That’s what the forecaster at the National Weather Service called this weekend’s weather in North Georgia. After a brief round of sleet around sunset, the second wave of wet weather arrived in mid evening as far south as Americus, and moved northward, with significant icing across much of North Georgia.

Temperatures continued to drop as the wet weather arrived, caused by evaporational cooling. In metro Atlanta, temps were in the mid 20s at 5 AM, with freezing weather as far south as middle Georgia. At this point, temps are not expected to go above freezing until sometime Sunday morning. Freezing rain, and possibly some snow will continue throughout the period, with the heaviest icing in the metro Atlanta area. After 7 PM, the chance of freezing rain drops overnight.

The winter storm warning remains in effect until 4 PM. Travel isn’t recommended, with I-85 closed in the Hamilton Mill area. Looking out my window, I can see what looks to be about a quarter inch of snow/sleet on the ground, not only in grassy areas, but also on the street. I’ll try to get out once it gets light to get some pictures. Some folks have posted their experiences from earlier last evening in the ‘comments’ area of the post below. Please tell us what you see using the Comments link.

The National Weather Service forecast map for today shows the wide-ranging effects of the storm. While we’re getting freezing rain, heavy snow is possible in an boomerang shaped area from eastern Illinois, to West Virginia, and on south through eastern Tennessee. The freezing rain will move up through North Carolina and Virginia.

Yesterday’s winter weather watch has become today’s winter storm warning, in effect from 9 PM on Friday through 4 PM on Saturday. Predictions on the location and scope of the storm have not changed too much since the watch was issued Thursday afternoon.

The biggest threat is for freezing rain, which could accumulate to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in Gwinnett County. We could also see some sleet, particularly early in the storm, and some snow mixed in as well. The precipitation should slack off late Saturday afternoon, and then return as rain on Sunday.

The big question is how warm it will get on Saturday afternoon. Overnight lows will be between 27 and 29 degrees. If temperatures stay below freezing for most of the afternoon, we have a greater potential for ice accumulation. Saturday’s predicted high is 34 degrees, with temperatures rising above freezing around noon, and remaining steady through Sunday morning, when the temperature should begin to rise to about 50 degrees through the afternoon, ending the weather threat.

The predicted amount of ice accumulation on trees, power lines and other above-ground objects means that there is a good chance of a power failure during the period, and ice damage to trees. Make sure you are prepared for the possibility of no power tomorrow.

I will try to post observations and pictures of any damage I see locally, although if the power does go out, I won’t be able to update anything on the site, including the currrent conditions. Feel free to post your observations as well, using the comment link below.

As of just before noon today, the National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch north of a line from West Point to Thomaston to Sandersfille from Friday night to Saturday afternoon.
The image to the right from the National Weather Service shows that the winter storm might reach much further south than predicted earlier this morning. The pink area, which includes Atlanta inside the perimeter, will see freezing rain (ZR) and sleet (IP) The gold area, which includes Gwinnett, will likely see the same thing. Extreme northeast Georgia will probably see a combination of snow, sleet, and freezing rain.

I think that what is happening is that the cold air mas approaching from the north is turning out to be a lot stronger than thought earlier in the week. The predicted high for the Lawrenceville area on Saturday is now predicted to be only between 32 and 35 degrees — several degrees lower than predicted just a few hours ago. In addition there appears to be more moisture from the storm approaching from the southwest.

It’s beginning to look like the area of freezing rain predicted for this weekend is being extended south and west of where it was estimated to be on Tuesday.
As you can see in the image at the left, light rain moves into Gwinnett county by 10 PM on Friday, and turns into freezing rain by 4 AM on Saturday. The area of freezing rain moves eastward and becomes more widespread by 10 AM, and should be all rain by 4 PM. The freezing rain should stay north Interstate 20.

Temperatures should drop below freezing around midnight Friday, and could reach 28 degrees just before sunrise Saturday, and will probably rise above freezing around noon. Of course, all of this is still two days away, and the forecast could change, but it might be a good idea to get your errands out of the way today and tomorrow.

Although the threat of freezing rain ends as things warm up Saturday afternoon, we’ll still see cloudy, wet weather typical of a wedge situation until Tuesday, when high pressure moves into the area. We’ll probably see a total of about 1/2 inch of precipitation throughout the period.

January is likely to end up being a dry month. We should normally have just over four inches of rain by the end of January; I’ve only recorded 1.14 inches of rain so far, with most of that recorded on January 14th. Hartsfield Airport has had 1.57 inches. Even if we get half an inch over the weekend, we will end the month with two fewer inches of rain than normal.

The first major winter weather event of 2005 brought plenty of snow to the Mid-Atlantic states on Saturday. New snowfall records were set at Boston’s Logan Airport and Manhattan’s Central Park. Here are some 24 hour snowfall totals for selected cities, as of early late Saturday or early Sunday, January 23, 2005:

Philadelphia, PA - 11 inches as of 1:00 AM
Blue Bell, PA - 12 inches as of 2:00 AM
Allentown, PA - 8.3 inches as of 1:00 AM
Wilmington, DE - 8.0 inches as of 1:00 AM
Mount Holly, NJ - 9:0 inches as of 1:00 AM
Central Park, NY - 8.5 inches (a new record)
Darien, CT - 13.5 inches as of 11 PM
New Haven, CT - 10.0 inches as of 12 AM
Newark, NJ - 8.9 Inches as of 12 AM
Oyster Bay NY - 13.0 inches as of 1:15 AM
La Guardia Airport NY - 10.0 inches as of 12:00 AM
Boston Logan Airport, MA - 9.1 inches as of 12:00 AM
Hyannis, MA - 17.8 inches as of 4:10 AM
Peabody, MA - 24.0 inches as of 6:23 AM
Worcester, MA - 18.1 inches as of 5:38 AM
Amherst, NH - 18.0 inches as of 6:31 AM
West Warwick, RI - 14.0 inches as of 3:56 AM

The snow is expected to continue in New England until late this afternoon, with 10 to 16 inches expected in Portland, Maine and 28 to 38 inches expected in Boston. The situation is made worse, with high winds averaging 30 MPH.