Arctic blast coats swath of Georgia with dusting of snow
MACON — For the second time in almost exactly a year, a mid-January snowstorm swept across Middle Georgia on Sunday as a wintertime jab of arctic air made itself felt — and seen.
For many, the wintry scene was a welcome one in stretches of the Peach State, where snow is often rare as traffic jams.
The brunt of the snowfall, 1 to 2 inches or a pinch more in a handful of spots, happened along the state’s Fall Line between Columbus and Macon and up toward I-20 just south of Athens.
“Most reports we’re getting are closer to an inch,” National Weather Service meteorologist Sam Marlow said.
Sunday’s storm didn’t pack the icy wallop of the one last January that dumped upward of 9 inches of snow as far south as Cordele and made travel treacherous for a couple of days.
On Sunday, skies were clearing by noon and roads remained passable, though officials advised caution to those venturing out.
In and around Macon, where temperatures hovered at or just above freezing, snow began falling about daybreak, and by midmorning when it stopped an inch or so had coated lawns and parks.
In downtown Macon, the Poplar Street business district was all but deserted at 8:30 a.m. save for a Weather Channel truck. A reporter with a cellphone recorded video of the flurries.
At Henry Burns Park in Macon’s Ingleside neighborhood, a few children played in the snow. An 11-year-old girl named Eeronii Thompson who lives nearby said she couldn’t miss the chance to swing in the snow.
Thompson said that when she looked out her window Sunday morning, she thought, “‘Oh, my God, it’s snowing for real.’ I didn’t think it was really gonna snow because that’s what my friends told me.”
In neighboring Jones County to the north, Sheriff Butch Reece said he knew of just one car wreck.
“It’s not bad,” Reece said, adding that the snow’s Sunday morning arrival time had canceled some church services. “So it’s keeping traffic off the roads.”
About the Author
Joe Kovac Jr. is Macon bureau chief covering Middle Georgia for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
