Historic Snow Thrills from Mountains to Metro | News

ATLANTA -- It had been since the 1880s since Atlanta saw a snow that stuck. Christmas Day 2010 made up for lost time.

Days of waiting and anticipation gave way to first snowfalls in the North Georgia mountains first thing Christmas morning. By 11 a.m. flurries began accumulating in Canton before heading south into Cobb and North Fulton counties. By nightfall, snow was drifting into midtown and downtown Atlanta.

The mountains got the first peek of snow starting around 8 a.m. before the snow tracked into the northern suburbs of Woodstock, Roswell, and East Cobb. Snow crept into Dallas and Kennesaw as well, ahead of predictions.

By dusk's approach, snow was beginning to accumulate on secondary roads in Cherokee and North Cobb counties. GDOT signs warned of icy conditions, with slick roads and sheets of falling snow hitting major northside interstates.

The Kidd family woke up to a yard covered only with grass. But in the next hour, all that had changed for the Blairsville family, with nearly an inch covering everything in sight. By the early afternoon, Scott Anna reported snow had piled up five inches.

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The story was much the same in Rabun County and White County, where soft snow began to come down around 9 a.m. By morning's end, everywhere from Lake Burton to Blue Ridge to Ellijay were under a soft blanket of snow.

North Georgia is under a Winter Weather Advisory until 1 p.m. Sunday.

Delta cancelled 500 flights nationwide ahead of the Christmas holiday in anticipation of winter weather, 300 of them at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Viewer photos showed arrival and departure boards covered in red, full of cancelled flights.

Stay with 11Alive and 11Alive.com for the latest on Christmas snow.