Winter Weather, Rabun
- When
- February 9, 9:00 PM EST to February 10, 3:00 AM EST
- Where
- Rabun forecast zone
- Reported by
- County Official
- Coordinates
- 34.882, -83.402 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Winter Weather in Georgia, February 9 to 10, 2011
A weakening storm system brought light snow to portions of northeast Georgia during the evening. Total accumulations ranged from a dusting to an inch over the Piedmont to 1 to 2 inches across much of the mountains.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 5 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 5
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS GSP wrote it up.
A weakening storm system brought light snow to portions of northeast Georgia during the evening. Total accumulations ranged from a dusting to an inch over the Piedmont to 1 to 2 inches across much of the mountains.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 9, 6:42 PM EST, 2 hours 18 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Feb 9, 6:42 PM EST, 2 hours 18 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
642 PM EST WED FEB 9 2011
.SYNOPSIS...
A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL DEVELOP OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO AND MOVE
JUST SOUTH OF THE AREA TONIGHT THROUGH EARLY TOMORROW. HIGH PRESSURE
WILL THEN BUILD BACK OVER THE REGION LATE THURSDAY AND PERSIST INTO
THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK.
&&
.NEAR TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY/...
NOT MUCH CHANGE TO THE FORECAST REASONING FROM THE LATE MORNING
UPDATE...AND NO CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE VALID TIME OR
ORIENTATION OF THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. THE LATEST REGIONAL
RADAR AND SATELLITE LOOPS SHOW A MODESTLY WELL ORGANIZED BAROCLINIC
LEAF AND ASSOCIATED AREA OF PCPN EXTENDING FROM NRN LA TO SRN KY.
THIS LINES UP FAIRLY WELL WITH THE OPERATIONAL MODELS...THOUGH IT
DOES LOOK A LITTLE FASTER. OVERALL...I LIKE THE SREF MASS FIELDS AND
QPF FOR THE EVENT.
THE NAM IS PICKING UP BETTER ON THE H7 FRONTOGENESIS THAN THE GFS.
IT DID THE SAME THING BACK DURING THE HEAVY SNOW EVENT IN EARLY
JANUARY. SO WHILE I THINK IT/S QPF IS UNDERDONE...I LIKE IT/S
FORCING AS THERE ARE ACTIVE SNOWBANDS NOW ACROSS THE MIDDLE PART OF
AR AND WRN TN. IT BRINGS THIS FRONTOGENESIS...WHICH IS DEVELOPING
WITHIN THE ENTRANCE REGION OF A STRONG 250MB JET...INTO THE NC MTNS
A LITTLE AFTER 00 UTC...AND ACROSS THE FOOTHILLS AND PIEDMONT FROM
03-09 UTC. PCPN SHOULD THEN BE WELL EAST OF THE FA BY 12 UTC.
THE LLVL FLOW IS DOWNSLOPE AND DOWNGLIDE...SO WE WILL HAVE TO RELY
PRIMARILY ON MID LEVEL FORCING FOR THE EVENT. THE ONE EXCEPTION WILL
BE THE SW NC MTNS AND THE MTNS OF NE GA WHERE UPSLOPE FLOW SHOULD
AID THE SNOWFALL. I HAVE A LITTLE OVER TWO INCHES IN THESE AREAS. I
HAVE AROUND AN INCH ACROSS THE REST OF THE FA. WHILE THE BEST
FORCING WILL PASS ACROSS THE SRN PART OF THE FA LATER TONIGHT...THE
SREF PLUME DIAGRAMS ACTUALLY SHOW A LITTLE MORE SNOWFALL UP OVER THE
NC FOOTHILLS AND PIEDMONT AS THE PCPN WILL CHANGE OVER MORE QUICKLY
TO ALL SNOW THAN OVER THE UPSTATE AND NE GA. SNOW TO LIQUID RATIOS
WILL ALSO BE A LITTLE HIGHER. THAT/S WHY I END UP WITH SIMILAR
AMOUNTS ACROSS THE FA. IF A HEAVY ENOUGH SNOW BAND WHERE TO DEVELOP
UNDER THE BETTER FORCING...THEN TOTALS COULD BE AN INCH OR SO HIGHER
ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 85.
PCPN WILL END QUICKLY ON THURSDAY MORNING. HIGHS WILL BE WELL ABOVE
NORMAL AS A COLDER AIRMASS ENTERS THE REGION AND AS THE SHALLOW SNOW
COVER SHOULD HOLD DOWN MAXES A FEW DEGREES.
&&
.SHORT TERM /THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/...
AS OF 200 PM WEDNESDAY...LOOKS LIKE A VERY QUIET SHORT TERM THROUGH
SAT AS THE REGION WILL BE UNDER DRY NW FLOW ALOFT. A COUPLE MINOR
SHORT WAVES RIPPLING THROUGH THE FLOW WILL HAVE INSUFFICIENT MOISTURE
TO GENERATE ANYTHING SIGNIFICANT. AT THE SURFACE...A LARGE/DRY/COOL
HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM CENTERED OVER TX WILL REMAIN RIDGED OVER THE
REGION THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH SAT. ALL GUIDANCE POINTS TO
CLEAR/MOSTLY CLEAR CONDITIONS THROUGH THE PERIOD. GIVEN THE LIGHT
WINDS AND LOW DEWPOINTS IN THE FORECAST....IT WILL BE QUITE CHILLY BOTH THU
NIGHT AND FRI NIGHT WITH LOWS WELL INTO THE 20S OUTSIDE OF THE
MOUNTAINS...WITH TEENS IN THE MOUNTAINS. SLOWLY MODERATING LOW
LEVEL THICKNESS VALUES AND WEAK DOWNSLOPE WILL ALLOW DAYTIME MAX
TEMPS TO SLOWLY WARM WITH HIGHS ON SAT REACHING NORMAL TO SLIGHTLY
ABOVE AVERAGE VALUES.
&&
.LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY/...
AS OF 130 PM WEDNESDAY...THE MEDIUM RANGE WILL BE MARKED BY THE
GRADUAL TRANSITION FROM A BROAD EASTERN CONUS TROUGH...TO FAST ZONAL
FLOW BY THE END OF THE PERIOD. THE UPSHOT IN TERMS OF SENSIBLE
WEATHER IS THAT A NICE WARMING TREND WILL BE THE MAIN (PERHAPS ONLY)
WEATHER STORY FOR NEXT WEEK. IN THE INTERIM...THERE WILL BE A COUPLE
OF RELATIVELY WEAK CLIPPER-TYPE SW TROUGHS AFFECT THE REGION DURING
THE EARLY PORTION OF THE EXTENDED. THE ECMWF (THE MODEL OF CHOICE)
INDICATES ONE WILL PASS OVER THE AREA EARLY SUNDAY...AND THE OTHER
IN THE LATE MONDAY/TUE TIME FRAME. WITH A VERY DRY AIRMASS IN
PLACE...THERE DOESN/T APPEAR TO BE MUCH OF A CHANCE OF PRECIP.
HOWEVER...THE ECMWF DOES SUGGEST SOME LIGHT PRECIP IS POSSIBLE
ACROSS THE WESTERN MTNS LATE MONDAY. WE HAVE OPTED TO KEEP THE
FORECAST DRY FOR NOW IN HOPES THAT THERE WILL BE BETTER MODEL
AGREEMENT IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
OTHERWISE...THE GENERALLY DRY AIRMASS AND INCREASING THICKNESSES
SHOULD YIELD MIN TEMPS AROUND NORMAL...AND MAX TEMPS A SOLID 10
DEGREES ABOVE THROUGH MOST OF THE PERIOD.
&&
.AVIATION /00Z THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY/...
AT KCLT...WINDS WILL BECOME NLY THEN NELY OVERNIGHT...BUT COULD BE
LIGHT AND VARIABLE EARLY. EXPECT THE MID CLOUDS TO LOWER TO LOW
VFR/MVFR TOWARD MORNING AS LIGHT SNOW MOVES IN AFTER MIDNIGHT. HAVE
KEPT THE MVFR VSBY/CIGS BUT GUIDANCE IS INDICATING BEST PRECIP RATES
COULD BE SOUTH OF THE AREA...KEEPING CONDITIONS LOW VFR INSTEAD.
SNOW ENDS SHORTLY AFTER DAYBREAK WITH CLOUDS SCATTERING OUT SHORTLY
THEREAFTER. NLY WINDS INCREASE AT THAT TIME...WITH LOW END GUSTS
POSSIBLE DURING THE MORNING AS MIXING BEGINS. EXPECT BASICALLY CLEAR
SKIES WITH LIGHTER NLY WINDS THRU THE AFTERNOON.
ELSEWHERE...THE THINKING IS ABOUT THE SAME FOR THE REST OF THE
AIRFIELDS. A RAIN/SNOW MIX IS LIKELY AS THE PCPN BEGINS...CHANGING
TO SNOW AS THE PCPN BECOMES A LITTLE HEAVIER. KEPT MVFR CONDITIONS
AT THE HEIGHT OF THE PRECIP...BUT LOW VFR COULD BE MORE LIKELY IF
PRECIP RATES REMAIN LIGHT. EXPECT NLY WINDS THRU THE PERIOD WITH
NELY WINDS DURING THE AFTERNOON. HAVE INCLUDED LOW END GUSTS AFTER
DAYBREAK WITH MIXING AT KAVL. LEFT OUT OTHER SITES...BUT THEY COULD
DEVELOP THERE AS WELL.
OUTLOOK...HIGH PRESSURE WITH VFR CONDITIONS EXPECTED INTO EARLY NEXT
WEEK.
&&
.GSP WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
GA...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 7 AM EST THURSDAY FOR GAZ010-017.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM EST
THURSDAY FOR GAZ018-026-028-029.
NC...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 7 AM EST THURSDAY FOR NCZ033-
048>053-058-059-062>065-501-503-505-507-509.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM EST
THURSDAY FOR NCZ035>037-056-057-068>072-082-502-504-506-
508-510.
SC...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 7 AM EST THURSDAY FOR SCZ001>003.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM EST
THURSDAY FOR SCZ004>014-019.
&&
SYNOPSIS...JPT
NEAR TERM...MCAVOY
SHORT TERM...LG
LONG TERM...JDL
AVIATION...RWHHazardous weather outlook, Feb 9, 3:45 PM EST, 5 hours 15 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 345 PM EST WED FEB 9 2011 GAZ018-026-028-029-NCZ035>037-056-057-068>072-082-502-504-506-508- 510-SCZ004>014-019-102045- STEPHENS-FRANKLIN-HART-ELBERT-ALEXANDER-IREDELL-DAVIE-CATAWBA-ROWAN- CLEVELAND-LINCOLN-GASTON-MECKLENBURG-CABARRUS-UNION NC- GREATER CALDWELL-GREATER BURKE-EASTERN MCDOWELL-GREATER RUTHERFORD- EASTERN POLK-GREATER OCONEE-GREATER PICKENS-GREATER GREENVILLE- SPARTANBURG-CHEROKEE-YORK-ANDERSON-ABBEVILLE-LAURENS-UNION SC- CHESTER-GREENWOOD- 345 PM EST WED FEB 9 2011 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM EST THURSDAY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST GEORGIA...PIEDMONT NORTH CAROLINA...WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA AND UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. SNOW WILL MELT DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS THURSDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL WELL BELOW FREEZING THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING. IF SOME AREAS OF MELT WATER REMAIN...SOME BLACK ICE CONDITIONS WILL DEVELOP THURSDAY NIGHT...ESPECIALLY ON BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... NONE. GAZ010-017-NCZ033-048>053-058-059-062>065-501-503-505-507-509- SCZ001>003-102045- RABUN-HABERSHAM-AVERY-MADISON-YANCEY-MITCHELL-SWAIN-HAYWOOD-BUNCOMBE- GRAHAM-NORTHERN JACKSON-MACON-SOUTHERN JACKSON-TRANSYLVANIA- HENDERSON-CALDWELL MOUNTAINS-BURKE MOUNTAINS-MCDOWELL MOUNTAINS- RUTHERFORD MOUNTAINS-POLK MOUNTAINS-OCONEE MOUNTAINS- PICKENS MOUNTAINS-GREENVILLE MOUNTAINS- 345 PM EST WED FEB 9 2011 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM EST THURSDAY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST GEORGIA...WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA AND UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. SNOW WILL MELT DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS THURSDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL WELL BELOW FREEZING THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING. IF SOME AREAS OF MELT WATER REMAIN...SOME BLACK ICE CONDITIONS WILL DEVELOP THURSDAY NIGHT...ESPECIALLY ON BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... NONE.
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
5 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
Winter Weather, Habersham
- When
- February 9, 9:00 PM EST to February 10, 3:00 AM EST
- Where
- Habersham forecast zone
- Reported by
- County Official
- Coordinates
- 34.631, -83.531 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Winter Weather, Stephens
- When
- February 9, 9:00 PM EST to February 10, 3:00 AM EST
- Where
- Stephens forecast zone
- Reported by
- County Official
- Coordinates
- 34.554, -83.293 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Winter Weather, Franklin
- When
- February 9, 9:00 PM EST to February 10, 3:00 AM EST
- Where
- Franklin forecast zone
- Reported by
- County Official
- Coordinates
- 34.375, -83.229 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Winter Weather, Hart
- When
- February 9, 9:00 PM EST to February 10, 3:00 AM EST
- Where
- Hart forecast zone
- Reported by
- County Official
- Coordinates
- 34.351, -82.964 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
What these are
- Winter Weather
- Snow, sleet or freezing rain below warning levels that still caused disruption, damage or casualties.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Tennessee, February 9, 2011
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Kentucky, February 9 to 10, 2011
- Winter Weather in Illinois, February 9, 2011
- Heavy Snow in Mississippi, February 9 to 10, 2011
- Cold in New Mexico, February 9, 2011
- Heavy Snow in Arkansas, February 9, 2011
- Winter Storm and Winter Weather in Kentucky, February 9 to 10, 2011
- Heavy Snow in Louisiana, February 9, 2011
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Georgia, February 9 to 10, 2011
- Lake-Effect Snow in New York, February 9 to 10, 2011
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Missouri, February 9, 2011
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Arkansas, February 9 to 10, 2011
More
Every storm in Georgia in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in Georgia, February 2011
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 285689, 285690, 285691, 285692, 285693.