Snow turned into bitter cold across Georgia and the South this weekend, but conditions improved in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon with sunshine in the forecast for Monday.

The temperature rose above freezing, to 33 degrees, at 1:53 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It was the first time since 2 a.m. Saturday that the thermometer was above 32 degrees.

Atlanta’s high Sunday was 37 degrees, the weather service said. The temperature fell back below freezing shortly after sunset.

National Weather Service meteorologist Lindsay Marlow said the low Sunday night was expected be 20 or 21.

The weather service said it expects a high of 49 on Monday, rising above freezing around 10 a.m. Rain is in the forecast for Tuesday night.

The wind chill made temperatures it feel like minus 15 degrees in the mountains and near zero in metro Atlanta earlier Sunday.

Most of metro Atlanta’s largest school districts, including Atlanta Public Schools, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Henry, will be open for classes on a normal schedule Monday.

Areas that received light accumulation of snow Saturday were subject to refreezing overnight, which could lead to some icy spots, Marlow said.

“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are being seen across north and central Georgia early this morning, and will continue into early this afternoon,” the NWS warned. “Dress in layers, including a hat and gloves, if you go outside.”

Just last weekend, Georgians were forced to hunker down at home because of wintry weather. This time around, though, you could step outside and make a snow angel and watch your glasses freeze.

Eastanollee, off I-85 near the Georgia line with South Carolina, received 8 inches of snow. That was the highest amount in the state Saturday, according to AccuWeather.

The wind chill reached minus 2 degrees between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday in north Fulton County. Downtown Atlanta, Midtown, Buckhead and East Point were a few degrees warmer.

Up to 3 inches of snow fell in Flowery Branch, while reports indicated that Buford saw about 6 inches, Marlow said.

Nearly half an inch of snow fell before sunrise Saturday in Appalachian foothills communities in the northeastern part of the state, including Blairsville in Union County and Young Harris in neighboring Towns County. By Sunday morning, Fannin, Towns and White counties in northeast Georgia saw between 4 and 7 inches, with isolated reports of up to 8½ inches, Marlow said.

Snow blankets roads before sunrise at Blairsville Square in Union County on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Courtesy of Blairsville-Union County Chamber of Commerce)

Parts of northeast metro Atlanta — including Forsyth, Hall and Gwinnett counties — saw between 3 and 6 inches, with isolated totals of up to 8 inches, Marlow said. Lighter snow and flurries fell in Cobb, Cherokee, Fulton and DeKalb counties, with less accumulation. Marlow said they were still waiting for reports to come in, but Cobb, DeKalb, Cherokee, Clayton and much of Fulton had about a one-tenth of an inch of snowfall as of 9 a.m. Sunday.

“So that was definitely where we saw kind of a pretty big gap in accumulations,” Marlow said. “Whereas on the eastern side of the metro and then the western side of the metro, we saw more kind of meaningful accumulations, and the heaviest amounts were definitely skewed off to the eastern half of the state.”

Motorists make their way along snow-covered I-85 in Dacula as snow continues to fall on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

In Cumming, police said two patrol cars were in accidents as snow covered city streets. The wind chill was 4 degrees at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night in Holly Springs, between Woodstock and Canton in Cherokee County, the Weather Channel reported.

A large tree fell onto a home in Cobb County, trapping two people who had to be rescued, Cobb Fire said. The incident happened Saturday in the 1700 block of Lizzie Lane in Mableton.

The winter storm stretched into parts of Middle Georgia just east of Bibb County, wind-whipped snow accumulated, coating some cars, lawns and bushes in Sandersville. The city was 18 degrees by 9 a.m. Sunday, though the wind chill made it feel like 5. It was the second time this month that snow had fallen in this section of the state between I-20 and I-16.

Mike Todd of Sandersville braved the icy elements on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, and rode his motorized bicycle to Waffle House. (Joe Kovac Jr./AJC)

Trace amounts accumulated in the Macon area, and to the north, Morgan County, Jasper County, and Greene County each saw between 2 and 4 inches, Marlow said. Other neighboring counties to the west had only a trace to one-half inch of snow.

“There was a lot more variability as we went further south and kind of got to the boundary of where we saw the best moisture,” Marlow said.

The storm then continued south into Bulloch and Effingham counties before moving southeast until it left the state. Washington County Sheriff Joel Cochran said it was as if the rare atmospheric occurrences were becoming routine.

Any lingering snow tapered off with the loss of daylight Saturday, Marlow said. The snowfall had continued, as punishing cold from the Arctic arrived and clashed with rain showers traveling north from the Gulf Coast.

Wind gusts that reached up to 30 mph Sunday were expected to decrease by the evening, when temperatures will be in the low 20s, Marlow said.

Those temperatures are expected to climb over the next couple of days, and Tuesday will see a high of 57 degrees, according to Channel 2 Action News Meteorologist Ashley Kramlich.

Just over the Georgia line with North Carolina and South Carolina, snow totals were more significant over the weekend. Travel was treacherous throughout North Carolina and slippery in South Carolina.

Charlotte, North Carolina, received 11 inches of snow. The state’s largest city was experiencing what the weather service called a bombogenesis, or a bomb cyclone, also known as bitter cold.

NASCAR pushed the Clash, its preseason exhibition race, from Sunday to Wednesday night because the snow-covered roads are too dangerous for teams and fans to get to historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Bridges and off-ramps on I-20 from Georgia to South Carolina were coated with snow and ice, the weather service said. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on the Atlantic coast was seeing rare snowfall.

For the first time, the weather service issued an extreme cold warning for Central Florida, where temperatures were forecast to drop below 10 degrees Saturday night.

In Tennessee, more than 50,000 customers were without electricity. Nashville Electric Service said it expects 90% of its customers to have power restored Tuesday.

Impacts around the state

Shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday, Georgia Power’s interactive outage map showed nearly 1,500 of the company’s 2.8 million customers statewide were without electricity, down from 4,500 on Saturday afternoon. A separate map maintained by Georgia EMC, which represents Georgia’s 41 electric membership cooperatives, showed no outages as of that same time period.

Georgia Power and the EMCs said they were prepared to restore power through the weekend, warning that icy conditions and wind gusts could spur outages. This bout of winter weather isn’t expected to cause the widespread power outages seen last weekend, which featured freezing rain.

More than 105 flights were canceled on Sunday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to flight tracking website flightaware.com.

Cancellations by 4 p.m. Saturday included about a third of Delta Air Lines’ schedule for the day. Its regional Delta Connection partners were also heavily affected, with Endeavor Air canceling 50% of its Atlanta flights and SkyWest canceling 66% of its flights, according to FlightAware.

Other airports in the Southeast — including those in Charlotte; Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans; and Raleigh, North Carolina — had similar flight impacts to Atlanta’s primary airport.

Neighboring states

Runways at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee, were closed until 4 p.m. Saturday because of snow, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The area began getting snow Friday evening, and a total of 4 inches was predicted to fall.

In western North Carolina, particularly across the mountains just past the North Georgia border, the Weather Service predicted up to 8 inches of snow.

In upstate South Carolina, just past the eastern Georgia border, the NWS said up to 8 inches of snow were possible. Fox Carolina reported that between 2 and 4 inches were more likely in western upstate, with 4 to 6 inches in mountain valleys and 8 inches along and east of I-26.

In Florida, major cities broke records for low temperatures Sunday, including Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville.

How Georgia prepared

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Friday ahead of the wintry weather. The executive order is separate from the one issued last week when Georgia faced an ice storm threat.

The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency activated its state operations center noon Friday. The state of emergency will last until Friday.

“While Mother Nature may not be giving us a break with these back-to-back storms, the good news is we don’t take any days off when it comes to keeping Georgia communities prepared and safe,” Kemp said. “Along with our state partners, we have been monitoring this new winter storm well ahead of its arrival and preparing for whatever it may bring.”

Below-freezing ground temperatures will allow snow to instantly stick on roads. The Georgia Department of Transportation began treating roads Thursday and Friday, but motorists are advised to stay home as much as possible.

Nearly 2 million gallons of brine were available to treat 20,000 lane miles, an effort that will continue until snow begins to accumulate, at which point roads will be plowed.

Brine is stored in tanks inside a Georgia Department of Transportation facility in Forest Park. The GDOT began treating roads Thursday and Friday, but motorists are advised to stay home as much as possible. (Ben Hendren for the AJC)

The GDOT said it has 570 snow removal units statewide, including 439 snowplows that also serve as brine spreaders and dump trucks. Motorists should keep their distance from such vehicles.

Economic impact

Total damage and economic loss from this weekend’s storm will be $13-15 billion, AccuWeather reported Sunday.

— Staff writers Zachary Hansen, Fletcher Page and Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note