ATLANTA, Ga. -- Strong winds continue to collide with Metro Atlanta's urban forests like a bowling ball slams into a set of ten pins. Arborists, the tree inspectors and tree removers who have been working overtime across the region, say they haven't seen a worse storm season for trees in more than a decade.

"The ground is still very wet" from the season's rains, following the historic drought, said Arborist Peter "Treeman" Jenkins of treeinspection.com. "The big winds come -- yes, that usually means big trees come down. Even healthy trees."

Jenkins said it doesn't take a tornado to knock down Metro Atlanta's hardwoods and pines right now. The one-two punch of drought and drenching has loosened the soil and red Georgia clay, making the soil and clay less stable and more difficult for tree roots to grab onto.

"A tree can come down even when the air is still," Jenkins said.

And especially when the tree is diseased. But, Jenkins said, a diseased tree, or a tree weakened by drought, barely has a chance to survive the sort of "wind advisory" conditions that were forecast for Tuesday.

He said people living underneath big hardwoods and pines don't have to be sitting ducks. They can spot many problems themselves.

For example, Jenkins said, property owners need to know that mushrooms growing at the base of their trees can be a sure sign of root rot.

And a cavity in the tree trunk can be another indicator the tree may soon fall.

"If you see a cavity around the base of a tree, that means you've lost a lot of strength in the tree, [the strength] that's at the very bottom of the tree."

Oaks and other big hardwoods are more likely to fall than pines, partly because hardwoods like oaks are so top heavy.

But Jenkins said most people are more scared of their pines and want them removed.

"Pine trees whip in the air, so it scares people. The trees are doing what they're supposed to do, they're like antennas. They're whipping around. They're doing what they're supposed to do. But the oak trees, they have these huge, huge canopies. They can weigh 30 or 40 tons. And they've got leaves that can really catch the wind. We call that the 'sail effect.'"

Then there's what can happen in a strong wind from the east. An east wind can take out entire groves of trees, because trees in this area have grown up in winds that are usually from the west.

"And so they grow a certain way to sort of brace themselves. So when the wind comes from another direction, like from the east, they're not used to that."

Jenkins and other arborists can detect problems hidden from a lay person's view, such as interior decay. A tree may look full and healthy and green, but "if the roots are bad, it doesn't matter what's up in the air."

Jenkins said an arborist might charge around a hundred dollars an hour to inspect trees in a residential property and detect which ones may fall. And arborists can usually inspect the average yard full of trees in an hour or less.

Cutting down and removing a diseased tree can cost many times more than that.

Pay now -- or pay later.

"Why would you want to be scared every time the wind comes up and not know that your tree is safe?" Jenkins asked.

 Two more of the many resources for homeowners:

"Trees and Storm Safety" at the Georgia Forestry Commission website, http://www.gatrees.org/

The International Society of Arboriculture http://www.isa-arbor.org/home.aspx has information for homeowners concerned about their trees.