Peachtree City (ATL) discussion
Arctic high pressure will settle southeastward by midweek, leading
to a long duration of below
normal temperatures through the extended
forecast period. Initial dry conditions will persist from Wednesday
into Thursday with the cold airmass being reinforced from Wednesday
night into Thursday morning. This will be the coldest morning of the
week with low temperatures
likely dipping into at least the upper
teens across a good chunk of north Georgia with low 20s elsewhere.
Highs Wednesday into Thursday will range from mid-to-upper 30s north
to around 50 in the far southern tier.
The most interesting time period to
watch for the local area remains
Friday into early Saturday, which continues to be the focus of
long term forecast efforts. Broad model consensus remains
regarding the formation of a surface low along the northern Gulf
coast by Thursday as a
cutoff upper low lifts out of the Southwest
into the Plains. With the lingering cold airmass in place, some
level of frozen precipitation
likely remains on the docket for at
least portions of the area as
moisture spreads northward ahead of
the Gulf low. Details, however, still remain elusive at this point
as we are still several days removed from this event. Ptype at
onset and throughout the event remains a big question as some
degree of warm air
advection could lead to a mixed bag of
precipitation. For now, the ptype forecast was limited only to
rain and snow given lack of clarity regarding atmospheric profile
details at this time. Probabilities for impactful wintry
precipitation obviously remain highest across north Georgia, where
ensemble probabilities of at least an inch of snow remain as high
as 50-70% across the far northern counties tapering lower toward
the I-20 corridor and
nil for areas to the south. Continue to
check for additional forecast details over the coming days as
clarity regarding this system increases.
By Saturday, any impactful precipitation will come to an end as the
low lifts northeast and the upper
trough axis shifts eastward.
Despite a return to dry weather thereafter, temperatures through the
weekend will remain below
normal with subfreezing lows and highs
largely in the 40s.
