Winter storm watch expands with concern for significant freezing rain, ice

Winter storm watch expands with concern for significant freezing rain, ice

WSBTV.com News Staff

Thu, January 22, 2026 at 11:17 AM UTC

2 min read

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Confidence is growing in the weekend winter storm threat for a mix of freezing rain, ice, snow and sleet to north Georgia.

A winter storm watch expanded slightly overnight to include a few north metro counties. An expansion of the watch is likely for more metro Atlanta counties later today. The primary concern within the watch area is for the potential for significant icing.

This is an evolving weather situation. Severe Weather Team 2 is going over the updating models and timing LIVE on Channel 2 Action News from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

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Here’s the latest on the winter storm threat.

TIMING

The winter weather system will be a high-impact, long-duration system that will affect a lot of the country. It will start to the west of us Friday night into Saturday, going over parts of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

The timeline for Georgia will be Saturday into Sunday for precipitation, but some impacts will linger into Monday.

WINTER STORM WATCH

A winter storm watch will be in effect starting Friday night until Monday morning for the following counties in north Georgia:

Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Dade, Dawson, Elbert, Fannin, Franklin, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gordon, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Murray, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, Walker, White, Whitfield and Wilkes

It also includes Clay County, North Carolina in the Channel 2 Action News viewing area.

[INTERACTIVE: StormTracker 2HD Radar]

PRECIPITATION IMPACTS

Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Ashley Kramlich says the primary concern is for the potential for significant icing.

This would lead to widespread power outages and dangerous travel conditions. These impacts could last for several days.

Starting on Saturday afternoon, freezing rain and sleet will begin for far north Georgia. This will become more widespread for the metro and our southern counties later in the evening.

The greatest impacts will be felt starting Saturday night through the day Sunday.

The most significant icing will occur where the strong wedge sets up.

ICE IMPACTS

The amount of freezing rain that does fall will make a difference when it comes to the impact level.

Freezing rain of a 1/4″ is enough ice to cause dangerous travel and isolated power outages. The damage is more localized.

Freezing rain of 1/2″ or greater would be major to catastrophic. Travel would become impossible and power outages would be more widespread in this situation.

Doubling the thickness of the ice can more than double the load on trees and powerlines. Higher ice amounts lead to greater and long lasting impacts.

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