WEATHER: Easter weekend forecast calls for increasing rain chances

A sunny Good Friday will give way to cloudy skies and chances for rain, along with cooler temperatures for Easter proper per the latest National Weather Service forecast.

Expect highs to cap off in the mid 80s for much of Northwest Georgia to cap off the opening days of April, but the holiday weekend will bring chances for showers and thunderstorms on Saturday and continuing through Sunday midday.

Rain will be moving in starting sometime on Saturday afternoon, with rain chances increasing into the evening hours and continuing through Sunday around 2 p.m.

The rain pushing through is coming ahead of a cold front that is bringing the thermometer down some – but not a dramatic turn back toward winter. The springtime temps will remain in the 60s and 70s through the middle of next week, and lows will stick to the 40s and 50s following the Sunday flip of the forecast.

These April showers will push through by Monday, and though some clouds will be in the skies during the coming week, NWS Peachtree City is calling for mostly sunny skies through the end of next week (at the moment.)

The wet weather is needed as Georgia’s drought conditions continue statewide, with portions of Northwest Georgia still under severe and moderate drought conditions.

Portions of Walker, Catoosa and most of Walker and Murray counties are all under extreme drought conditions, while a swath of the region down the I-75 corridor remains under severe drought conditions. Those include areas of Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga, Floyd and most of Paulding counties are under those conditions. All of Gordon and Bartow County remain under a severe drought as of the latest update on April 3 from NWS Peachtree City.

Only portions of Floyd, a majority of Polk and Haralson counties are in moderate drought conditions, with the western most parts of those trio of counties are seeing water levels increase to abnormally dry conditions.

Large portions of west, central and southeast areas of the state are under extreme drought, and the far southern portion of the state along the Florida border are under the highest level for monitoring in exceptional drought conditions.