Hazardous Weather Outlook for Rabun County

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Western North Carolina and Northeast Georgia, including Rabun County for Wednesday, March 1, 2023.  Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to develop to the west late in the day and move toward our region. There is some potential for a few of the thunderstorms to still be capable of producing severe weather, mainly in the form of damaging wind gusts, as they reach Western North Carolina and the mountains of Northeast Georgia late this evening or early in the overnight period. Cloud-to-ground lightning and torrential downpours will accompany any storms that develop. The thunderstorms should move off to the east in the pre-dawn hours.  Widespread rain showers will go on intermittently on Thursday and Thursday night, with the potential for some embedded thunder on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, a strong cold front is expected to move quickly across the forecast area, most likely arriving in early-to-mid-afternoon. Instability and shear parameters are expected to support scattered strong to severe thunderstorms, with damaging winds and possibly a few tornadoes possibly the most likely impacts, though hail will be possible as well. Mid-to-late-afternoon looks to be the most likely window for severe threats, but some uncertainty still remains in timing.