MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt County officials expect winds to be the most damaging part of today’s storms.

Colquitt County Emergency Management Director Russell Moody said the strongest impact locally will probably be felt sometime between 2 and 7 p.m., depending on how fast the storms move in and out of the area.

Sustained winds of 20-25 miles per hour are expected, Moody said, with gusts of up to 45 mph. Some areas could see gusts up to 70 mph.

“Everybody needs to pick up what they’ve got in their yard so flying debris won’t damage anything,” he said. “And keep a watch on the weather.”

Forecasters also predict heavy rainfall that will make it easier for those winds to blow over trees.

Colquitt County Schools announced Wednesday that schools will close early today. The release schedule is as follows:

• Gifted – 11 a.m.

• PreK-5th – 11:30 a.m.

• Middle and junior high schools – 12:30 p.m.

• High school – 12:20 p.m.

Southern Regional Technical College announced Wednesday evening that all of its campuses would be closed today.

“We plan to resume normal campus operations Friday, February 7, 2020 at the Moultrie Veterans Parkway campus. Normal business hours will resume Monday, February 10, 2020 for all other SRTC locations,” the college said in an email.

Colquitt County High athletic director Greg Tillery announced late Wednesday that the Region 1-7A Basketball Tournament has been moved to Friday and Saturday (Feb. 7-8) due to the chance of inclement weather today. At 6 p.m. Friday Colquitt County’s girls will play Camden County to be followed by Colquitt’s boys vs. Tift County. Saturday’s region finals begin at 6.

Forecasters from AccuWeather warned that the severe thunderstorms could affect from the Carolinas to Florida and may spawn tornadoes into Thursday night.

Thunderstorms that spawned possible tornadoes in Mississippi and Georgia on Wednesday night into Thursday morning will charge eastward throughout the day on Thursday into the first half of Thursday night, they said in an article at accuweather.com.

The worst of the storms will swing through Atlanta, Macon and Albany, Georgia; Pensacola, Panama City and Tallahassee, Florida; Greenville, South Carolina; and Charlotte, North Carolina, during the day Thursday, they predicted.

“The fast moving nature of the individual storms, combined with their circulation can easily produce wind gusts between 50 and 80 mph near the ground in lieu of a tornado,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

“The combination of high winds and saturated soil can allow trees to topple over rather easily adding to the danger and raising the likelihood of power outages,” he added.

By Thursday night, the severe weather will target the southern Atlantic Seaboard from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, AccuWeather said. The storms are likely to still pack a punch with downpours and damaging winds by the time they reach Orlando and Tampa, Florida, later Thursday night.

 

During severe weather, please make sure you are safe.

Once it’s over, if you get photographs of damage from the storm, please email them to kevin.hall@gaflnews.com so we can share them online and possibly in The Moultrie Observer’s print edition. Please include the location where the photo was taken.