More winter weather coming to Georgia this weekend. But will it snow?
Georgia is expecting more brutal cold this weekend. Whether we’ll see snow is still in question, but forecasts point to icy conditions gripping much of the state.
It’s too early to know for certain where the worst of the winter weather will strike and its exact timing. What we know is Arctic air should dip south on Saturday and clash with moisture rising from the Gulf Coast.
“Just how far south does this Arctic air make it? … That’s going to be a big player in whether you see freezing rain, rain or sleet or snow,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.
As of Tuesday, forecast models are “painting a concerning picture of what this weekend could look like, with an increasingly strong signal for ice storm potential” across North Georgia and even parts of Middle Georgia, according to the National Weather Service.
In the run-up to the weekend, though, rainy weather with projected highs in the 50-degree range is expected through Friday in metro Atlanta.
Showers should start late Wednesday into early Thursday before weakening. By Friday, that same system will start pulling moisture from Mexico’s Pacific coast, across Texas, over the Gulf Coast states and into Georgia, the Weather Service predicts.
Residents should keep an eye on the forecast as the timing and location of impacts are fine-tuned, experts warn.
“It’s a good idea, just kind of keep in the back of your mind that the likelihood of (this) winter storm is increasing for the weekend,” Monahan said.
The Weather Service also cautions that the forecast could change, so “do not focus on predictions of accumulations or timing” until the picture becomes clearer.
It would be the second weekend in a row that bitter cold reaches the state’s central region. On Sunday, between 1-2 inches of snow fell between Columbus and Macon and up toward I-20 just south of Athens.
The storms also come a year after some of the heaviest snow in decades fell in locations as far south as the Florida border and even the panhandle. Some South Georgia communities got 6 inches or more last year.
