That's right, we do have you covered from
the roads to the air to your home safety,
or Joe Henke will have details from
G dot on keeping the roads safe.
Bobeth Yates is going to share how to stay
warm inside without the threat of fire.
But let's get to the latest on this
deep freeze forecast with meteorologist
Nicole Hartford in for Chris tonight,
and that cold front now stands
only a few 100 miles away from us.
It's bringing snowfall across portions
of Arkansas into Missouri, now Kentucky.
We're starting to see that changeover from
a cold rain to a wintry mix and snowfall.
This is going to be arriving late tonight
and while it will bring the chance for some
cold rain and up into far North Georgia,
maybe some light snowfall,
it's really the temperatures that
are going to be the biggest impact.
We're currently sitting at a cool but
recently comfortable 45 degrees in Atlanta.
Look at all this cold air that's
making its way across the Midwest.
Right now we're down to 8 below 0 in
Omaha NE 2 degrees right Now in Wichita
and that cold Air just continues to push
across the continental US we are feeling.
This deep freeze across many locations
already and it won't be much longer
before we start to see those cold
temperatures in the Atlanta metro
area through the next few hours.
Honestly, through about midnight,
temperatures are not going to
change very much.
We'll stay in the mid to upper 40s.
I think the cold front will end up
arriving in Atlanta sometime around
2:00 or 3:00 o'clock in the morning
and that's when temperatures will
start to rapidly drop so that by the
time we're waking up tomorrow morning,
we're down into the teens.
What also comes with this is gusty winds.
I anticipate the strongest winds between
about midnight and 6:00 AM tomorrow
as that cold front moves through.
That's when we could see wind gusts
up to about 40 or even 50 mph,
and they won't improve much
throughout the day.
On Friday,
it stays windy with gusts up to 3040,
maybe even 50 mph even into Friday afternoon.
Because of that,
we have wind advisories in effect
across all of North Georgia and then
a high wind warning that has been
issued for a cluster of counties.
Been a far north Georgia.
This is where wind gusts could
get up to 50 mph.
This is also where it's more likely
that we will see power outages
associated with those gusty winds.
So power outages will be possible
everywhere as we see tree limbs and
power lines likely blowing around.
But these locations under the
high wind warning,
that's where it is more likely coming up.
We'll have your hour by hour forecast
with those temperatures for tomorrow,
as well as a look at a breakdown
of the rainfall.
And yeah,
maybe a little snowfall for
portions in North Georgia.
All right, Nicole,
we'll see you again soon. Thank you.
Right now, G dot crews are driving
every state highway and every state
Interstate for making all the way
up to the North Georgia border.
They are pretreating the roadways with
Brian to hopefully make sure you can
safely get around over the next few days.
Our Joe Hinkey is live in Forest Park
tonight where those G dot drivers
are filling up with thousands of
gallons of brine before heading
out onto the roads. Joe.
Well Jennifer, that's right.
This truck behind me here just actually
filled up each one of these blue tanks,
2600 gallons of brine and
each one of those and G dots.
Primary focus right now is to pre treat
all of the roadways and interstates as
you mentioned with a layer of Brian.
I'm told the reason they use Brian is because
they get an even coating with that liquid,
it can actually seep into the road salt
sometimes you won't get that even layer,
it'll bounce around and you
can still get ice in places.
This truck here is going to take
off in a second and put down that
layer and then they'll make even
another pass later tonight.
On Georgia's roadways tonight,
GDOT is busy spreading the brine inside
the blue tanks on the back of these trucks.
And this message weather advisory,
black ice,
possible use extreme caution
21 Brian tanks in here that
hold 10,000 gallons a tank.
So about 210,000 gallons of brine are
stored at this specific location.
Statewide, we have 1.8 million
gallons of brine at any time.
dot spokeswoman Natalie Dale walked us
through the Forest Park warehouse today
where brine for Metro Atlanta is stored.
It is. Just a fancy salt and water
mixture that we spray on the roads.
And what that salinity does once it
gets on the pavement is it lowers the
temperature at which ice will really
sort of bind and grip onto the road,
creating hard conditions.
Truck after truck pulled
up to the warehouse today,
where crews hooked up these hoses
and filled the blue tanks with brine,
a process taking about 15 minutes,
and then they headed back out onto the roads.
Gdot activated its full statewide staff,
nearly 2000 workers for this weather event,
including drivers from South Georgia.
On hand to help in the Atlanta
Metro and North Georgia in Total,
G dot is pretreating 21,000 lane miles.
That is every lane of all state
routes and interstates from Macon N
our crews don't do one lap around 285.
They have to do a lap for every lane.
So they have to get every lane on 285
sprayed, every lane on 75 sprayed.
So there's a lot of, a lot of ground,
no pun intended, that has to be covered.
No matter how much Brian G dot puts down,
though, they believe they're still
will be ice in places. I mean,
at these temperatures it's unavoidable.
So drivers are being asked to use extreme.
And unlike snow or other
types of winter precipitation,
you won't be able to see this ice.
And so that that's what makes this
a very dangerous travel situation.
Back out here live,
G dot is asking drivers to stay
off the roads tomorrow morning.
The worry is overnight rain and
then freezing conditions below
32 degrees before sunrise will
create ice on the roadways.
G dot that will have crews out
there at that time continuing to
treat the roads and keeping an eye
on the conditions to update people.
When it's safe to get back out there,
we'll send it back to you in studio.
Yeah, Joe, especially the side roads.
Can that get black ice pretty quick?
Like, thanks for that report
goes on the ground. We're also taking
a live look here in the skies.
This is Hartsfield Jackson.
Atlanta International Airport right now
you can see that overcast guys there,
but the plane down there on your
screen looks like it is moving.
Don't forget, if you are flying,
you sure to arrive 2 1/2 hours
early for domestic flights,
3 hours early for international flights.
Double check TSA rules for flying
with holiday items as well.
Remember to not wrap your gifts.
Don't forget to leave any
firearms you have at home.
The TSA will confiscate those tonight.
As the frigid temperatures
quickly approached,
there are concerns about how
to safely heat your home.
New numbers Tonight Show more than
900 folks have been killed in winter
fires this year across the country.
Our Bobeth Yates continues
our team coverage tonight.
Live tonight with tips from fire
officials on how to stay warm
and safe this holiday season.
Bobeth.
Well, from using an oven to a
fireplace to heat your home,
officials say there is a wrong
and a right way to stay warm.
And they say they want to make
sure you're using the right
way while the storm passes.
We know that folks are gonna be.
Extremely cold this coming weekend,
so we want them to be warm,
but we want them to be warm the right way,
Lieutenant Jackson with the city of
South Fulton says as residents brace
for the Arctic blast, it's important
to stay safe while warming up.
We know that during the winter months,
there tends to be alternative methods
of heating your home that people will
unfortunately display or carry out.
So using your oven to try to heat your
home or using candles in an improper
way. Jackson says candles should
be supervised at all times,
and using an oven to heat up your
home could overheat a person's
body or even cause burns.
And he also has a warning for
those using space heaters.
We know that space heaters need space,
so you want to give your space heater
at least three feet around just to
make sure that no one trips over it,
no one falls over it, no animals or children.
Jackson adds it's important to
keep items that can catch fire
easily away from a space heater.
In addition, he says,
be careful when building a fire,
especially if it's not.
In a fireplace,
we don't want anyone to build a fire,
a warming fire that's situated
close to home because again,
it sets up the potential or the
likelihood that a fire could occur
because anything can happen.
Officials also say you should
bring your pets inside and cover
your plants and outdoor pipes,
drip your faucets and lastly check on
people who may not have a way to stay warm.
Being kind to your family because that
kindness goes a long ways and that coupled
with fire safety will make a great.
Now coming up at 6:00, we have more
tips for how to stay warm and safe,
including what items you should have in
your home to make sure you're protected
sending it back to you in the studio.