Like a shaken-up snow globe, thick, fluffy flakes began blanketing metro Atlanta on Friday morning.
It was a winter wonderland in places and an icy obstacle course in others.
It’s the most snow the metro area has seen since January 2018.
Already, the combination of snow and rain with freezing temperatures has caused trouble on the roads. On the major highways, lane dividers were hard to see through the accumulating snow and crashes had already been reported on I-75 and I-285. On the Downtown Connector, tractor-trailers had pulled onto the shoulder to wait out the snowfall, and a limited ground stop was put into effect at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. MARTA suspended all bus service.
The freezing rain and ice raise concerns about falling trees and limbs that could trigger power outages, but so far only a small number of outages have been reported statewide. Gov. Brian Kemp and other officials said the state has been able to stay ahead of the storm so far.
“It’s hard to keep up with Mother Nature, but we’re doing our best, and we got a lot of hard work in,” said Kemp, adding: “From what we’ve seen in the past, it’s better to be overprepared than not in these situations.”
Accumulation at this point is more than forecasters predicted. Less than an inch was predicted in Atlanta, but 2.3 inches have fallen so far downtown. Up to 2 inches were expected in the surrounding metro area, but 3.5 inches have fallen in places like Peachtree City.
The snowfall was so heavy that it is falling faster than the salt and brine can melt it, Channel 2 chief meteorologist Brad Nitz said.
The snow was expected to transition to rain between 10 a.m. and noon. As for the rest of the day, the weather is balancing on a knife’s edge.
Meteorologist Will Langston said temperatures were slightly lower than expected, likely thanks to cold air pulled down by the morning’s snowfall. He said it was difficult to know if the temps would rise into the mid-30s, as weather models previously predicted.
”It’s such a fine line with what we’re dealing with,” Kemp said. “I mean, if it ends up being 34 degrees and it’s raining, that’ll help us this afternoon. If it ends up being 31 degrees and it’s freezing rain or sleeting, it could cause huge problems on our roadways, and also with power outages.”
Kemp and other officials continue to urge anyone who can to stay off the roads.
“Stay home. Have another cup of coffee. And just relax,” Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul said to residents. The city can’t plow with vehicles “sliding around our mountainous, hilly terrains.”
That wasn’t keeping kids across the region from enjoying the rare snow day.
Outside the Bell Perimeter Center apartments in Dunwoody, CJ Harm and Treasure Edward had bundled up and were playing in the snow as their mother, Nikita Edward, watched. The children were good-naturedly pelting one another with wet snowballs.
In Grant Park, a child on a red plastic saucer sledded down a hill, spinning around and sliding fast. In Druid Hills, Jane Winnie Lewis was hard at work building a snowman almost as tall as the 4-year-old.
On the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail, Joslyn “JoJo” Caldwell sported a pink snowsuit as she walked with her parents, Whitney and Jesse. It was the first snowfall of the 2-year-old’s life and she was enjoying it, wanting no part of the stroller her parents were pushing.
Her parents didn’t want JoJo’s hopes dashed if snow didn’t materialize, so they played it low-key before their daughter went to bed Thursday. The whole family was excited to wake up to a white blanket.
“(JoJo) asked, ‘Are we going to make a snowman? Are we going to make snow angels?’” Whitney Caldwell said.
There was a delay in getting outside, though.
”It took us like 45 minutes to get her in all those clothes,” said Whitney, laughing, adding it reminded her of that scene in the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story,” where a bundled-up kid “can’t put their arms down.”
— Staff writers Greg Bluestein, Pete Corson, Mike Esterl, Rosana Hughes, Drew Kann, Charles Minshew, Jozsef Papp, J. Scott Trubey, Kevin Whaley and Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this article.
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