Ice Storm in Georgia, January 28 to 30, 2000

A series of short waves in the upper air pattern produced periods of mostly light to occasionally moderate precipitation over the north half of Georgia from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. Patchy light snow began in west central and northwest Georgia around daybreak on the 28th. There was a light dusting on the ground by mid morning from Troup to Carroll county, east to Fayette county. Due to the dry layer of air aloft, much of the precipitation evaporated before reaching the ground, so eastward progression of the area of snow was slow. By evening, a mixture of light snow, sleet and freezing rain became more widespread over west central and northwest Georgia. Although the precipitation remained light and temperatures hovered in the low to mid 30s, ice began to accumulate on roads, bridges and overpasses. There was a 47 car pile-up on I-20 in downtown Atlanta late Friday night that backed up traffic into early Saturday morning. By Saturday morning, the 29th, temperatures had slowly fallen to near or just below the freezing mark over the north half of Georgia with a mix of light freezing drizzle, freezing rain, and sleet, with light snow in the mountains. The last batch of significant precipitation moved from Alabama into west central Georgia and on into the Atlanta metro area on Sunday morning. There were even one or two claps of thunder in Spalding county. Overall, the event generally produced 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice accumulation, with isolated areas getting 1/2 to 1 inch of ice. The main problems seemed to be traffic accidents due to icy roads and bridges. There were scattered areas of trees and power lines down, but damage from this storm was nowhere as much as that from the storm the previous weekend.