ATLANTA — When snow and ice hit Georgia, we’re much better prepared now, compared to Snowmaggedon in 2014.
Severe Weather Team 2 Chief Meteorologist Brad Nitz looked into the changes made to try to prevent that nightmare from ever happening again.
Almost everyone in metro Atlanta during Snowmaggedon has a story about getting stuck in traffic for hours or having to camp out in a store overnight.
But now state and local agencies are using new technology, better equipment and deploying crews more efficiently.
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“We have been stuck for almost 24 hours,” a woman said in a Channel 2 Action News story during the snowstorm in January 2014.
Thousands of Georgians were stranded on icy roads for 24 hours or longer on January 24, 2014.
“We tried to chase a number of incidents, including like a stranded school bus, and we could never get anywhere because the roads were clogged, the snow was coming down,” said former Channel 2 reporter Ross Cavitt, who is now Cobb County’s communications director.
But today, Cobb County and Georgia are much better prepared to handle snow and ice.
“We went from four vehicles to 14 vehicles to handle the snow. We do pre-treat now. We never did that before,” said Cavitt.
Cobb County holds an annual winter weather exercise where crews make sure the tracks and plows are ready to hit the road.
In addition to a new salt barn, Cobb also uses technology to get the job done more efficiently.
“When the crews are actually out treating after they pre-treat and an event has started, we have digitized those routes,” said Drew Raessler, Cobb County Department of Transportation Director.
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Local department of transportations pre-treat and clear surface streets.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) handles nearly 50,000 lane miles of interstate and state routes across Georgia.
“I can push out 11,000 gallons an hour out of one of these machines,” said a GDOT employee.
The machines bought five years ago mix the salt and water to make brine.
“We can dial in the correct salinity we need for that brine to make sure we’re getting efficient batches,” said GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale.
Currently the state has more than 1.6 million gallons of brine stored in tanks. That is compared to just over 70,000 gallons in 2014.
Now if ice forms on bridges, overpasses or roads crews can add what they call a steroid to the brine.
“Calcium chloride is going to be that chemical additive that can sort of melt that ice quickly,” said Dale.
In the two years after Snowmaggedon, GDOT began using 57 road weather information sensors to figure out the best way to respond.
“It can tell us subsurface temperature, surface temperature, air temperature. It can tell us what precipitation is coming down,” said Dale.
GDOT also got innovative about adding snowplows and pre-treatment equipment that can be added to existing trucks, saving money.
“A foreman’s pickup truck can very easily be fitted with a plow blade to the front or a spreader on the back,” said Dale.
Communication and planning are now better after the hiring of a state meteorologist.
Will Lanxton makes sure all state, local, and federal agencies are using the same forecast from the National Weather Service.
“The fact that we’re all working off the same sheet of music makes it run a lot smoother,” said Lanxton.
A snowstorm eerily similar to Snowmaggedon put all of Georgia’s planning and preparation to the test in January 2025.
There were a few wrecks on bridges that froze.
“Those were few and far between as opposed to 2014 where it was just mass chaos all across the city,” said Lanxton.
One key factor contributing to Snowmaggedon was businesses and schools closing at the same time creating a traffic nightmare.
But after COVID-19, schools are now more likely to close because they have a virtual option.
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