A winter storm is bearing down on metro Atlanta and North Georgia on Friday.
Less snow than previously anticipated is expected, but the combination of rain and freezing temperatures could still make travel hazardous. Most parts of metro Atlanta could get hit with up to a quarter-inch of ice, according to the National Weather Service.
The Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning, in effect from 5 a.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday. It covers all of North Georgia from the Tennessee and North Carolina lines, south through metro Atlanta into Griffin and as far southwest as Heard County and southeast as Lincoln County.
Forecasts are still being fine-tuned. Projections call for metro Atlanta to get less than an inch of snow and for North Georgia to get up to 3 inches. Experts initially forecast up to 3 inches in the city with up to 6 or more in the northern half of the state.
Thursday is the last day to make any preparations, as government officials are urging the public to stay home Friday until Sunday.
Read on for live updates from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wood Medford and his roommate, Zack Noland, had to step out of their nearby apartment to see the flood on Pharr Road in front of Atlanta Fish Market.
“We don't know how it's going to look (Friday). So we wanted to see it before maybe it freezes over,” Medford told the AJC.
Medford said that if it were possible and safe, he would use the iced-over puddle to skate or sled. He and Noland said they wouldn’t be surprised to see locals taking advantage of the icy roads Friday morning for shenanigans.
The Department of Watershed confirmed at about 11:30 p.m. that it had turned off the 6-inch water main to make emergency repairs.
Medford and Noland said their apartment had low water pressure. The agency said the outage was impacting about 100 homes, three apartment complexes and two hydrants.
As temperatures began to drop Thursday night, a section of Pharr Road in front of Atlanta Fish Market flooded with a few inches of water. The road was visibly treated with brine, but it was difficult to tell if icy conditions would harden overnight on this stretch through Buckhead.
Drivers splashed through the large puddle as they left nearby restaurants. But by 11 p.m., two Atlanta police cruisers had blocked off the road. One driver tried to make it across but was quickly forced to turn away by an officer.
The National Weather Service moved the previously issued winter storm warning up by two hours. The warning will now be in effect from 5 a.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday.
It covers all of North Georgia from the Tennessee and North Carolina lines, south through metro Atlanta into Griffin and as far southwest as Heard County and southeast as Lincoln County.
Last-minute shoppers scurried for items at a Kroger and Trader Joe's on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs on Thursday evening. Few loaves of bread, cartons of eggs and packages of ground beef remained on the shelves, though other aisles were fairly well stocked.
It was clear locals were preparing for snow and icy conditions that could prevent them from hitting the roads on Friday and potentially Saturday.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines canceled more than 160 of its flights scheduled for Friday, including Delta Connection regional carrier flights.
That includes more than 115 flights in Atlanta, or more than 8% of its flights scheduled for the day at the world’s busiest airport, according to FlightAware.com.
Atlanta excels at lots of things. Handing winter weather has not always been tops among them, as Chipper Jones knows.
“Us southerners tend to lose our mind when freezing precipitation falls from the sky!” the Hall of Famer posted on X.
The 2014 Snowmageddon was not our finest hour — under 3 inches fell yet Atlanta was paralyzed for days — but it was Jones’ time to shine.
Freddie Freeman, Jones’ fellow Brave at the time, spent 11 hours on the road after leaving Turner Field. He made it as far as Holcomb Bridge Road in Roswell, where he stopped for gas, and was unable to continue past an icy hill near Mansell Road, the AJC reported at the time.
Jones bundled himself up, packed weather-ready gear for his friend before hopping on his four wheeler to fetch Freeman. Despite the long and harrowing day, Freeman laughed when Jones arrived in camo and ski goggles.
“It was a funny moment,” Jones told the AJC at the time. “I told him, ‘We’re going to be talking about this forever.’”
Naturally, the triumphant tale inspired a commemorative bobblehead.
Atlanta has gotten better at heeding forecasts since that grim chapter in 2014, but just in case, Jones is once again ready for rescue duty.
“Just got my buggie all clean and oiled up, so if anyone in the Canton, Milton area needs some help, holler at me,” he posted. “Especially any of my Braves!”
You don't have to be a meteorologist or a science buff to measure ice accumulation in your area.
All you need to do is find a tree branch, measure the ice above the branch, measure the ice below the branch, and then divide the total by two, according to the National Weather Service.
The agency said you can measure at any time but recommended checking a few times throughout the day.
In recent years, unhoused people in Atlanta could rely on at least two warming centers.
In December, the future of the Old Adamsville Recreation Center and Emergency Shelter on Delmar Lane was thrown into doubt after the city council adopted a resolution, backed by District 10 City Councilmember Andrea Boone, urging the city not to open warming centers within 1,000 feet of schools.
Mayor Andre Dickens’ press secretary, Michael Smith, said Thursday the resolution will have “no impact” on the operation of the warming center. The city will operate the recreation center as an overflow center, open 24 hours until noon Sunday.
Tracy Woodard, program manager at the homeless advocacy nonprofit InTown Cares, said she thought the center would not be open this weekend.
“I have not placed anybody in a warming center because I did not know that Adamsville was running,” Woodard told the AJC.
Emory Healthcare hospitals will be open as normal this week, and surgeries will proceed as scheduled. However, most Emory Healthcare outpatient clinics and ambulatory surgery centers will be closed Friday.
Those who have outpatient clinic or outpatient surgery appointments Friday will be notified via text or phone and will be rescheduled.
A few clinic locations will remain open for treatments, including oncology and non-oncology infusion, dialysis and reproductive endocrinology. Appointments for those patients will be confirmed by their care teams.
Southwest Airlines, the second-largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, canceled more than 120 of its flights scheduled for Friday in Atlanta, according to FlightAware.com. That's the majority of the flights Dallas-based Southwest had planned to operate in and out of Atlanta on Friday.
All told, more than 280 flights have been canceled for Friday at the world's busiest airport in advance of the storm.