The Great Atlanta Blizzard hit in January 1940 (January 23rd) over a half foot of snow (over 8" fell in many areas including the city of Atlanta). Some areas had closer to a foot of snow. January 30th, 1936 6" of snow fell in Atlanta. January 10th, 1982 saw a record low of -2F. January 11, 1982 saw an even colder record low of -5F. With significant cold arctic air and a lot of moisture combined it set the stage for a major snow storm. Heavy SNOW started falling just before rush hour on Tuesday, January 12th, 1982. 4" of snow fell in the city of Atlanta but more fell across the suburbs and mountains. On January 18th, 1992 over 4" of snow fell across North Georgia and Metro Atlanta. The Super Bowl ice storm brought horrible weather to Georgia at one of the worst times. The storm first took place on January 22, 2000, a week before Super Bowl 34 at the Georgia Dome. It left half a million people without power in North Georgia, some for more than a week. The storm then returned on January 28 during Super Bowl weekend. Although the game itself wasn’t necessarily affected, there were hundreds of wrecks in metro Atlanta including a 47-car wreck on I-20 westbound. North Georgia had an estimated $48 million of total losses. On January 2nd and 3rd 2002 a major winter storm hit Georgia even parts of central and south Georgia had snow. Hartsfield Jackson International Airport had 4.6" of snow some areas had over 6" of snow. Atlanta's 24 hour total was 4.2". On January 9th and 10th 2011 much of Georgia had a significant snow storm. An upper level disturbance tracked across the northern Gulf of Mexico, drawing abundant moisture into the Southeastern U.S. As mid-level rain and snow fell into the cold surface air, it evaporated and caused the surface temperatures to cool even further. By late Sunday evening, the precipitation reached the surface, appearing as a mix of rain, sleet and snow across central Georgia, with accumulations of up to two inches. In north Georgia, where the cold air was deeper, precipitation fell in the form of mostly snow with some sleet. Atlanta had 3.7" of snow. Between 10 p.m. and midnight on Sunday, an area of intense snow developed along and just north of the I-20 corridor, contributing to a narrow band of 6”-8.5”total snowfall amounts in Eastern Georgia. To the north of I-20, the airmass was sufficiently cold and moist to produce widespread snowfall amounts greater than 6”. In the northernmost counties of Georgia, and especially at higher elevations, snowfall amounts of 8” to 10” were common. The heavier snow and sleet accumulations began tapering off by mid-day Monday (January 10), but temperatures hovered at or below freezing throughout the day. Persistent freezing drizzle and light freezing rain across much of central and northern Georgia on Monday helped extend the winter event into the afternoon. Reports of ice accumulations from 0.1” to 0.5” were received on Monday – mainly across central Georgia. On January 28th, 2014 with yet another snow storm hit in Georgia. The city of Atlanta only received 2.6 inches of snow, cars were stranded on all three highways for up to a day. Over a million people were jammed on the major highways in Atlanta primarily because everyone in the city was attempting to head home out of the snow at the exact same time. Ninety-nine school buses from Fulton County schools were stuck in the traffic until midnight while 2,000 students were forced to spend the night at school. Hundreds of people were forced to abandon their cars on the interstate and seek shelter in nearby stores such as Kroger, Home Depot and CVS. Douglas, Fulton, Cobb, Dekalb, Carroll, Paulding, Cherokee, Gordon, Polk Clayton and Coweta counties were hard hit. Some of the snow melted initially and then froze solid.
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