Midtown Atlanta is shown from the 17th Street Bridge on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (Patrick Saunders/WABE)
This story was updated on Friday, Jan. 10 at 12:12 p.m.
After weeks of anticipation and planning, a winter storm hit Atlanta before sunrise on Friday, blanketing the city in snow and canceling school, flights and more.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum urged people to stay off the roads.
“What we are asking and what our mayor is asking us is to stay home,” he told WABE while out in Atlantic Station on Friday morning. “If you have the opportunity to stay home, enjoy time with your family, your friends, your favorite pet — you should do so.
Schierbaum said that drivers on the roads Friday create emergencies and make it harder for the city’s police, fire and public works departments to do their jobs. Numerous car accidents have occurred throughout the city.
“So let’s enjoy this beautiful day and snowfall on foot,” he said. “Let’s enjoy it as we walk around our city, but please stay home and not be in your vehicles.”
Vehicles move slowly on I-575 during a winter storm on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Kennesaw, Georgia. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Gov. Brian Kemp said that driving could get worse Friday afternoon.
“This morning the snow was beautiful, if you were driving on it, it probably seemed pretty easy to do,” he said at a press briefing. “That is changing as we speak with freezing rain, rain that may freeze, winds and other things coming in.”
A truck tows a car stuck in the road in Stone Mountain on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
The Atlanta Department of Transportation announced at 8 a.m. that a water main break in Buckhead has temporarily closed a stretch of Pharr Road.
The Georgia Department of Transportation started applying brine as a pre-treatment on Wednesday to 20,000 miles of roads from Macon to Tennessee on I-75, and Alabama to South Carolina on I-20, plus everything north of that line. They’re out plowing roads Friday to get lanes passable so they can retreat them ahead of more precipitation later in the day.
“We are 24/7 until this event subsides and everything’s safe, GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry said at a Friday press briefing. “Our main goal is trying to keep two lanes passable on the interstate first, then we try to catch the ramps and after we do that, we sort of get off onto the secondary state route highways.”
“It’s hard to keep up with Mother Nature, but we’re doing our best,” Kemp said.
Passengers evacuate plane on Atlanta airport runway
About 800 flights have been canceled and over 400 have been delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as of 10:45 a.m., according to FlightAware.
Passengers had to evacuate an airplane via emergency slides around 9 a.m. according to airport officials. Four passengers had minor injuries, with three being treated on the scene and one going to the hospital. The others were safely transported to a nearby concourse.
Nearly 2,500 people are without power in Georgia as of 10:45 a.m., according to poweroutage.us.
The view from the Home Park neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, around 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 10, 2024. (Patrick Saunders/WABE)
The National Weather Service in Atlanta warned of snow and ice accumulations that could result in dangerous or impossible travel conditions. NWS predicted that this storm system would bring 1 to 3 inches of snow across North Georgia — including metro Atlanta — with the highest amounts in the mountains.
Snowfall amounts expected as of the latest update from the National Weather Service around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (NWS)
In Atlanta, the morning snow may transition to sleet and freezing rain later in the day.
The impacts of the storm are expected to linger through Saturday as roads refreeze and winds become gusty. Temperatures are not expected to go above freezing in Atlanta until early Saturday morning.
