Get used to the cold; snow chances slim on New Year’s Eve

Tomorrow: Sunny. High: 50

For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.

The metro area missed the average high by 5 degrees Thursday, and soon it will get much, much colder.

“This is just the start of it,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Katie Walls said. “Get ready for even colder temperatures as we look ahead to the next five days or so.”

Currently, the temperature is 42 degrees in Atlanta. The high Thursday was 45.

After a low of 30 overnight, expect highs of 50 Friday and 52 Saturday, followed by an arctic blast that will drop the highs next week into the 30s and the lows into the 20s — or even lower.

“The morning lows could be in the teens,” Channel 2 meteorologist Brad Nitz said. “And the highs could struggle to reach the freezing mark.”

Below-average temperatures are expected throughout the first full week of 2018, according to the latest forecast.

“It could be even colder after Tuesday,” Nitz said.

There is a sleet risk early Friday around the Savannah area and along the South Carolina coast, Channel 2 reported. But most of Georgia is expected to be dry until Sunday night, when a chance of snow arrives on New Year’s Eve.

But Nitz predicts the wintry mix at only 20 percent, with just a few possible flurries for the Atlanta area.

“The moisture will be very limited,” he said.