"Atlanta doesn't have a REAL winter ..." (Cleveland, Blue Ridge: sales, insurance)

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by atl85

I'm a native and take the position that Atlanta does not have real winters.

Thanks for the note of sanity, atl85.

I returned to Atlanta on Saturday after 3 weeks in Canada's banana belt (southern BC coast). It was amazing to step out of Hartsfield-Jackson at 11pm into such balmy temperatures.

In northern places, even southern BC, it typically gets cold in the fall and stays cold for months, until spring. Temperatures didn't dip below freezing where I was, but it's chilly and often rainy every day. People dress in a couple of layers (e.g. shirt and sweater) for indoor wear every single day, for months on end.

Yes, we get some cold days in the Atlanta area. This is certainly not Florida, climate-wise! But the winters here are mild, and broken up by warmer days with temperatures rising into the 60s. A few cold days does not make a northern style winter! I can't believe how some southerners are so impressed by the fact that Atlanta actually sees some cold weather on a regular basis, that they keep arguing our winters are comparable with NYC etc.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

Thanks for the note of sanity, atl85.

+1

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

I can't believe how some southerners are so impressed by the fact that Atlanta actually sees some cold weather on a regular basis, that they keep arguing our winters are comparable with NYC etc.

Yeah, this isn't politics or something where you can have a difference of opinion. I can only guess that the folks who want Atlanta to have a "real" winter have never experienced a "real" winter.

[hal2814]

Atlanta gets cold sometimes but it doesn't get a real winter. I have some in-laws in Indiana. They get a real winter. To them, snow isn't this thing that stops by for a few days. It's something that sets in and doesn't leave until darn near spring (and sometimes after). That's not a lower-appendage-waving statement. It's just a fact of life.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by atl85

I'm a native and take the position that Atlanta does not have real winters. Our coldest average high temperature is still in the 50's and the average low temperature doesn't even get to freezing even in January. I read yesterday that we get an average of 3 days with snow per year. That's nothing compared to most cities to our north. We do have days that are only in the 20s and nights in the teens, but those are exceptionally rare and will never ever last more than a day.

A voice of reason

Originally Posted by neil0311

+1



Yeah, this isn't politics or something where you can have a difference of opinion. I can only guess that the folks who want Atlanta to have a "real" winter have never experienced a "real" winter.

I agree with this. If anything it is a compliment to Atlanta to not have "real winters." It is the main reason why I moved here from Ohio and the main reason why I stay even though I don't like Atlanta that much. I despise snow. It is nice sometimes, like that one week earlier this year. But I remember snow growing up from Jan-Apr, sometimes from Nov-Apri, very consistent. Somtimes snow lasted until May. That does not happen AT ALL in Atlanta so to me Atlanta does not have a "real" winter. I think we have 2 seasons here - hot (summer, part of spring) and mild (autumn, winter, other part of spring).

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Just gotta shake your head and laugh at C-D comments like that when the weather forecast is what it is here in Georgia for the next couple of days ... and the high in NYC today was 70!

Snow flurries... Oooo! Are you gonna make a bread and milk run?

Hint: Compare environments during the actual winter months, not during the fall.

The environment in Atlanta in the wintertime is a far cry from what I'm used to as a Minnesota native. There's a rather large difference between a few days in the teens here in Atlanta and 14-day stretches in the Twin Cities where the temperature never gets above 0 F. Not 32F. Zero F.

That said, there are enough elements of winter in Atlanta to reset my yearly seasonal clock, so I will accept Atlanta as having winter-like weather on occasion, and I hardly see the upcoming forecast as being winterlike. And the NYC thing ... even northern cities can see 60's and 70's in the late fall on rare occasions...

I will also say that while Atlanta might not have a "winter" by northern standards, there are elements of the weather here that demand respect. Don't laugh at the ice storms here. Yes, melting agent would solve the issue (and I still don't understand the lack down here), but without it, driving becomes a lot less friendly than one typically sees in a northern state. Freeze/thaw cycles result in glare ice renewal every day, which makes shaded hills a lot of fun!

[researchnerd]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

I will also say that while Atlanta might not have a "winter" by northern standards, there are elements of the weather here that demand respect. Don't laugh at the ice storms here.

I'm from Boston and concur that Atlanta doesn't get a real winter - which is part of why I'm still here, sixteen years after moving south. The panic induced by a few snowflakes still makes me giggle. However, the ice storms here scare the hell out of me. I'm really good at driving in the snow (it's kinda fun once you get used to it), but driving on unsalted, unsanded ice is a whole different story. The people who think 4WD makes them bulletproof always end up spinning out and making things even less safe for the rest of us. If you have to drive on bare ice, go slow and PLEASE stay off the brakes.

[GRS86]

Atlanta is basically a three season climate, with some teases of winter, maybe a good solid 2 -3 weeks worth of winter. The thing I like about Atlanta winters is that it never stays cold for more than a few days at a time. Even though today's high is only 39, the daytime highs will be back in the low 60's by the weekend. Last winter was a complete anomaly. I remember being back in the Detroit Metro early in my career and experiencing 20 - 30 consecutive days of sub-freezing temps. I mean where the high temperature never made it above freezing, especially in January and February. Never experienced that here in Atlanta, much less as a kid growing up in South GA.

[atl85]

I wouldn't even say that Atlanta has 2-3 weeks of "real" winter. We just do not have 2-3 consecutive weeks where the temperature stays low enough to qualify us as being in "definite" winter. I think a lot of transplants think they have moved far enough south to be shielded from snow and cold weather altogether. That's just not true! RainyRainyDay said it best, "this isn't Florida." People also forget that we are in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains which contributes to making us colder than much of the rest of the Deep South.

[Stars&StripesForever]

First of all, Atlanta has a real winter. The typical winter temperature is only about ten degrees colder than that found in NYC.

Second, places like Indiana and Ohio, contrary to what some have alleged, do not have snow on the ground continuously throughout the winter. Such talk is not truthful. It's more like snowstorms, in which some melt within a day or two, others hang around a week or so, but it eventually melts only to reveal bare ground that may be exposed for a week or two until the next snow storm. What some people are talking about sounds more like Minnesota, the Dakotas, Michigan from Grand Rapids northward, or western New York and upper New England. It is not NYC. It is not Ohio (outside of the lake effect snow bands of eastern Cleveland). It is not Indiana. It's not even Pennsylvania or southern New England.

Third, the average high temperature for the coldest month in metro Atlanta (January) is in the mid to upper 40s in pretty much all of metro Atlanta besides the actual city and a few suburbs on the city's east and south southeast sides.

Fourth, the so-called "70s" of late February is about as rare as the temperatures in the low teens are. Twenties and low thirties is typical of metro Atlanta lows, and while the teens do occur on occasion, they're no less likely to happen as the seventies are, which is not often.

Metro Atlanta, and many other southern locations, get little snow. While this is true, it has little to do with us "not being cold", and everything to do with the timing of precipitation in the region, effected by the jet stream and pressure systems, unique to our area during the winter, which tends to result in precipitation forming during warmer weather days or hours, as opposed to colder temperature days and hours. If Atlanta received precipitation on colder days as often as it is received in so-called "colder" (albeit, slightly colder) areas, we'd see far more snow.

The truth is that metro Atlanta really receives cool, not mild winters. Yes, we do have some mild days, but most of the hours of a winter day or night ranges from cool to cold, not mild. I suppose in contrast to Minnesota or the Great Plains we are "mild", but definitely not places such as NYC, Washington D.C., or Indiana and Ohio, which some like to make out as much colder places. Northern Georgia is fairly cold for a location in the "Deep South", or even the south in general.

[Newsboy]

Thank you Stars&StripesForever for providing a voice of reason in the OPPOSITE direction! Just like Atlanta, NYC does NOT have snow on the ground from Dec.-March but instead sees periods of frozen precept (with a lot of cold rain in between) broken by periods of relatively mild temps that can reach into the 50s and 60s! Yet NOBODY on this forum would dare say that NYC doesn't have a "real" winter! It's the double-standard that ticks me off ... people move here from up north and declare OUR winters aren't "real" because they aren't like the WORST winter weather they get back home! And either way, good luck trying to convince anybody from Florida that Atlanta does not have winter! Yes, we have a winter! END OF STORY!