Atlanta weather | Increasing sunshine on horizon

By Angel K. Brooks and Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The metro Atlanta area escaped the wintry mix that fell across extreme north Georgia early Tuesday, seeing mostly rain instead. Now, here comes the sun.

Enlarge photo

John Spink, jspink@ajc.com A woman crosses the North Avenue bridge at the connector during the morning rush hour.

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A cloudy Tuesday night and patchy morning fog Wednesday will be followed by increasing sunshine with highs in the low 60s, Channel 2 Action News chief meteorologist Glenn Burns said.

There is a chance of showers after midnight through the first half of Thursday, he said, with highs in the low to mid 60s that day.

Friday is expected to be sunny with highs in the mid 60s, Burns said.

That's a long way from Tuesday's weather.

Morning lows across metro Atlanta included 35 in Alpharetta and 37 in Marietta, Peachtree City and at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. In the mountains, predawn temperatures were hovering around the freezing mark.

Rainfall totals through 7 a.m. were generally around a quarter-inch or less.

School officials in Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Lumpkin, Union, Towns, Dawson and Chattooga counties delayed the start of classes for two hours Tuesday because of the threat of icy roads.

Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, said crews were spreading a mixture of salt and stone along  U.S. 129 over Blood Mountain, where slight accumulations of snow and ice had developed at the higher elevations.

The National Weather Service canceled the winter weather advisory for the mountain counties shortly after 8 a.m.