Heavy winds, possible snow showers and wintry storms could be heading to the area during this first full week of 2025 and local officials are urging residents to take precautions as city and county public works departments prepare for inclement weather.
A wind advisory was issued Monday by the National Weather Service for Whitfield and Murray counties until 7 a.m. Tuesday, with northwest winds expected to reach 10 to 20 miles per hour and wind gusts of up to 35 mph.
According to the advisory, those wind gusts could cause damage, including blowing around unsecured objects and tree limbs and power outages.
Dalton residents could also see snow flurries and winter storms Friday, according to The Weather Channel’s 10-day forecast, which, as of Monday afternoon, called for a “mix of light wintry precipitation (Friday) morning” that “will change to rain and snow in the afternoon.”
Temperatures on Friday are expected to only reach a high of 35 degrees Fahrenheit with a low of 28, with an 80% chance of precipitation. Snow and ice accumulations are estimated to equal more than one inch.
City of Dalton Communications Director Bruce Frazier said Dalton Public Works officials are “monitoring the situation (on Friday) and are on standby.”
“They’ve already got 7,000 gallons of their salt brine ready to go and they (had) their salt brine trucks out driving around (Monday) just to make sure that everything is working properly since this is the first winter storm situation we’ve had of the year,” Frazier said. “Of course, the forecast could change several more times before Friday, so the way that Dalton Public Works handles these situations is they’ll keep a very close eye on the weather forecast throughout the week.”
Whitfield County Emergency Management Agency Director David Metcalf said agency officials will be meeting with representatives of the Whitfield County Public Works Department and the National Weather Service throughout the week in preparation for snow or storms.
“The National Weather Service will continue to send us updates as far as what changes are going to happen with the weather and we’ll pass those along to Public Works and all of the other public safety departments so they’re prepared,” he said.
Metcalf said the Whitfield County Public Works and Dalton Public Works departments plan on pretreating roads with a salt brine mixture Thursday.
“As of right now, they plan on treating all the roads,” he said. “Things like this tend to change often, so the National Weather Service will be sending updates every day to let us know of any changes. It could be an inch of snow and a little bit of ice Friday, or it could end up being nothing. But we have those plans in place.”
Whitfield County Administrator Robert Sivick said other procedures could help mitigate potential dangers.
“In a situation like this where we could expect to have up to an inch of snow, we’ll pretreat the roads to impede any ice forming for public safety,” Sivick said. “We may also close Dug Gap Battle Road (on Friday) if it comes to that point because it’s very steep and curvy. So, that could be closed to anyone but residents.”
Frazier said with a winter storm residents should take precautions.
“Any time winter weather comes, you need to make sure you know the condition that the roads are in before you leave, if it all possible,” Frazier said. “There’s a difference between snow and ice, and we really just suggest that people don’t even attempt to go out if there’s either. In the case that you do have to drive in those conditions, keep in mind that the main roads tend to be treated and cleared first before secondary roads. Don’t drive as fast, leave more distance to stop, start stopping earlier and don’t slam hard on your brakes.”