Parts of North Georgia awoke to as much a foot of snow today, as a winter storm that punched the east coast dipped into Georgia.
Scattered snow flurries have continued this morning for parts of North Georgia, according to Channel 2 Action News meteorologists. Cold temperatures means that accumulated precipitation continues to coat lawns, trees and some roadways, from metro Atlanta through north Georgia.
Power crews were busy Friday and overnight, working to restore electricit for thousands of homes in North Georgia and to prepare for the possibility of additional outages from trees and power lines heavy from ice. About 3,700 Georgia Power customers were without electricity Friday night, the utility reported. Saturday morning, Georgia’s electric cooperatives said roughly 3,400 customers were without power, primarily in south Fulton, Pickens and Rabun counties.
Many schools and government offices closed early, and a state of emergency was in effect for 21 counties in anticipation of the weather system. It took longer for many drivers to make their way home even though traffic was lighter than normal for the Friday evening commute.
The Georgia Department of Transportation was having trouble treating roads Friday afternoon because of heavy traffic on interstates. The agency asked drivers to stay off the highways.
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The weather system moving through Georgia is the same one bringing blizzard-like conditions through the Mid-Atlantic states. By late Friday, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines had cancelled about 1,350 flights ahead of snowstorm. That includes about 100 flights from Atlanta canceled for Friday and about 100 more for Saturday.
A winter storm warning was in effect until 7 p.m. today for northeast Georgia, north of the Atlanta area. All of metro Atlanta, including as far south as Griffin, is under a Winter Weather Advisory until 7 p.m. Saturday.
Those snow flurries continued overnight into this morning. Channel 2 meteorologist Brad Nitz said snow flurries have been widespread across metro Atlanta and North Georgia, but they should taper off by late morning.
“Wherever you are this evening, you may be stuck there into Saturday, perhaps even longer in the mountains,” Nitz said.
—Staff writers Lauren Foreman, Katie Leslie, Greg Bluestein and Christopher Seward contributed to this article.
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