Snow, Ice to Bypass Franklin, Hart, Counties, Just Rain

North Georgia is bracing for a winter weather event today, but Franklin and Hart Counties will not see the wintry mix predicted for other parts of the State.

The Winter Weather Watch was downgraded Sunday afternoon to a Winter Weather Advisory and then cancelled altogether overnight for extreme Northeast Georgia.

Meteorologist Neil Dixon with the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg says temperatures in our area are not expected to get low enough to cause any icing or snow.

However, he said Stephens County may see some icing later today.

“For extreme Northeast Georgia, especially Franklin, Hart and Elbert counties, the precip appears to going to fall as mainly a cold rain,” Dixon said. When you get to Stephens County, you’ll see a little bit of sleet mid-day as the precip onset occurs. Then that will change over to a cold rain for the afternoon hours. Overall, Northeast Georgia is going to avoid the extreme winter precip for the most part.”

Dixon said Stephens County can expect about a tenth of an inch of icing or glazing in the middle part of the county and about fifteen-hundredths of an inch in the northern part.

According to Dixon, most of the freezing rain, sleet and snow will in the higher elevations of Georgia, the Upstate and Western North Carolina.

“Right now we have a forecast for steady temperatures throughout the night,” Dixon said. “Temperatures are going to be in the mid-30’s. That should prevent from any black icing to occur. It should just be wet roadways.”

But Franklin, Hart and Elbert along with Banks counties can expect only rain today.

What about overnight tonight? Dixon said don’t expect much, if any, icing on Franklin or Hart County roads during the night either.