Why wasn’t the ice storm in Macon worse? Here’s the answer from NWS

Macon residents scoured stores for winter storm essentials and hunkered down as an impending ice storm was on the way last weekend, but soon enough, it passed over. Only rain made its way to Macon, but why?

Why wasn’t the ice storm worse in Macon?

Rain, temperatures and an odd system: it is actually all three of these ingredients that made the ice storm impacts pretty minimal in Macon.

“We actually weren’t anticipating major impacts of freezing rain or sleet in Macon,” said Meredith Wyatt, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “Northwestern Georgia had a higher chance of ice accumulation and in turn, it also had extensive power outages and hazardous road conditions.”

Wyatt also noted the higher temperatures in Macon and the impact of the system that was on its way.

“It was a tricky system that we were working with,” she explained. “There was an overlap of temperatures and with moisture in which cold air gets trapped, either causing a wintry mix or rain precipitation.”

Thankfully, Macon only got rain. However, if Macon got freezing rain, it would have had the chance to re-freeze and if that occurred, residents would be looking at power outages and extremely dangerous roads like in other areas of the state.

Looking ahead to this weekend, only cold temperatures are expected, with lows feeling like teens and highs barely reaching 30 degrees.

Chelsea Madden

The Telegraph

Chelsea is a service journalism reporter who began working for McClatchy in 2022. She was born and raised in Middle Georgia and lives in Forsyth. She attended Wesleyan College for undergrad and a few years after that, went to SCAD for an MFA in writing. Outside of work, Chelsea likes to watch Netflix, read books in the thriller genre and chase her toddler around.