Warmer temperatures are on the way, but keep those heavy coats and mittens at the ready.
Channel 2 Action News chief meteorologist Glenn Burns said most metro residents will walk out the door Friday morning and step into temperatures in the mid- to upper 20s — downright balmy compared to the single-digit temps many cities saw Thursday.
Those warmer temperatures mean most folks will be on their normal schedules. No school districts announced plans to delay opening or amend procedures a day after a handful of districts in the mountain counties delayed opening for two hours. Temperatures on Thursday dropped to 2 degrees in Blairsville and 4 in Blue Ridge, with wind chills as low as minus-7.
Friday will see temperatures finally jump above the freezing mark and approach 40 degrees, Burns said, while the weekend high temperatures will be in the low 40s. Metro Atlanta will have to wait until next week for a return of 50-degree temps, he added.
Rain will likely move into the metro area late in the day on Sunday and into Monday, with a 60 percent chance of rain both days.
Check the latest weather forecast here.
The wind chill was near zero before daybreak Thursday as morning lows ranged from 7 degrees in Dallas and Dunwoody, 8 in Cartersville, and 9 in Marietta, Chamblee and Alpharetta, to 11 in Peachtree City and at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — the coldest since Jan. 24, 2014, Channel 2 meteorologist Katie Walls said.
The frigid air was felt far south of metro Atlanta, with Albany reporting 19 degrees.
On a morning when temperatures plummeted to the single digits, about 4,400 customers lost electricity, Georgia Power officials reported, with the bulk of those customers — 2,700 — in the area of Sandy Plains and Shallowford roads in Cobb County.
The outages affected several Cobb schools. Students at Mountain View Elementary on Sandy Plains Road were taken to nearby Lassiter High School until power was restored around 10:30 a.m.
Power was intermittently restored at Mabry Middle beginning at 10 a.m. Addison Elementary and Simpson Middle also lost power, but it was restored before instruction began at the schools.
Only a few dozen customers in the metro region remained without power Thursday night, Georgia Power officials reported.
In Midtown, a water line ruptured in the 1400 block of Peachtree Street just before 8 a.m., sending a geyser of water gushing 25 to 30 feet into the frigid air and forcing authorities to shut down one southbound lane of Peachtree during the morning commute.
Repair crews got the leak stopped after about two hours.
Jeffrey Taylor’s car was in the shop Thursday, forcing him to wait in the cold for a Cobb Community Transit bus.
“I don’t like it, but I’ve got to take care of my business this morning,” Taylor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as he waited for a bus near downtown Marietta.
“It’s cold, but I’m prepared for it. I’m originally from Camden, N.J., so we’re used to the cold weather.”
Taylor had some advice for others headed out into the cold.
“Dress in layers, from your feet to your head, from your head to your feet,” he said. “And be sure to cover your fingers. I took my gloves off for a few seconds and it feels like I’m getting frostbite.”
— Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this report.
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