OVERVIEW: On Tuesday, the day before the storm, afternoon temperatures across Georgia ranged from the mid 50s across far northern counties to the 60s over the rest of the state. Tuesday night, high pressure at the surface pushed a wedge of cold, dry air that originated in Canada down the east slopes of the Appalachian Mountains. Meanwhile a low pressure area was developing in the south central part of the United States. This storm system began spreading moisture eastward into Georgia by early Wednesday morning...overrunning the cold, dry air which was advancing into northeast portions of the state.

PRODUCTS: At 1120 AM Tuesday A Winter Storm Watch was issued for Wednesday and Wednesday night for the area east and north of a line from Blue Ridge to Atlanta to Crawfordville. An Ice Storm Warning was issued at 345 PM Tuesday for the same time and area...which included 29 counties of Northeast Georgia in Peachtree City's County Warning Area (CWA). The warning called for ice accumulation of one quarter inch or more.

EVENT: Light rain began falling over far North Georgia by daybreak Wednesday...where temperatures were still in the upper 30s to middle 40s. Temperatures fell to around freezing northeast of a line from Athens to Dawsonville by mid to late morning...and isolated reports of ice pellets (sleet) and even a few flurries began coming in. By afternoon, drier air aloft was noted spreading from central Georgia into the Atlanta and Athens areas...and radar showed a diminishing trend of the precipitation. A mixture of rain, freezing rain, and sleet continued further to the north of the Atlanta to Athens line. A larger area of precipitation from northwestern Alabama to the Louisiana coast then began to advance in a more easterly direction by early Wednesday evening. The largest rainfall amounts came late Wednesday night when between 2 and 3 inches fell over parts of Northeast Georgia. Luckily ground temperatures were still warm and air temperatures fell only to between 30 and 32 degrees in parts of the area of concern. Freezing rain on exposed surfaces, such as trees, power lines, and cars accumulated to around a quarter of an inch, with isolated half inch amounts reported. Roads were generally just wet, but some bridges and roads did have a thin layer of ice. Temperatures began to slowly rise before daybreak Thursday...which melted much of the accumulated ice. There were no power outages reported.

Reports County by County

Warning & Event Map

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