Dodging the Bullet (This Time)

The weather forecast was dire for the East Coast.  A big storm was on the way and lots of states were going to get slammed.  In Atlanta, rain was forecast to change to snow on Friday afternoon.  Our city, having learned its lesson in 2014, prepared by early school closure of schools and work places.  It didn't sound like anything too bad was expected here, but there could be ice on the roads Friday night and everyone wanted to home in case that happened and things were worse than predicted.

Before I left work, we heard that conditions were already deteriorating in North Georgia.  I stopped at the grocery store on the way home Friday afternoon.  The store was crowded for early afternoon; I think everyone was making sure they were set for the weekend, just in case. 

As predicted, it was really bad to the north of us.  Ice and snow slammed Tennessee and North Carolina, a storm surge hit New Jersey, and Washington and New York City got two or three feet of snow and were pretty well shut down. In Atlanta, nothing much happened.  Saturday morning, we had a dusting of snow and some continued light flurries, but the roads at least in my neighborhood were clear, dry, and free of ice.

Here's what it looked like:

There was some snow art on a car's back window:

And at Morningside Presbyterian, the kids with the sleds had already come and gone by the time I came by.

We were lucky, but many other cities and towns to the north of us are still digging out, or drying out. I haven't heard a lot of complaining about the cautious approach the city took.  No one wants to be the person responsible for school children spending the night on a school bus stuck on I-285 (again). 

But it's only January -- there's still time for some winter weather.