Heavy rainfall this weekend will help North Georgia make up a rainfall deficit but also could cause minor flooding.
The 2 inches expected in Hall County are needed, according to Kent Frantz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.
The county has seen 9 inches of rainfall in the last 90 days, well below the expected 13 inches, Frantz said.
"It'll just be very much needed for the area so that we keep holding off and don't want to slip back into any kind of drought phase at all," he said. "... This is what we're supposed to be having for March. We're supposed to be recharging our soils for the summer."
A 100 percent chance of rain is forecasted for Saturday, with the precipitation beginning light in the morning and turning heavy by midafternoon. Heavy rainfall will continue through the night and ease Sunday morning, with a 70 percent chance of rain forecasted for that day. It will remain cloudy on Sunday, with partly sunny weather rolling in on Monday.
Most of North Georgia will see a total of 2 inches, but 3 inches is possible in isolated areas over the weekend.
The rain could return later in the week, with precipitation expected Wednesday and Thursday.
High temperatures over the weekend and through Wednesday are not expected to top 60 degrees.
Any flooding in creeks or streams will be minor, Frantz said.
"It is a lot of rain but it's not one of these situations where you would expect widespread flooding or even moderate or major," he said.
Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Transportation's Gainesville office, said crews spent Thursday and Friday clearing out storm drains on state routes to make flooding less likely.
Chris Lovelady, assistant operations project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Lanier, said how much runoff makes it to the lake will depend on the intensity and overall duration of the rain.
"There is plenty of storage capacity right now," he said. "A large rainfall would produce quite a bit of runoff, which we would store in the lake."
The lake stood at 1,070.27 feet on Friday evening. Summer full pool is 1,071.