Atlanta roads: Conditions still icy, dangerous

If you braved the roads during the day Friday, be warned. Those icy spots are going to be harder to see when it's dark.

Temperatures around the metro area never climbed above the 20s, meaning the slushy snow and ice are still on many roads. How cold will it get Friday night? A mere 15 degrees.

Streets are still icy and travel is dicey, particularly in the northern and western suburbs as well as in downtown Atlanta. And with highs not expected to break the freezing mark until Monday, the ice isn't going away anytime soon.

If you have to drive, use extreme caution all over the metro area, officials warn. Hundreds of accidents have been reported.

Forecast

The good news: There will be little precipitation in the forecast over the next few days.

The bad news: The snow and ice that still hanging around isn't likely to go away any time soon. It just isn't warm enough.

"Friday night, it's going to get down into the teens," said Meteorologist Trisha Palmer with the National Weather Service.

By noon, Hartsfield-Jackson reported 21 degrees, with a wind chill of 6. Temps in the northern suburbs were still in the upper teens, and both Marietta and Kennesaw were reporting flurries at noon.

The mercury was still hovering in the middle to upper 20s at 2 p.m. Friday. But by Friday afternoon, temperatures started dropping.

A similar forecast keeps highs in the low 30s on Saturday, with lows again in the upper teens. Sunday will be more of the same.

Forecasters are also watching a band of low clouds hanging over northern Georgia, Palmer said. Low lying clouds could contain additional flurries, but no accumulation is expected.

By Monday, we could even reach 40 degrees, Palmer said.

And, get this: by Wednesday, the high temperature could reach the lower 50s, about where we should be for this time of year.

Streets and roads

The state Department of Transportation reported dozens of metro Atlanta roads closed Friday, from Bartow and Cherokee counties in the north to Fayette and Coweta counties to the south, and from Carroll County near the Alabama border east to DeKalb County.

Some of the worst icing was reported in downtown Atlanta, where slick streets forced some buses to alter routes.

Hundreds of wrecks have been reported all over the metro area. Law enforcement officials are asking drivers to use extreme caution if they must travel.

Drivers can check road conditions on the DOT web site. The DOT is reporting widespread icy patches all over.

Norris Brown, a ramp worker for Delta Air Lines, was on his way to work when he got caught in the middle of a 29-vehicle pile-up on an elevated ramp from I-285 to I-85 in College Park.

"I was going around the bridge and something told me don't go fast because I knew it was going to be icy," Brown said.

When he saw the the vehicles in front of him slamming into one another, "I knew that I was going to hit this truck very hard, and the car behind me was right on my bumper," Brown said. "I couldn't stop."

The front of Brown's Nissan Sentra ended up under the truck in front of him, and the car behind him smashed the trunk of the Sentra. Brown was not injured, but he said his 1999 Nissan was totaled.

"I never pictured myself getting into something like this," said Brown, who moved to Atlanta from Miami five years ago. "I can't believe it."

A wreck involving a Georgia State Patrol vehicle blocked all southbound lanes of I-75 at Exit 293 in Bartow County just after 6 a.m. Those lanes were reopened just before 7 a.m.

In DeKalb County, six vehicles were reportedly involved in a 3 a.m. crash that shut down the ramp from I-285 southbound to U.S. 78 eastbound. Dozens of wrecks were reported overnight on Ga. 400 through Forsyth and north Fulton counties.

Paulding County deputies shut down an icy stretch of Ga. 92 north of Ga. 120 late Friday morning after eight vehicles were involved in wrecks in a two-hour period. Friday evening, many county roads had ice patches, officials said.