Cold, Snow Unusual for Atlanta in Winter
The first three weeks of January have brought a batch of unusual weather to metro Atlanta and North Georgia, seemingly to make fun of early-season forecasts, which called for a warmer than normal and drier than normal Winter. But, if you look at things more closely, we may not be that far off from the original prediction.
The month started out with a cold blast, getting as low as 16.5 degrees on the third, the lowest temperature of the month. Four days later, the temperature topped 70 degrees on the 7th, the warmest day of a five day streak when highs were above 60, at least ten degrees above normal. After a few days of more or less normal temperatures, we again saw a plunge over the weekend, when the thermometer refused to budge over 32 degrees on Sunday–that’s the second time this year that’s happened.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta area saw some light snow and sleet last Thursday, and got an inch or so on Saturday, depending on where you were. Due to the cold weather, some of that snow is still on the ground, at least where I live. And, the Weather Service as posted a Freezing Rain advisory for much of the state north of Atlanta, including Hall County, for tomorrow morning, as another storm prepares to roll in. Three wintry precipitation events in a week seem like a lot.
For the record, it seems like Saturday’s snow hit much of the western and northern parts of the Atlanta harder than it did in Gwinnett. The official amount recorded at Hartsfield Airport was .8 inches, while half an inch was reported in Lawrenceville. Cumming saw 2 inches, and Alpharetta got 1.5 inches of the white stuff. Midtown Atlanta, Decatur, and even Conyers got an inch of snow.
The unusual weather, although memorable, still doesn’t put us that far off from the original Winter forecasts. Despite all the ups and downs we’ve seen on the thermometer, Atlanta is still 1 degree above its average temperature for the month of 43.5 degrees, and temperatures are expected to warm up some by this weekend. There’s been 2.13 inches of precipitation recorded on the official rain gauge, but that’s still an inch below the normal amount expected so far this month.
The early outlook for February in Georgia, which the Weather Service issued late last week calls for a good chance of warmer than normal temperatures throughout the state, and normal precipitation for the northern half of the state, including Atlanta, and less than normal rainfall for South Georgia. By the end of February, at least from a meteorological perspective, Winter will be over, and we’ll be looking at Spring.
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