down and power outages as well.
The highest rainfall totals will be in the areas closest to the coast, with most of us seeing less than 2″ of rain.
The forecast will be pretty quiet for the end of the weekend and into next week.
Highs will be slowly warming back to the mid 70s and low 80s for next week.
