Atlanta Weather: Snow Showers Cover Metro Area

It has been several years since the Atlanta area has had snow on the ground. At around 5:00 PM today I glanced out of the window to see big white flakes coming down out of the gray, dreary sky. At about that time my phone rang and it was my friend Sonya asking me if I had looked out the window. We chatted about how the kids were excited and the dogs too. Her dog, Zelda, a black cocker spaniel, had been outside. Sonya realized that Zelda had never seen snow before. When Zelda came back in, Sonya said she had big white flakes all over her dark fur.

My pooch, Betsy the Westie, has never seen snow either. She's the color of snow and would have no problem camouflaging herself out in the backyard. My dog loves to be outside, but she is a Southern girl and doesn't seem to appreciate the cold. She didn't stay out long.

My kids raced out the back door as soon as they saw the white stuff falling down. It didn't matter that it was probably not going to stick to the ground. Both of my boys, Teddy, 12, and Heath, 9, stood out in the yard looking into the sky in awe of the flakes falling down. Heath was probably four years old the last time it snowed here. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Teddy lament that it never snows here. This was a big surprise for both of them.

The phone rang again, and it was Heath's buddy Max making sure that my boys hadn't somehow missed the snow. I heard Heath talking on this end about the possibility of no school tomorrow, every kid's absolute dream.

My kids kept running to check the thermometer, which had yet to go below 32 degrees. Somehow, the snow piled up enough for Heath to make two snowballs. The two snowballs are currently residing in my deep freezer down in the basement. They also attempted to make snow angels in the tiny amount of snow that had settled to the ground. Teddy asked for a carrot and some charcoal for a snowman, but my husband had to break the news to them that there was no way they were going to gather enough snow from the yard to make a snowman.

I heard the news on the television while I was cooking dinner, and the excitement in the weatherman's voice was comical. I wouldn't have been surprised to look over at the TV and see the man jumping up and down in a happy dance. The local meteorologists just live for this kind of weather.

My husband had to do something everyone dreads to do in Atlanta when snow falls. He had to go to Kroger. We were out of orange juice, and he said that the store is going to be mobbed. That's what always happens in Atlanta when even the talk of snow is in the news. There will be a run on bread and milk for sure. He's not back yet. I can only imagine what the checkout line would look like.

The other interesting thing about Atlanta is how we react to snow when we are driving. I lived in Illinois long enough to learn to drive on snow. When I first moved down to Georgia in 1993, we had a giant snowstorm in Atlanta about a week after I moved in. It was supposedly the "Storm of the Century." At least that's what the headlines said. I thought these people were ridiculous for getting all riled up about a little bit of snow.

I did a foolish thing in my northern-snow-experienced cockiness. My husband and I took my 1989 Dodge Colt out for a drive. Boy, was that stupid. There's a reason that people freak out about driving in the snow here. For one, there's no salting of the roads or snowplows. For two, there are hills, big hills, in Atlanta. We had the bad luck to get stuck going up a hill on Ponce de Leon in front of the City Hall East building. Fortunately, some enterprising homeless guy gave us a push in return for a couple of bucks. He had quite a little business going, shoving cars driven by other dolts like us.

I don't think this little snow shower will be anything in comparison to that snow. I have a feeling my kids will be in school tomorrow.

There's something enchanting about seeing a kid with bright red cheeks coming in from the cold. It's a sight we don't see much here in Atlanta. We had hot chocolate after the kids came in, with marshmallows of course. My kids said it was the best cup of hot chocolate they had ever had. Each of them still had sparkles of ice in their hair while they were sipping it and big grins on their rosy cheeked faces.