Potential Winter Storm to impact the Southeast including Metro Atlanta this weekend

Over the weekend, long-range weather models locked in on a potential winter weather system that would develop across the Southeast this coming weekend, January 24 through 25.

Usually, one weather model (the GFS) over-enhances the amount of snowfall or wintry mix, while the other is more subdued with how much and what kind of precipitation (the ECMWF, known as “the Euro model”).

However, I monitored both models pick up on a winter storm for this coming weekend as early as Sunday afternoon, and there is a reason to take notice while it is still 5 days away:

Both models are very consistent with each other for this storm (usually they disagree in timing, geography, and what type/amount of precipitation)
Both models are consistent within themselves run after run, on the daily since Sunday (the images they are producing are very similar with respect to what type of precipitation at different geographical locations are occurring, with a similar time frame)

What We Know As of Tuesday

Remember: Predicting winter storms beyond day 5 has its limitations. At this point, it’s too soon to know exactly when, where, what type of precipitation, and how much will accumulate at this point.

Timeline for Winter Weather Forecasting Timeline for when you can expect details in a winter weather forecast. Anything beyond 5 days is considered "wishcasting", though we can reliably spot the patterns as far as 9 days out.

But we do know the following:

*Some* snow showers are possible for the Metro Atlanta area, but the best area to see snow would be north of Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona, to the Tennessee state line and into the North Georgia Mountains
The set up favors freezing rain, which would pose a hazard for driving as well as potentially create wide swaths of power outages, as freezing rain (ice) accumulates on tree branches and powerlines, pulling them down and knocking out power

Freezing rain would be the most impactful winter weather scenario, and it would be prudent to gather supplies that would be beneficial in the event the power goes out this weekend.