Atlanta and snowfall: A rocky history, to say the least
Atlanta, which has not recorded measurable snow since Jan. 18, 2018 -- a staggering 1,456 days, as of Thursday, could get a blast of wintry weather this weekend.
Flurries have filled the air in Atlanta during that span, as recently as Jan. 3, 2022, but not enough to accumulate to 0.1 of an inch, the benchmark required to be considered measurable snow. When some snow falls, but not enough to stack up to 0.1 of an inch, forecasters call this a "trace" of snow.
The ongoing streak spanning almost four years is the second-longest in Atlanta's history, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Atlanta. The record currently stands at 1,477 days, beginning on Feb. 2, 1948, and ending on Feb. 25, 1952.
Snow in Atlanta is not particularly rare, but it's not guaranteed every winter. Over the last 30 years, the city has averaged around 2.2 inches during the winter season. When snow last accumulated in the city on Jan. 18, 2018, meteorologists measured 2.4 inches, with snow falling earlier that winter as well.
The Jan. 18 snowfall was disruptive, with 2 inches of snow grinding travel to a halt across the region after snow and sub-freezing temperatures impacted more than 12,800 miles of Georgia highways, according to reporting from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Atlanta was also hit by the Storm of the Century in 1993. Although the storm was hardly a blizzard when it hit Atlanta, it did produce 4.2 inches of snowfall, the fifth-highest single-day total the city has ever recorded. The most snowfall the city has gotten in one day came in 1940, when 8.3 inches of snow were measured on Jan. 23.
However, Atlanta's most impactful storm in recent years has to be what local residents have deemed Snowmaggedon, a 2014 storm that dropped around 2 inches of snow in the city. The snow fell during the evening commute, leaving snow-inexperienced Atlanta drivers trapped on snow and ice-covered roads. Hundreds of flights out of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, the busiest in the nation, were canceled.
AccuWeather's own Executive Producer of Media Content, Jim Proeller, found himself trapped on Atlanta's freeways during the storm. Proeller's six-mile drive took him more than 13 hours to complete.
"I walked the last mile, left my car in the middle of the road, along with hundreds of others. The freeways were littered [with cars] for days," Proeller recalled.
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In this Jan. 29, 2014 aerial file photo, abandoned cars at I-75 headed northbound near the Chattahoochee River overpass are piled up in the median of the ice-covered interstate after a winter snowstorm, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Tulis, File) |
Brett Rosner, an Atlanta-area journalist, found himself stuck at a television station for two nights during the storm.
"I was lucky and had gotten a blow-up mattress in the private office I was assigned. So it was 12-hour shifts for several days, but it was certainly an event I will never forget," Rosner explained, calling the snowstorm "a wakeup call" for the city.
"After that, city and state officials took things seriously and ordered new icing trucks and supplies and came up with new plans for winter weather," Rosner said. "The next event, it seems like officials were more prepared."
Even with the city's snow clearing services' historical challenges, Rosner and many other Atlantans excited about the prospects for a new round of accumulating snow in Atlanta have taken to Twitter with some in favor of fresh powder.
"Let's break the streak!" a self-proclaimed Georgia weather enthusiast tweeted.
Another Twitter user poked fun at the habit of folks stocking up on bread, milk and eggs leading up to a snowstorm, telling their followers, "Don't forget to stock up on your supplies for milk sandwiches."
However, others echoed their worries about a winter storm in the South. Kyle Thiem, a meteorologist for the NWS Atlanta office, took a moment to write a short poem with his take on the snow potential across Georgia.
I do not like Winter Wx in the south.
I do not like the chaos about.
I wish models would forecast just rain.
When they do not, it brings me much pain.— Kyle Thiem (@Kyle_Thiem) January 11, 2022
If Atlanta manages to make it through the weekend without snow accumulating, the city has a chance at breaking the record for the longest streak without measurable snow.
To break the current record of 1,477 days, Atlanta will have to make it to Feb. 4 without 0.1 of an inch of snow accumulating.
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