An area of low pressure that developed along an old frontal boundary across the northern Gulf of Mexico spread light rain across Georgia during the early morning hours. Cold, dry air in place across northeast Georgia led to a period of light freezing rain.
Every event with a place to put it; 6 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS FFC wrote it up.
An area of low pressure that developed along an old frontal boundary across the northern Gulf of Mexico spread light rain across Georgia during the early morning hours. Cold, dry air in place across northeast Georgia led to a period of light freezing rain.
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 Atlanta, GA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 4, 3:15 AM EST, 45 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Peachtree City GA 315 AM EST Sun Feb 4 2018 .SHORT TERM /Today through Monday/... Precipitation moving in rapidly across the area as of this writing and thus far all of the liquid variety. Plenty of dry air in the low levels however and evaporative cooling certainly looks in play this morning and the most important factor. Upstream observations in central Alabama reveal an average 4 degree drop in temps once moderate precip began. More room to work with as far as cooling goes for our NE zones but would expect a similar 4 to perhaps as high as 6 degree drop through the morning hours. We already have some GDOT sites reporting freezing temps across the high elevations and this further anticipated drop would take them into the upper 20s as precip intensifies. Also would not at all be surprised to hear of some sleet mixing in all the way to the metro this morning. Given all this, feel forecast remains on track and plan no changes to the current advisories. Uncertainty remains along the ridge lines where some of the colder models are indicating warning criteria for ice accumulations through mid morning. Most of these models performed poorly during the last event but still will need to monitor conditions closely for possible upgrade. Other uncertainty resides for the southern edge of advisory where temps remain in the upper 30s to around 40. Given aforementioned wet bulb potential, in no hurry to alter any advisories but will need quite a bit of evaporative cooling if these are to verify. Otherwise, QPF remains consistent at three quarters to approaching an inch of liquid precip. This will not be enough to warrant any hydro concerns at this point. Another strong shortwave will be on the heels of todays system through this evening. Will be drying out by then through the column but may need to watch for additional light mixed precip late this evening across extreme northern tier. Pops too low for inclusion at this time but will need to be monitored closely. Deese .LONG TERM /Monday Night through Saturday/... The extended period begins dry with surface high pressure in control and centered over the SE states. Sfc ridge slides east on Tuesday amidst a fast moving flow pattern while next system dives into southern plains. Moisture will return fairly quickly late Tuesday and start to overrun the departing surface ridge which may set up a short term wedge in NE GA. Attm it appears to be warm enough for an all rain scenario starting late Tue into early Wed. Wednesday...a deep moist plume within southwest flow aloft sets up ahead of an approaching cold front. ECM and GFS both generally agree on the progression of the upper trof with the northern portion over the great lakes leading and the southern end over texas lagging. ECMWF is a bit more aligned with the trof which would produce a tad more SB instability across our southern counties and thus we still cannot rule out a low end severe potential...and at a minimum some thunderstorms. GFS is much more positively tilted and thus produces much less instability. Have added slight chance thunder in the forecast to account for the possibility but will need to see the evolution of the system to have confidence either way. The ensemble means wash out any of the nuances so its too early to commit one way or the other. Typically its difficult to derive much severe weather from the tilted scenario and we tend to get more overrunning rain as the sfc front out runs the upper support and the upper flow overruns the front as a post frontal rain. We can however get some heavier rains...and given the short term rains of 1 to isolated 3 inches...an additional 2 to 3 may cause some flooding issues Wednesday. QPF fields yield 1 to 3 inches north of Interstate 20 so will need to monitor totals as it relates to flood concerns as the event approaches. Surface high builds in for Thursday and Friday before yielding to yet another system diving into the southern Plains. Moisture slated to return late Friday as Southwest flow again takes hold of the southeast US ahead of the digging trof...setting us up for a wet and rainy weekend. Again..piling onto the Sunday and Wednesday system...flooding may become an issue next weekend given the pattern thats taking shape. 10 day mean rainfall from the individual model runs and the ensemble means remarkably agreeing and yielding on average 5 to 7 inches across North GA. Stellman && AVIATION... 06Z UPDATE... Cigs slow to develop across the terminals this morning but do have a stripe of MVFR that has formed across ATL and surrounding sites. Should be a quick transition to TEMPO IFR later this morning around 10Z along with light to moderate RA development. Ongoing TAF forecast handles these trends quite nicely and only limited changes planned. Pushed back wind shift slightly to NW to 19Z but guidance varies by some 3 hours on either side of this so confidence not as high as I would like it to be with this. Looks like cigs may last longer into Sun night now and have kept MVFR for most of the night along with increased winds. //ATL CONFIDENCE...06Z UPDATE... Medium on wind shift timing. High on remaining elements. Deese && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Athens 45 34 53 33 / 100 5 0 5 Atlanta 51 34 50 36 / 100 5 0 5 Blairsville 48 27 47 28 / 100 5 0 5 Cartersville 50 30 48 33 / 100 5 0 5 Columbus 62 40 58 39 / 100 5 0 5 Gainesville 45 32 49 34 / 100 5 0 5 Macon 62 38 58 36 / 100 10 0 5 Rome 52 29 48 32 / 100 5 0 5 Peachtree City 56 35 53 34 / 100 5 0 5 Vidalia 65 43 61 40 / 90 30 0 5 && .FFC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Winter Weather Advisory until 10 AM EST this morning for the following zones: Banks...Dawson...Fannin...Forsyth...Gilmer... Hall...Jackson...Lumpkin...Madison...Pickens...Towns...Union... White. && SHORT TERM...Deese LONG TERM....stellman AVIATION...Deese
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Peachtree City GA 239 PM EST Sat Feb 3 2018 GAZ001>009-011>016-019>025-027-030>039-041>062-066>076-078>086- 089>098-102>113-041945- Baldwin-Banks-Barrow-Bartow-Bibb-Bleckley-Butts-Carroll-Catoosa- Chattahoochee-Chattooga-Cherokee-Clarke-Clayton-Cobb-Coweta- Crawford-Crisp-Dade-Dawson-DeKalb-Dodge-Dooly-Douglas-Emanuel- Fannin-Fayette-Floyd-Forsyth-Gilmer-Glascock-Gordon-Greene- Gwinnett-Hall-Hancock-Haralson-Harris-Heard-Henry-Houston-Jackson- Jasper-Jefferson-Johnson-Jones-Lamar-Laurens-Lumpkin-Macon- Madison-Marion-Meriwether-Monroe-Montgomery-Morgan-Murray- Muscogee-Newton-North Fulton-Oconee-Oglethorpe-Paulding-Peach- Pickens-Pike-Polk-Pulaski-Putnam-Rockdale-Schley-South Fulton- Spalding-Stewart-Sumter-Talbot-Taliaferro-Taylor-Telfair-Toombs- Towns-Treutlen-Troup-Twiggs-Union-Upson-Walker-Walton-Warren- Washington-Webster-Wheeler-White-Whitfield-Wilcox-Wilkes- Wilkinson- 239 PM EST Sat Feb 3 2018 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North and Central Georgia. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight... A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for portions of Northeast Georgia from 1 AM Sunday through 10 AM Sunday. Rain is expected to move back into the region late tonight into Sunday morning. Some sleet is possible for the Northeast Georgia mountains at the onset precipitation. During the overnight hours precipitation will transition to freezing rain or rain. Some ice accumulations are forecast by Sunday morning across portions Northeast Georgia which may impact travel...particularly on bridges and overpasses. Temperatures are expected to rise above freezing by late morning so impacts should remain limited to the early to mid morning hours. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Sunday through Friday... Another upper level system and associated cold front will approach late Tuesday into Wednesday. Some thunderstorms will be possible with the front as it moves through on Wednesday. At this time it is too early to determine if thunderstorms could become severe. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation will not be needed through tonight.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
6 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
A CoCoRaHS observer near Dahlonega reported a trace of freezing rain accumulation, mainly on the trees.
The ASOS at the Gainesville airport reported .16 inches of freezing rain.
The White County Emergency Manager reported a tenth of an inch of freezing rain accumulation around the Cleveland area, mainly on trees and elevated surfaces.
A COOP observer reported a tenth of an inch of freezing rain accumulation around the Danielsville area, mainly on trees and elevated surfaces.
A report was received over social media of trace amounts of freezing rain accumulation on trees and elevated surfaces.
The Jackson County Emergency Manager reported trace amounts of freezing rain accumulation on trees and elevated surfaces.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Georgia in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in Georgia, February 2018
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: 737545, 737546, 737547, 737548, 737549, 737550.