If early season weather is a predictor of what we’ll see in January and February, it’s going to be a bad winter. First, Buffalo, New York recorded record snowfall in October, and now a rogue storm is bringing pre-Thanksgiving snow to North Carolina and Virginia, while 10 degree below normal temperatures are making Atlanta feel like mid-January.

The nasty weather is being caused by a large low pressure system that sits stationary off of the Georgia coast (see below). Cut off from the jetstream, it is spinning around, bringing some of the coldest air of the season into our area, and causing rain, snow, and beach erosion along the coast. Temperatures in Atlanta have been 10 degrees below normal for the last two days.

Because the storm has not moved as quickly as earlier anticipated, our warmer weather has been delayed by a day or so, with the best day of the weekend now anticipated to be on Saturday. At least the storm is far enough east that the Atlanta area hasn’t been hit by the rain that is falling 1/4 inch per hour in Charlotte, with 40 MPH winds, or in Augusta, rain and sleet.

This weekend’s nor’Easter blizzard has made the record books. New York City’s Central Park reported 26.9 inches of snow as of 4 PM, making it the snowiest day since records began being kept in 1869. The previous record of 26.4 inches was set almost 50 years ago, in 1947.

The storm is expected to move off of the the New England coast tonight, but it left blizzard conditions, blowing snow, thundersnow, and up to 4 foot drifts in its wake.

Here are some snowfall amounts reported through this afternoon:

Fairfax, VA: 14 inches
Baltimore, MD: 15 inches
Owings Mills, MD: 20 inches
Wilmington, DE: 14.4 inches
Allentown, PA: 15.2 inches
Philadelphia, PA: 1.5 inches
Lawrenceville, NJ: 18.7 inches
East Brunswick, NJ: 21 inches
Newark, NJ: 21.3 inches
Saddle Brook, NJ: 20 inches
La Guardia Airport, NY: 21.4 inches
Islip, Long Island: 19.9 inches
Fairfield, CT: 27.8 inches
Danbury, CT: 24.2 inches
Hyannis, MA: 10 inches
Cambridge, MA: 18.2 inches
Foxboro, MA: 14.5 inches
Boston Logan Airport: 13.5 inches
Nashua, NH: 11 inches
Londonderry, NH: 13.5 inches
Kennebunk. ME: 12 inches

Keep in mind that many of these readings were taking in mid-afternoon, with more snow to come. The good news is that much like the rest of the eastern half of the country, the affected areas are expected to warm above freezing over the next few days, which will allow some of the snow to melt. On the other hand, if you were planning to travel to one of these areas soon, you might be better off rethinking your plans.

The storm that passed through north Georgia on Saturday, and is now pounding the east coast could rival a storm that put 12 to 18 inches of snow in an area from Virginia to Massachusetts exactly 23 years ago, on February 11th and 12th, 1983.

This morning, the center of the storm is located off the New Jersey coast, moving northwest at about 20 MPH. Blizzard warnings are in effect from New York City to Maine, and snow advisories are in effect from North Carolina to Vermont. This storm’s impact could be even more powerful because the east coast hasn’t seen too much winter weather this year.

Early snow totals from the storm as of 7 AM include:

Washington, DC Reagan Airport: 8.1 inches
Baltimore/Washington Airport: 11.2 inches
Columbia, MD: 21.3 inches
Annandale, VA: 11.5 inches
Chester County PA: 11 inches
Edison, NJ: 9 inches
Ridgewood, NJ: 13.7 inches
Newark, NJ: 10.7 inches
Central Park, NY: 11.8 inches
Islip, Long Island: 8.4 inches
Danbury, CT: 12 inches
West Hartford, CT: 9 inches
Warwick, RI: 3.7 inches
Natick, MA: 7 inches

Other reports from yesterday include:
Clayton, GA: 1 inch
Mountain City, GA: 5 inches
Memphis, TN: 3 inches
Tunica, MS: 3 inches
Robbinsville, NC: 7.5 inches

Here in Atlanta, we saw only light snow flurries this morning. The storm totals are increasing rapidly in an area from Washington DC north. For example, Central Park went from reports of 4 inches at 4 AM to 11 inches at 7 AM.

While the winter storm remains a threat in the northeast, cold weather is likely to impact Florida tonight and tomorrow night. Freezing temperatures are predicted tonight, with a freeze warning issued as far south as Palm Beach, with temperatures as low as 29 degrees in interior south Florida. This, of course, will have a great impact on the Florida growing industry.

We’ll also be likely to see temperatures in the mid 20’s tonight and Monday night, before things warm up to normal or above normal temperatures for the rest of the work week. By next weekend though, another storm threatens to bring colder temperatures, and another chance of wintry weather.

In what could be the first of three pre-Christmas winter events, Gwinnett County is waking up this morning to an ice storm. Originally predicted to stay north of our area, temperatures dropped enough prior to the onset of rain to create a hazardous situation once the rain began to fall.

The Weather Service gave up shortly after midnight and issued a winter storm warning for Gwinnett County and Northeast Georgia until 6 PM on Thursday. Peering outside, light ice has formed on the trees. Several areas are without power, including parts of Lilburn and Duluth, although the situation so far doesn’t seem too serious.

Here, temperatures dropped as low as 30.9 degrees around 1 AM before starting to rise slightly, although the thermometer hasn’t gone above the present 32.5 degrees. Once day breaks, the question is how fast and far the temperatures will go up. For areas to the south and west, we’re likely to see above freezing temperatures after sunrise. North and east may see temperatures hover in the 32 degree range until afternoon. Both areas will see up to a quarter of an inch of precipitation before things slow down this afternoon.

Forecasters were slightly caught by surprise this morning by the extent of the cold weather’s reach. Atlanta is on the edge of two frontal systems - a high pressure system centered over New England bringing in cold, dry air in from the east, and a low pressure system bringing in the rain from the southwest. This mixture caused a wedge of cold air to get stuck over the north Georgia mountains. Yesterday was expected to make it into the low 40s in northeast Atlanta, with temperatures staying above the freezing mark overnight.

Instead, the wedge was stronger than expected, reaching farther south. the temperature here hit a high of 38 degrees shortly after noon before beginning to fall slightly. By the time the rain arrived in the early evening, the thermometer began to drop even more as dewpoints began to rise.

Even if we manage to dodge the bullet today, there are two more chances of winter weather in the next week - on Sunday, and again on Tuesday or Wednesday. I’ll post more on these possibilities later.

As of noon Saturday, temperatures were hovering around 29 degrees, up from an overnight low of 26°. We had a high of 31° shortly after 7 PM, still below the freezing mark. There is a possibility of additional precipitation this evening, with an upper wave rotating into Georgia. The National Weather Service extended its Winter Storm Warning until 1 AM, citing the lack of improvement in the weather conditions.

It looks like much of the precipitation overnight on Friday night was sleet, with about 1/2 inch on the ground, and less than 1/4 inch of ice on the trees. Later on during the day Saturday, this changed to mixed rain and sleet, which built up the ice on exposed objects to about 3/8 inch, and made driving difficult. The Weather Channel was reporting an inch of sleet as of late afternoon in metro Atlanta. By Saturday night, you could hear the trees crackling as the wind blew, and over 100,000 Georgia customers had lost power due to the storm. The good news is that by 10 AM on Sunday, temperatures will begin to warm up, with a high on Sunday of 44.

To the right is a picture of ice-laden dogwood trees backlit by the neighborhood streetlight on Saturday evening. Click here to view additional pictures of the effects of the weather in our area.