Winter Weather Not Quite Finished

After days of winter weather that covered Franklin, Hart, and the surrounding counties with some five inches of snow and ice, Thursday has been gorgeous.  According to Bryan McAvoy with the National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg Office, the sun and temperatures in the mid 40’s has caused a lot of the slick stuff to melt.  McAvoy says even though it will be cloudy most of Friday afternoon,  Northeast Georgia and Upstate South Carolina will continue to see improvements since the air temperature will be in the 40’s again.  However, McAvoy does caution against freezing conditions for tonight.

McAvoy said, “There’s still plenty out there, and the thinking is that as we fall below freezing tonight, we should fall down into the mid to upper 20’s.  And that will cause areas of water to refreeze creating what we call black ice.  There will certainly be some slick spots around tomorrow morning. “

Despite the improving conditions, several school systems have elected to call off classes for Friday.  The list so far includes Banks, Elbert, Franklin, Habersham, Hart, and Stephens Counties.  Madison County will be off for a previously scheduled winter break day on Friday.  Emmanuel College and Athens Technical College will be also be closed on Friday.  Toccoa Falls College will be hold  classes.   

And the winter weather has prompted another postponement of the 8-AAA Region Basketball Tournaments.  Both the Franklin County Lions and Lady Lions were slated to play their make up games on Friday.  The Lions will face off with Oconee County Saturday afternoon at 4:30pm at the host site, Morgan County.  The Lady Lions will play East Jackson at home Saturday night at 7:30.     You can view a complete listing of the closings, cancellations, and delays on our website, www.921wlhr.com.  And our coverage is being made possible by Skelton-Morris Associates, with offices in Hartwell, Toccoa, and now Lavonia.  Insurance since 1912.