Curbed.com
January 9, 2017
On Friday the predictions were dire. The Atlanta region was under a State of Emergency, Mayor Kasim Reed had called for everyone to be off the streets by 4:30 p.m., schools were shuttered hours early — all in preparation for a predicted 2 to 5 inches of snow.
Given the debacle of January 2014, no one was taking any chances.
As the afternoon progressed into evening, a steady rain fell across the city as temperatures hovered around freezing. In Midtown, small icicles formed on streetlights and railings, but road conditions remained relatively normal, thanks in part to pre-treating by GDOT.
With nightfall, the sporadic rain didn’t turn into snow as the hours ticked by. On Saturday, anyone who awoke hoping for a wintery urban scene was disappointed. The snow never really fell upon Atlanta neighborhoods, though the northern ‘burbs saw a little white stuff.
Nonetheless, a coating of ice downtown and the bone-chilling single-digit wind chill provided a decidedly atypical Atlanta walk on Saturday.
With winter 2017 just underway — and with the Blizzard of 1993 having happened in March — there’s a chance this won’t be the last frozen frenzy of the year.
