The long-anticipated arctic front blanketing much of the U.S. finally arrived Friday, bringing bitterly cold temperatures to South Georgia.
“Thankfully, there were not any accidents due to ice being on the roadways,” Ware County Emergency Managament Agency Director Jonathan Daniell said early Monday morning (December 26). “The low in the area was around 19 degrees, but that varies by the area. The rural areas probably saw some lower temperatures. This is the coldest span over several consecutive days that I ever remember.
“We would have to go back to 2018 when it snowed to come close to beating this. It was cold for a few days then, but this has been stretched out for almost a week.”
The Ware County Fire Department had no reports of any fires due to Chimneys.
“It was a quiet weekend,” said Ware County Fire Captain Brian Varnadore. “The only issues we had with chimneys was a big, fat man climbing up and down them.”
The temperature began falling Friday afternoon. Saturday and Sunday residents woke up to sub-25 degree temps with the windchill in the teens.
The effects of the bone-chilling blast was enhanced by brutal winds.
Georgia Power’s outage map showed hundreds of small outages scattered across the state. Georgia EMC’s showed the same.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced a state of emergency Thursday loosening restrictions on propane carriers and allowed state parks to open warming centers for those who may lose power or motorists stranded in the cold.
The temperature is expected to start climbing following this morning’s (Wednesday, December 28) low of 26 into the 60s and possible 70s by the weekend.
“The low Wednesday could change,” said Daniell of the predicted cold. “We’ll move out of this cold spell and start to move into the 60s and 70s by the end of the week and warm back up.”
