Tropical Storm Nate Could Hit Georgia This Weekend
updated 5:44 p.m.
Tropical Storm Nate could make landfall in the United States as early as Saturday morning. Residents in west or northwest Georgia can expect to see rain and wind pick up around that time too.
Forecasts show Nate traveling over the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall. As it travels over the Gulf it could pick up warm water and strengthen to a lower level hurricane.
Craig Bell, spokesman for Georgia Power, said they are prepared for outages but customers should be too.
“We really want to encourage our customers … to prepare in advance for power outages if they occur,” he said. “Have your flashlights ready, have a plan, make sure you’re monitoring the news.”
Bell said they don’t expect Nate to be nearly as destructive as Irma but the projected wind speeds are fast enough to knock down power lines.
Kyle Thiem, a meteorologists for the National Weather Service Atlanta, said the storm is expected to bring wind gusts around 30 mph and two to three inches of rain in some area.
Thiem said even though Nate is in its early stages, it could intensify rather quickly.
“It’s going to be a nasty end to the weekend unfortunately,” he said. “Even though the system does seem far away right now, it is going to move really quickly up toward this way so make preparations if you need to early and don’t be caught off guard.”
Thiem said watching Nate make its first landfall in Central America will give meteorologists a clearer idea of what to expect before it hits the U.S.