Atlanta Weather: Snow Piles Up Across Metro Atlanta

Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Regan sent video to wsbtv.com that showed traffic at Spaghetti Junction, the intersection of Interstates 285 and 85, at a standstill.

"It's been about 15 mph for the last 15 miles on 285," Regan reported.

The traffic map at wsbtv.com/traffic was a mass of red, showing problems and delays all over the area.

Schools all over metro Atlanta released students early, giving them a chance to get home before the snow turned roads dangerous.

The 2-4 inches of snow that fell could cause even bigger problems on the roads Saturday morning.

"The temperatures are going to get colder and colder and colder and that's going to present some serious problems by morning," said Severe Weather Team 2 chief meteorologist Glenn Burns. "The morning lows are going to be in the middle 20s, so whatever falls on the roads tonight and melts is going to freeze hard and that's going to create some very dangerous driving conditions."

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The highs on Saturday will be in the 30s.

The snow is expected to continue falling until Friday night.

"It won't move out until 10 or 11 o'clock," said Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologist David Chandley.

Channel 2 Action News reporter Jodie Fleischer called wsbtv.com to report that snowing was piling in in DeKalb County at 2:45 p.m.

Snow was falling heavily in Cobb County at 4:15 p.m.

DOT crews were out trying to keep roads clear of ice and snow.

"They have scouts out checking for trouble spots," said Channel 2 Action News reporter Erin Coleman.

The DOT crews will be working 12 hours on and 12 hours off.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said city of Atlanta crews would also be out checking roads.

"We have begun spreading a mixture of sand and salt over all bridges and overpasses," Reed said in an email sent to Channel 2 Action News.

Reed added that the first priority was major streets such as Peachtree Street, Northside Drive, and Mitchell Street.

After a cold Saturday, more snow is forecast for north Georgia on Sunday.

In an unusual development, the forecast calls for heavier snow Friday south of the Atlanta area.

"The snow reaches all the way down to the Florida Panhandle," said Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologist Glenn Burns.

Airlines Cancel Flights

The snow coated areas from Texas to the Carolinas and grounding all but a few flights at the world's busiest airport.

The storm also put a treacherous glaze on highways ahead of the holiday weekend. A car plunged off an icy road into a pond outside Montgomery, Ala., killing two brothers ages 4 and 2, State Trooper Kevin Cook said. The boys' mother, who was driving, survived.

It was the South's turn to cope with winter after back-to-back blizzards in the past week dumped 3 feet of snow on the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast, where pockets of residents remained without power. Federal forecasters said every state but Hawaii had snow on the ground somewhere Friday, a freakishly rare occurrence.

Airlines scrapped 1,700 flights at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which sees 2,700 arrivals and departures on an average day, and hundreds more were halted at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which got more than a foot of snow from Thursday into Friday.

The cancelations quickly jammed up air traffic around the country.

"It's frustrating," said Russ Cereola, a New York salesman trying to fly home from Atlanta. "There's no snow on the ground yet, and they're canceling flights. Now I understand inbound stuff is probably canceled, but this is a little nuts."

Many places were seeing snow for the first time in a generation or longer, and some people weren't quite sure what to do.

"We don't even sell snow shovels. They'd have to go to the old-time coal shovels, which is the closest thing I have," said Todd Friddle, the manager at a Lowe's in the Charleston, S.C., suburb of Mount Pleasant.

Children in cities better known for stifling humidity took to throwing snowballs and building snowmen, while snow dusted the kudzu vines so prevalent in warm Southern climates.

In the Florida Panhandle town of Century, 44-year-old Steve Pace scraped some snow from the hood of his truck and formed a snowball to throw at his 6-year-old grandson, Kaleb. It only snowed for about 10 minutes before giving way to rain again, but it was enough.

"I've only ever seen snow on TV till now," Kaleb said, smiling.

For the first time in its 88-year history, Grandview Florist in the Panhandle community of Gonzalez had to reschedule Valentine's Day deliveries for winter weather. Owner Marie Pierce, 77, managed the chaos while creating arrangements from lilies and roses in the back of the rural shop.

"The schools and some businesses are closed, so we are sending our drivers to customers' homes instead," said Pierce, whose grandmother started the shop in 1923.

Rafael Williams, 8, was walking in the snow through a Jackson, Miss., neighborhood and posing for pictures.

"I love it. It's never been this way before since I've been alive," the 8-year-old said.

In northern Mobile County, Ala., a few miles from Mobile Bay, the storm dumped as much as 6 inches of snow in two hours, said Jeffrey Medlin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Mobile.

"There was a band that got focused on that area, and it just pummeled it," said Medlin. "If you get 6 inches plus, that's certainly record territory."

The southern Alabama city of Andalusia had recorded its largest snowfall since 1973 -- 2 inches as of Friday morning. The city of 8,800 near the Florida line was getting ready to close its streets because of snow, which no one could remember happening before, said city building inspector Micah Blair.

Lawyer Clay Benson, on his daily Starbucks run, said a lot of clients had understandably canceled appointments at his office in downtown Montgomery, Ala., though he thought the closing of state offices was overkill.

"People from up North laugh at us," he said. "We act like it's Armageddon coming down here when it snows."