ATLANTA — After a pretty mild winter last year, everyone wants to know what it will be like this season.
Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz breaks down the outlook for this winter in Georgia.
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There are different kinds of severe weather possible during winters in metro Atlanta and north Georgia.
You might remember the snow and ice that left drivers stranded in Jan. 2011. There were more than six inches of snow in the north Georgia mountains then
Then, another winter storm that happened on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 back in 2017. During that storm, between four inches all the way up to a foot of snow fell depending on where you were.
Drivers left their cars on the side of the road. Ice covered the trees and limbs were down everywhere. Thousands of power lost power.
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It’s not just snow during the winter. There was a tornado outbreak in Feb. 2009. A Forsyth County family saw the warnings on Channel 2 then they saw a funnel cloud.
“Took the top of that tree right off,” the homeowner said.
Baseball-size hail damaged a daycare in Fayette County and a hailstorm in Carroll County sent shoppers running for cover.
Then in December 2011, there was another tornado outbreak. A Gordon County family, including a pregnant family, were inside their home when a tornado hit. They jumped into the closet
“Next thing I knew we were out in the yard,” David Sheriff said at the time.
Remarkably, they all made it out alive.
What do all these storms have in common? They all happened during a La Niña.
“La Nina is going to be the primary factor influencing winter weather patterns... tornadoes are possible,” Nitz says.
Also new for this winter weather season, there are some changes involving information from the National Weather Service. It’s part of the information that Severe Weather Team 2 uses to alert you.
Cold weather advisories and extreme cold watches and warnings will replace wind chill advisories, watches and warnings.
“The new thresholds are going to have either an and/or so it’s gonna be actual air temperature or and/or the wind chill readings so once we cross those thresholds that’ll define whether or not we issue a cold weather advisory or an extreme cold warning,” said David Nadler with the NWS.
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