Atlanta, you’re cold then you’re hot.
This week’s warmup probably feels like whiplash after such a long stretch of frigid Arctic weather, which brought multiple rounds of snow and ice to large swaths of Georgia earlier this month.
It’s been the coldest January since 2014, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said. Atlantans endured a low of 14 degrees as recently as Jan. 22, but we’ve turned the page after highs flirted with the 70s on Wednesday.
Friday will bring storms, and then even warmer weather is expected next week when projected highs are in the low to mid 70s.
“It’s kind of a roller coaster, (but) this isn’t unprecedented or historic,” said Ty Vaughn, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Peachtree City. “It’s just a bit of a warm spell.”
Widespread rain will blanket the state Friday, with up to an inch possible in places where the heaviest showers are expected.
The severe weather threat will stay well to the south of the city, Monahan said. Still, it will only be a Level 1 of 5 risk for severe storms, according to the NWS. The main concern will be damaging wind gusts up to 40 mph in Middle Georgia.
Both Saturday and Sunday are expected to be mostly sunny.
The drastic temperature change is always a talking point, even for those born and raised in the South. Especially when the state is covered in snow one week and the next suddenly feels like spring.
Low temperatures plummeted into the teens just seven days before temps teased the 70-degree mark. The big freeze coincided with moisture flowing up the Gulf Coast, bringing record amounts of snow to Middle Georgia, where some areas — like Cordele — saw an unprecedented 9 inches.
That snow quickly compressed into sheets of ice that turned streets into skating rinks, caused traffic nightmares everywhere and claimed at least two lives. Just over a week before that, Atlanta saw its largest snowfall since 2018.
We haven’t seen temps in the 70s since New Year’s Eve, so when Wednesday hit 69 degrees, that made it the warmest day of the year so far.
“We’re in our January thaw now, and that thaw is going to continue into February,” Monahan said.
High temps are trending above average for the foreseeable future. Typically, we see highs around 55 degrees for this time of year, but we’ll be in the mid to upper 60s through the weekend. Starting Monday through at least the middle of next week, highs are expected to be in the low 70s.
Tuesday could even see a 73-degree high.
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