Frigid air arrived in metro Atlanta on Tuesday.
Temperatures that were in the 30s and 40s ahead of daybreak fell into the 20s and 30s as a cold front swept across North Georgia. The high was expected to top out at just 35 degrees in the city. Further north, some areas didn’t make it out of the 20s.
In Middle and South Georgia, morning temps started mild in the upper 50s but will likely dive into the mid-20s by early Wednesday, with wind chill factors in the mid-teens.
It’s this winter’s first blast of dangerously cold arctic air, with temps running nearly 20 degrees below normal, according to the National Weather Service. In fact, it’s the coldest air we’ve seen in more than a year. The last time temperatures dropped this low was in December 2022, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.
A wind chill advisory is in effect until 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“We’re continuing to monitor, and we’re just hopeful that the rain stops and winds dry it out before the temperatures plummet, but we’re keeping a really close eye on it,” Gov. Brian Kemp told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Switzerland. “We’re warning Georgians to be winter weather ready. That includes watching for black ice and not being on the roads unless you have to, checking schools and government buildings if they’re open.”
The city of Atlanta opened a warming center at the Central Park Recreation Center at 400 Merritts Avenue through 10 a.m. Thursday. Transportation will be provided from the Gateway Center at 275 Pryor Street, with return transportation upon deactivation of the center, the city said.
In Marietta, MUST Ministries’ warming shelter will be open until Saturday. The county is also providing bus vouchers to help people get to the shelter.
Several school systems canceled classes or shifted to virtual learning Tuesday, and after-school activities were also canceled. Some districts have implemented two-hour delays for Wednesday, including Clayton County.
The city of Atlanta announced that its offices for non-essential operations were closed Tuesday, and Marietta city governments announced offices were delaying opening. Cobb County announced that government offices and courts were closed.
Over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and early Tuesday, local departments of transportation pretreated roads and bridges more likely to develop ice, officials said as they cautioned drivers to be extra careful as temps continued falling.
Rain fell across the area Tuesday morning, with some snowflakes mixing in around the northwest metro along the cold front as it moved in.
“It’s not going to amount to anything, certainly won’t be any accumulation, but (it’s) a sign of the colder air starting to settle in,” Monahan said.
“You know what, it’s been a very long time ... since we’ve had at least an inch of snow and a snowstorm here in Atlanta,” he added. “How long? More than 2,000 days, about six years ago (almost) to the day, Jan. 18, 2018. If you think that’s a long time, it is. Snowfall records in Atlanta go back about 100 years; this is the second-longest streak without at least an inch of snow in a snowstorm. The longest was about 10 years back in the 40s and early 50s.”
Along with any snowfall, one of the main concerns is for icy road conditions. The good news is that after a warm Monday, pavement temperatures are still warm enough to prevent too much ice from forming in most areas, Monahan said. But it won’t stay that way all day. As cold air continues to filter in, some ice could form on elevated surfaces, such as bridges.
“Now, as ... the arctic air comes in, be ready for what’s going to be a bitterly cold afternoon,” Monahan said.
Relatively few outages were reported statewide to Georgia Power and the Georgia EMCs. High winds normally increase that possibility due to downed trees and power lines.
It will stay cold again Wednesday, with a projected high of 38 degrees and lows dipping into the 20s. The wind chill will still be a factor, keeping feels-like temperatures closer to zero. Thursday will warm up into the low 50s, but another blast of cold air arrives Friday.
Credit: WSBTV Videos
— Staff writer Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this article.
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