It took a few hours for the snow to develop over Metro Atlanta Tuesday afternoon, but once it did, it fell at a very rapid clip!

That is, it fell for half of Metro Atlanta -- the other half didn’t even register a single snowflake!

So what happened?

Why the Snow Was Delayed

Regional radar consistently showed snow showers over North Georgia, however single site radar remained dry until approximately 2:30pm. This is due to the layer of dry air that was present over North Georgia.

The dry air layer was located less than half a mile above the ground. This means that snow showers that developed higher aloft fell through the dry layer, evaporating along the way. This evaporation obliterated the snow showers, but it also caused the air within the dry layer to cool and to moisten up to the saturation point.

Eventually, the air would moisten completely, and snow showers arrived at the ground for Metro Atlanta around 2:30pm. Overall, the process took about 4 hours to complete, which is why the snow showers arrived “late” compared to model forecast data.

Models have an incredibly hard time modeling the dry air layer saturation process, which is why it is often a “wait and see when the switch flips” experience with these kind of set ups.

Snow vs No-Snow: Sharp Drop Off Gradient

However, the Dry Air Layer was not the only opposition to the snow on Tuesday.

The north wind continued to push very dry air into the northwest corner of Metro Atlanta. Dewpoints -- a measure of moisture in the atmosphere -- were extremely low in Paulding, Bartow, Cobb, and Cherokee counties. As a result, any precipitation that attempted to fall through this dry atmosphere evaporated immediately, and there was no chance for this air to moisten up.

Meanwhile, along and south of I-85, the falling precipitation was enough to keep the air over Hall, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Rockdale, Henry, Clayton, Fayette, and Coweta counties both very cold and very moist. Dewpoints in these counties were in the 10s to 20s, which was plenty enough to support a burst of snow showers during the 3pm to 6pm time frame -- just in time for evening rush hour traffic.

Meanwhile, along and south of I-85, the falling precipitation was enough to keep the air over Hall, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Rockdale, Henry, Clayton, Fayette, and Coweta counties both very cold and very moist. Dewpoints in these counties were in the 10s to 20s, which was plenty enough to support a burst of snow showers during the 3pm to 6pm time frame -- just in time for evening rush hour traffic.

The image below shows the Atlanta radar imagery at 4pm. Notice the sharp snow gradient along I-85, which matches up with the sharp dewpoint gradient in the image above.

As a result, weather conditions changed dramatically within just a few miles across the Metro Atlanta area! The Traffic Cam images below tell the tale of two cities in the Metro region.

The Atlanta Airport registered 1.1 inches of snowfall Tuesday, and other areas around the Metro region received as much as an inch of snow.

With two snowstorms in the past two weeks, the January 2025 snowfall total is now 3.2 inches, which makes this the Top 10 snowiest January on record for Atlanta.

Share Your Snow Reports With Me!

Facebook: Christina Edwards WSB

Instagram: ChristinaWSBwx

Twitter: @ChristinaWSBwx

TikTok: @ChristinaEdwards955WSB

©2025 Cox Media Group