Brrr humbug.
The chances of snowy north Georgia Christmas are hard to handicap just yet. But sweet shiverin’ Saint Nick, it’s gonna be cold.
Like “frigid Arctic airmass,” temps-in-the-teens kind of cold.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said he was “still tracking what’s going to be, I think, the coldest weather we’ve seen in about five years move in to north Georgia just in time for Christmas weekend.”
Government officials across the area will be keeping a close eye on things.
Tuesday temperatures were expected to linger in the high 30s and low 40s, with the possibility of scattered rain in both the morning and the afternoon. Wednesday and Thursday were actually forecast to be a tad warmer — before the polar express heads in Friday morning.
The projected lows for Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are 23, 19 and 19 degrees, respectively. It may not get above freezing in metro Atlanta at any point during the weekend, Monahan said.
Lots can — and probably will — change. But Friday morning looked like the best possibility for snow-type activity.
No official weather-related declarations had been issued as of Monday afternoon, but the National Weather Service in Atlanta had posted a preemptive warning about wind chill and urged residents to “definitely bundle up if going outside” this weekend.
And local officials were preparing for the possibility of winter weather.
An Atlanta spokesman said the city’s snow and ice operations would begin at 5 a.m. Friday and include treating major streets, arterial roads and bridges with a salt application. The city urged drivers to stay home should inclement weather arise.
Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said DOT crew there were already installing spreaders on their trucks, just in case road brining should be necessary later in the week, and were planning to conduct a dry run of their traffic management center on Wednesday.
DeKalb County, meanwhile, had already announced it would open four warming centers at least through Tuesday night, and will likely renew that offering as temperatures get even more frigid. Other metro Atlanta jurisdictions are likely to follow.
Snow or not, baby — it’s gonna be cold outside.
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