A winter storm warning remained in effect Saturday morning as metro Atlanta braced for the possibility of severe weather.
About an inch of snow fell overnight in areas northwest of Atlanta like Dallas, Acworth and Cartersville, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Jennifer Lopez said.
“That’s going to continue to push toward the east, so you may get some of that light snow across the Fulton County area — maybe in Alpharetta,” Lopez forecasted just before 9 a.m. when snow flurries began to fall over parts of metro Atlanta.
In addition to the snowfall, the overnight storm doused the region with heavy rain before dawn, caused downed trees and scattered power outages that affected thousands of metro Atlanta customers, according to a Georgia Power outage map. A huge tree fell across Howell Mill Road in northwest Atlanta.
A winter storm warning was issued about 4 a.m. for several counties in North Georgia including Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Fannin, Gilmer, Chattooga, Gordon and Floyd.
Those areas faced the threat of 2 to 3 inches of snow and slippery roads, according to a Channel 2 weather alert.
Metro Atlanta remained under a wind advisory that expected to last through 7 p.m. Lopez said wind gusts increased to 56 mph Saturday morning and strong breezes of at least 40 mph are expected to continue until the sunset.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Atlanta’s high for the day will be 35 degrees, but the wind chill will make it feel like 18.
That will make for a frigid St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which makes its return to the streets of Midtown after a two-year hiatus.
A freeze warning starts tonight and extends through tomorrow morning as overnight temps in metro Atlanta are expected to dip into the mid 20s and could go as low as 10 degrees in mountainous regions of northwest Georgia.
“A cold night in store for us,” Lopez said. “And again, it’s cold in the morning. If you’re heading out to Sunday services, make sure to bundle up.”
The messy weather was impacting traffic Saturday morning with reports of downed trees and wires in the road and power outages at traffic signals.
In Roswell, stoplights were out on Ga. 92 at Crabapple Road and along Ga. 9 at Riverside Road, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.
A tree blocked southbound lanes of Ga. 9 north of Darymple Road in Sandy Springs, and another tree was down on Rivertown Road at Cedar Grove, the Traffic Center reported.
Some weekend traffic delays will be attributable to construction. Rolling lane closures are planned for Powder Springs Road between Windy Hill and Sandtown roads in Cobb County for a resurfacing project, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Reminder: Don’t forget to set your clocks forward an hour tonight as time “springs forward” for daylight saving time.
» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.
» For updated traffic information, listen to News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB and follow @ajcwsbtraffic on Twitter.
» Download The Atlanta Journal-Constitution app for weather alerts on-the-go.isten to News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB and follow @ajcwsbtraffic on Twitter.
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