6 Tips for Avoiding Pollen

While checking out The Weather Channel's website earlier today they had an interesting piece on 6 ways to limit your pollen exposure.

If you've been in Atlanta or other locales in the South over the past two weeks the pollen has been at record highs.

While The Weather Channel tells you to wash your hair, face and pets, that is all good and well, but the only two things I can think you can do to avoid the pollen right now is 1) Don't go outside, or 2) Move!

Penguins Flying First Class on Delta

Delta Flight 1641 from San Antonio to Atlanta on March 8th had a couple of special passengers.  There were two "special guests" flying in First Class, a couple of penguins from Sea World.

When the plane reached a cruising altitude, the captain allowed their handler to take them for a stroll up and down the aisle so that everyone could take a look at the cute, one-foot-tall penguins and get some great photos and videos.

So, I guess this answers the age old question.  Penguins really can fly!

ACC Tournament Open Practice at Philips Arena

The ACC Basketball Tournament is in Atlanta this week at Philips Arena.

An open practice was held all day on Wednesday.

It's a chance for teams to get familiar with the confines of Philips Arena, although Georgia Tech used it as a home court this season, so most of the players have already seen it.

Some teams use this practice as a real practice, and other teams like NC State used it to goof around and take half-court shots and conduct a slam dunk contest while their head coach, Mark Gottfried socialized with everyone in the arena.

Here are some pics:

Maryland and coach Mark TurgeonWake Forest's Jeff Bzdelik

Mark Gottfried talks with Debbie Antonelli

Dodging Tornadoes in Georgia

As storms marched across North Georgia late Friday night, the National Weather Service extended tornado warnings across the northern tier of the metro Atlanta area. By 10 p.m., most of the storm activity appeared to be passing east out of the area.

A tornado warning remained in effect until 10:30 p.m. for northern Barrow, southeastern Forsyth, northwestern Gwinnett, southern Hall and western Jackson counties.

At about 9:30 p.m., Doppler radar was picking up airborne debris confirming a tornado near Suwanee, moving east at 40 mph.

As of 10 p.m., police reported trees down and power out on Roswell Road at East Piedmont Road in Cobb County and on Old Canton Road in Roswell. Cherokee County had flooding on Trickum Road, and Alpharetta had tree debris on southbound Ga. 400 at Windward Highway.

In Paulding County, Homer Cochran, Mount Olivet Loop and Wayside Lane were closed due to downed power lines and debris. There also was some structure damage but no injuries reported yet, according to Paulding Fire Rescue.

The threat of storms will continue overnight, Channel 2 Meteorologist Brad Nitz said.

Southwest takes flight out of Atlanta

Good news for Atlanta flyers, Southwest is finally here.

Southwest Airlines' first flights from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport took off Sunday morning, with Atlantans giving the carrier a try for the first time to see how it compares with longtime Atlanta carriers Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways.

Dallas-based Southwest, which bought AirTran last year in part to gain access to the Atlanta market, launched service from Hartsfield-Jackson to Austin, Baltimore/Washington, Denver, Houston Hobby and Chicago Midway, with a total of 15 daily flights.

AirTran is still flying most of their routes as the complete transition will take almost two years to complete.

The initial flights out of Atlanta were on 137-seat Boeing 737-700s that left only partially full. The first three flights each left with fewer than 50 passengers. Southwest officials pointed to this time of year being a slower period for travel, along with the nature of starting new service.

Southwest will add more flights out of Atlanta in coming months.