Happy Friday! I wanted to share a brief winter weather update here before the weekend. Best I can tell is the winter storm will remain around and north of the I-20 corridor. It does not mean Burke County is totally in the clear, but it is a good sign for this area. Our most likely chance from impacts will be Saturday night into Sunday. If we end up with significant freezing rain, remember that when ice melts off the power lines, it is possible for that power line to spring back like a sling shot and arc/ground out with other lines about or below. That can cause delayed power outages. Keep watching the National Weather Forecast and if you need additional resources, check out this link- https://outlookuga-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/cliftonc_uga_edu/IgBsexfaR-zHSILEBX04B_AYAZfkN5KbgmR3bVsWEqqYHJA?e=bY5pqK If you are looking for snow measurements, look at the community network called CoCoRahs. Our UGA Weather stations cannot measure snow and if they ice over, they will not report any precipitation until the ice melts. CoCoRahs can be found here https://maps.cocorahs.org/
We are also watching the potential for more winter weather next weekend. But let’s deal with this one first.
Dr. Knox said the following in an email this morning. “I hope you are all preparing for the worst if you live in northern Georgia. Allisen Penn sent out some great resource links yesterday that will likely be helpful! There are some ice storm warnings out now that will probably be expanded later because the warnings are issued for a specific set of ice accumulation criteria and that could be increased later today. Do not assume if you are not in the warned counties that you will be OK, because those are just for the likely-to-be worst-hit counties. Ice can bring down trees and power lines at lower accumulations than what the warning is for. The models are not yet in complete agreement about how far out the wedge of cold air will spread, so if you are in northern GA you should expect the worst. In southern GA, you may see rain and potentially even a few severe storms on Sunday night ahead of the front.
While your focus should be on this weekend, we are also starting to watch next weekend for another winter storm event. This one is predicted to track farther south and so nearly all of the state could see some snow when you wake up next week Saturday morning. Too far out to worry, let’s get through this one first, but something to keep an eye on.
Other news about the UGA Weather Net (Midville Weather Station is included) This is just a note to say that the rain gauges and wind vanes on UGA Weather Network stations are not heated, so when ice builds up, they are going to start reporting “Zero” amounts until the ice melts. There is nothing we can do about it and we can’t afford to put heaters on them because of the battery needs (plus the heat would evaporate the precipitation). If they don’t come back after the ice melts, then the cables may have been dislodged by the ice and wind so you are welcome to let us know then if they need some attention.
In preparation for the next storm, you can also note that we do not have snow depth measuring devices because we get snow so rarely, so if you are CoCoRaHS observers, please take your snow measurements and enter them into the database to help out the NWS folks prepare their final snow maps.”
As always, please let us know if you have questions.