Ice Storm in Inland Chatham, Georgia

Ice accumulations caused significant travel hazards and cause numerous roads and bridges to be closed across the county by local law enforcement.

A strong but shallow arctic cold front pushed through the region early in the day on 1/28/14. By that evening, a strong cold air damming regime prevailed as northerly surface winds pushed temperatures to around freezing across nearly all of southeast Georgia. Above the shallow freezing layer, a prominent elevated warm layer developed which resulted in the predominant precipitation type being freezing rain for the event. Strong synoptic forcing produced widespread precipitation through the event. Storm total ice accumulations ranged up to one half of an inch especially inland away from the coast. There were even a few isolated one inch amounts reported. Total snow and sleet accumulations were less than an inch. The unusually high amounts of ice accretion caused widespread major travel impacts with several bridge being closed due to ice. Furthermore, temperatures remained near or below freezing at many locations through 1/31/14, which slowed the melting of ice and prolonged travel impacts.