A few flurries speckled the skies in the north part of metro Atlanta on Monday afternoon amid the region’s first freezing temperatures of the season.
It is so cold that a winter weather advisory is in effect across portions of the state’s northern half until 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The agency issues such advisories when any combination of snow, ice or sleet is expected, but conditions shouldn’t be hazardous enough to issue a warning.
Snow started dusting the trees atop Brasstown Bald, Georgia’s highest peak, around noon Monday. It’s already the second time this year that snow fell on the mountain, the first happening Nov. 3. Schools in nearby Fannin County released students early Monday.
A few flakes also started falling in Dunwoody and other parts of the north metro around 2:30 p.m., though they were sparse and melted instantly.
“What we are seeing is mostly light snow and flurries,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said late Monday afternoon. “But there is quite a bit.”
Morning temps in the 20s and 30s are a drastic change to the weekend’s comfortable weather. Don’t worry, though, we’ll get another taste of the 70s before winter officially starts Dec. 21. But first, we have to get through this freeze.
“You can hear the cold coming in,” Channel 2 meteorologist Brian Monahan said as the sun rose Monday. “That means we talk wind chills that are very, very low. Make sure we have that heaviest winter weather gear, that heavy puffy coat ready to go today.”
With so much wind, the air feels more like the 20s and even the teens in northern Georgia’s highest elevations, where an inch of snow is projected and up to 3 inches in the highest elevations.
“That’s on some of the ridge tops on the spine of the Appalachians,” Monahan said. “Minimal impacts overall, just a sign that winter’s here, and a sign of how cold this air mass is.”
It’s part of the same system that is bringing “intense” snowfall to the Great Lakes region. The Weather Service issued a winter storm warning there for Monday, predicting wind gusts of up to 30 mph and as much as 18 inches of quickly falling precipitation, along with thundersnow, a condition that happens when thunderstorms combine with snow, The Associated Press reported.
A freeze warning expired midmorning Monday for Georgia’s northern half. After an afternoon warmup into the low 40s, the warning went back into effect at 7 p.m. and runs through 10 a.m. Tuesday, when temps are again expected to drop into the 20s.
The region’s first cold spell of the season prompted warming centers in Atlanta and the metro area to open. Even the Sugar Creek Golf and Tennis Center, along with the Mystery Valley Golf Club in DeKalb County, was temporarily closed Monday and will be again Tuesday because of the cold.
Atlanta’s Central Park Recreation Center at 400 Merritts Ave. will remain open through 9 a.m. Tuesday. A second warming location, the Old Adamsville Recreation Center at 3404 Delmar Lane, will also be open.
Five DeKalb warming centers will remain open through Tuesday: 2585 Gresham Road, 2050-C Chamblee Tucker Road, 1340 McConnell Drive, 2771 Columbia Drive and 2944 Ember Drive.
In Cobb, the MUST Ministries Hope House opened its warming station at 1297 Bells Ferry Road on Monday and Tuesday.
Gwinnett centers will be open through 7 a.m. Tuesday. They are at 2755 Sawnee Ave., 2750 Pleasant Hill Road, 6224 Jimmy Carter Blvd., 3025 Bethany Church Road and 225 Benson St.
The good news is, behind this Arctic wall of icy air, warmer weather is on the horizon. Temperatures are expected to climb into the low 70s from Thursday to Saturday.
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