Potential exists for snowstorm for Atlanta and points north to Kentucky come Tuesday

While there is a lot of uncertainty, and my gut feeling tells me that this will be an Alabama/Mississippi event, there still exists a good possibility of an Atlanta snowstorm next week. Now, there will almost certainly be a storm, but the track is uncertain. Ironically, the most likely place to get hit hard is Kentucky, where they are still dealing with lots of ice and snow, and power could take two weeks to get restored.

Cold air is in place, but possibly not enough cold air to keep it all as snow. The snow pack currently goes down to about Knoxville, but also covers NW Mississippi, most of Arkansas, and NE Texas.

Keep you posted...

Ice and snow from Texas to Maine, but not for Atlanta

The "Ice Storm of 2009" is continuing, but it's a very tricky storm and varies wildly depending on where folks live. Just around the southern Tennessee border, the temperature went from 71 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to 37 in Jackson, Tennessee...about an hour's drive.

Yesterday there were winter storm warnings up from just north of Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border, to Caribou, Maine. The main icing was occurring from Tulsa and Jonesboro, Arkansas up through Lexington, Kentucky. Paducah, where Jim Cantore is stationed, is getting hit particularly hard.

The good news is that this should all be over in the Bluegrass/Midwest by about 1 PM today. That's a pretty long storm though...about 36 hours worth of freezing rain, sleet and snow!

For the Bluegrass, apparently the saving grace was that there was a huge ice storm in 2003, which broke all the smaller branches, which means there are less power outages now. However, in Danville & Berea, Kentucky, most of the power is out, and in Jessamine County, they are requesting water conservation because the water pumps are out.

In Atlanta it's been holding in the high 50's for about 48 hours, but it'll get cold tonight again, and get back to more normal weather after that. The ryegrass is not looking especially awesome because it has been so cold, but that and the pansies seem to be coming back nicely, at least for now.

In other news, as of yesterday it is only 4 weeks until Mardi Gras, and come Monday we can sign up for Keeneland reservations (for April 18).

Is Spring Finally Here?

So the Freeze Warning expired this morning at 9 AM, and it appears there was no harm, in fact it appears that our area escaped with a low reading at 6 AM of about 33. However, there is still Frost Advisories posted for Rabun County, as well as Brooks, Grady, Lowndes & Thomas, and areas around Tallahassee Florida for tonight. There are also frost advisories for areas around Richmond, Williamsburg & the Hampton Roads excluding Virginia Beach. Our forecast merely calls for lows of around 40, so we're going to go ahead and do our summer planting tonight. I'll have to be efficient, because usually it takes me the better part of a Saturday, however I'm going to Home Depot straight away after work, and getting to planting as soon as I get home. My wife will walk the dog. This year we're doing red begonias and impatiens again. Those should fair well in the drought, as well as with supplemental water from my rain barrel.

Are yo ready for the REAL cold?

Last night I did end up covering the plants to be on the safe side, and although it was windy and some of the plastic blew off, there were no ill effects. Tonight however there is a freeze warning in effect north of this line from 5 AM to 9 AM. If we get below 32, we'll break the record for April 16.

In addition, there is a Frost Advisory west of this line.

Finally, frost is expected as far south as Dixie County, Florida, which is on the Gulf west of Gainesville, Florida.

Today is also tax day, except for Fulton & DeKalb, and a few other counties in Georgia. That is because those areas are Federal Disaster areas due to last month's tornado.

Finally, tomorrow is the anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy. School there is cancelled for tomorrow.

Snow for metro Atlanta today

Not a lot of snow, but enough so they are issuing a statement not to be surprised if we see snow or sleet. This includes NW Georgia and most all of metro Atlanta. The snow & sleet is north and west of this line.

It's currently 49 but very windy, so it feels colder. For comparison, it's slightly warmer in Atlanta than Pittsburgh, but colder than Richmond.

AFTERNOON UDPATE: The Freeze Watch has been cancelled for tonight, however we could still see some patchy frost. I think to be on the safe side I am going to cover my hydrangeas and rose...it won't kill them, but the frost might. There has however been a freeze watch posted for tomorrow night north of this line which includes metro Atlanta, the mountains and Macon. There were a few snow flurries today, but no serious (or longterm) accumulation. It is definitely miserable out though and the temperature has only made it up to 51, which is about 20 or more degrees colder than it should be this time of year. Argh.

No spring quite yet!

A Freeze Watch has just been issued for late Monday night/Tuesday morning for Metro Atlanta, the place in the line of danger is west of this line, which may or may not include our house depending on whether you draw a line using roads (as in the Mapquest map), or draw a straight line from Thomaston to Kennesaw. Either way, most likely I will be covering my hyrdrangeas and roses tomorrow, and more probably Tuesday night just to be on the safe side.

In addition, my major spring planting was to be done on Saturday. However I did not do this, and instead sat around watching Masters, as I didn't want to risk the plants dying. Instead, I will do the planting on Wednesday night after work (and if we get lucky and the forecast changes, Tuesday night as well).

I watched a LOT of the Masters this weekend. It is such an awesome event in high definition. Apparently however, it is even more beautiful in real life. After I watch Live from the Masters tomorrow morning, I will probably lay off golf for a while, although there is the Verizon Heritage next weekend from Hilton Head, and that is always cool, especially since I've been there many times. Congrats to South African Trevor Immelman...he led basically the entire way and is the first South African to win in 30 years (since his idol Gary Player). Although conditions were windy, there was only a bit of rain, and they were able to get in the rounds each day basically on schedule.