A powerful March snowstorm blanketed much of Alabama and then marched across Georgia on Sunday, forcing some flight cancellations in Atlanta as the East Coast braced for a potential pummeling.
Peachtree Ave., midtown Atlanta on Sunday afternoon, Mar. 1, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)
The weather service said winter storm warnings are in effect from northern Georgia and the Carolinas through the Mid-Atlantic states into New England.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways canceled some Sunday flights and a Federal Aviation Administration Web site said flights to
Atlanta were experiencing average delays of nearly two hours.
AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson said flights out of Atlanta into the Northeast may also be canceled Sunday night as the messy, developing storm took aim at walloping at wide swath of the East Coast up through Maine.
"I expect the Northeast will be hit pretty hard tonight so our expectations is that people flying into Washington, D.C., and Boston will need to call or check our Web site for possible cancellations," Hutcheson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Delta spokesman Brian Kruse said the airline is monitoring the weather and asking customers flying to, from or through Atlanta to call Delta or check its Web site for updates.
Georgia Tech students A.D. Barfield, Lily Manavi, and Candace Farr discuss the merits of their snowman. (Photo: Dave Bender)
Despite above-freezing temperatures, a heavy flurry of snow fell on downtown Atlanta, blanketing cars and creating slushy streets and sidewalks. It hadn't snowed in Atlanta for more than a year — the area received 1.4 inches of snow in January 2008, said Laura Griffith of the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Ga.
I-75/85 connector, near 14th St. bridge construction. (Photo: Dave Bender)Georgia transportation officials warned of potential icy conditions on roadways in middle and northern counties through Monday morning. No icing on roadways, bridges or other overpasses had been reported through midday Sunday, but as temperatures drop Sunday night, officials warn motorists that ice could be a threat.
Outside the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Flori Kwon of Claremont, Calif. took pictures of her son Jake, 5, playing in the snow.
"He wants to make a snowman but I don't think there's enough snow," Kwon said while large snowflakes landed in her hair. "We're kind of surprised it's snowing."
The late Southern snowfall brought back memories of a large storm in 1993 that forecasters nicknamed the "Snowfall of the Century," affecting the region from Alabama to north of Washington, D.C. on March 13, 1993, Griffith said. In that storm, Atlanta received 4.2 inches of snow and 13 inches of snow fell on Birmingham, Ala.
Pedestrians and snowmen at an overpass in midtown Atlanta. (Photo: Dave Bender)Meanwhile, tornado watches were in effect from northern Florida into coastal Georgia and southern South Carolina.
Crossing Peachtree Ave., in midtown Atlanta, as the snow blows around. (Photo: Dave Bender)
Despite above-freezing temperatures in downtown Atlanta, a heavy curtain of snow fell on cars and caused traffic accidents on slushy streets. The unusual weather prompted 26-year-old Jessi Prahl and Max DiPace to take their dog, Cooper, on a walk through snow-covered Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Says Prahl: "You know us Southerners, we all freak out when it snows."
(AP)
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