North Georgia Weather Highlights (December 8-15, 2024)

Weather Highlights (December 8-15, 2024) for North Georgia

• Wet pattern through early Wednesday (multi-day rain event)

• Strong cold mid-week with possible light snow in GA mountains

• Warming trend late next weekend

North Georgia Forecast Discussion for North Georgia

North Georgia has experienced one of the coldest starts to December in quite some time. The overall pattern has generally supported dry and cold weather but little support for any low pressure system development near the Gulf of Mexico that would favor wintry precipitation. Aside from the possibility that a brief rain-to-snow transition occurs around mid-week (probably confined to the mountains and far northern Georgia), the wintry weather prospects currently remain low.

1. Wet pattern through early Wednesday (multi-day rain event)

As an eastern U.S. trough moves offshore this weekend, a shortwave has moved eastward from the Four Corners into the Southern Plains. As this wave moves into the Mississippi River Valley tonight, deep-layer southwesterly flow will become established across North Georgia by tomorrow (Monday). A large-scale trough dropping in the Rockies early this week will re-enforce this southwesterly flow through mid-week. Such a pattern favors higher rain chances, more humidity from the eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, and an increase in temperatures. On Monday, there won’t be enough time to fully erode the chilly air before the first batch of rain moves through North Georgia, but conditions will progressively become more humid and a tad warmer with time up until mid-week. I expect several rounds of rain to move through North Georgia, with most of the area getting at least 1-2 inches of rain. Some places will easily exceed the 2-inch threshold, but given recent dryness, this will mostly be beneficial rain. With that said, the Weather Prediction Center has placed a Level 1-2 flood risk for Tuesday-Wednesday across the entire forecast area, minus far northwest Georgia, for the potential that there could be some instances of scattered flooding.

Potential hazards: Wet roads, scattered flooding

2. Strong cold mid-week with possible light snow in GA mountains

The large-scale trough over the Rockies will dig into the Southern Plains, Mississippi Valley, and then into the Southeast mid-week. This feature, along with an embedded shortwave, will trigger the development of a surface low across the Mid-Atlantic. Unfortunately for snow-lovers in North Georgia, the bulk of the precipitation will be gone before colder, drier, air funnels into the forecast area. A strong cold front associated with the low will pass across North Georgia on Wednesday. Briefly, there could be a transition to light snow in the mountains and far northern Georgia on Wednesday, but right now that’s a low-end possibility. The big story will be the drastic drop in temperatures. Several days of highs in the 40s (30s in the mountains) and a few nights of hard-freezes will occur. But no precipitation with the cold.

Potential hazards: Quite cold but nothing record-breaking

3. Warming trend late next weekend

Looking into the long-range, the potential exists for there to be a pattern change favoring above average temperatures across much of the United States around mid-December. An extension and poleward shift of the Pacific jet stream could allow warmer, Pacific air to infiltrate the U.S. But there remain many questions as to how long this warmer pattern will persist. I’ll continue to do research this week to start getting a better handle on what the weather should look like around Christmas.