Gwinnett County has never been covered in a foot of snow in recorded history, but that doesn’t mean the area hasn’t gotten significant winter weather before.
While a Norcross weather station stopped recording data in 2005, records from nearby Cumming and Gainesville stations indicate that its top snow day in 1983 is likely still the record.
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On March 24, 1983, six inches of snow fell in Norcross. The storm hit metro Atlanta and north Georgia hard, killing six people including a 2-month-old baby, according to an AJC report. There was an average of between six and nine inches of snow in north Georgia, with a 7.9-inch snowfall recorded in Atlanta that day.
Four years later, in January 1987, the record was nearly matched, with a snowfall of 5.5 inches, according to data from the National Weather Service. More than 90,000 people in Georgia lost power due to that snow storm, which caused school closures across the Southeast, according to an Associated Press report.
Multiple other snowfalls tied for third place, with five inches each. Five inches of snow fell in Gwinnett County on March 13, 1993; Jan. 6, 1988; Jan. 24, 1940; and Jan. 23, 1940.
Two days eighteen years apart tied for fourth place, with four inches falling on March 11, 1960 and March 3, 1942.
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