Marine Weather and Tide Forecast for Hiawassee, GA

SHORT TERM
(This afternoon through Tuesday)
Issued at 156 PM EST Mon Jan 19 2026

Fire Weather Concerns Tuesday:

A surface high will settle over Southeastern U.S. on Tuesday. The high will be accompanied by a deep pool of very dry air and boundary layer mixing in the afternoon that will favor low humidity. Guidance form the HRRR & ARW suggests incredibly low surface dewpoints across portions of north and central Georgia (-15 to 0 degrees!). Even the NAM, which is typically all for more moisture, has values below 0 in the mountains. Given this output our forecast suggests widespread minimum relative humidity values in the teens Tuesday afternoon. It would not be surprising if portions of north Georgia dipped further into the single digits.
Fortunately from a fire stand point, the recent rain and snow has added some moisture to our fuels. Winds will also be fairly tame (5 to 10 mph). These two factors should keep us from needing a Red Flag Warning, however a Fire Danger Statement is a near certainty (>98% chance of issuance).

Cool Temperatures Tuesday Morning:

Fair skies, low humidity and light winds tonight will create favorable conditions for radiational cooling. By sunrise on Tuesday temperatures should be in the upper teens in northwest Georgia and lower 20s across central and eastern Georgia. This will result in feels like temperatures in the teens for most between 5 AM and 9 AM.

LONG TERM
(Wednesday morning through next Sunday)
Issued at 156 PM EST Mon Jan 19 2026

Wednesday will be the last dry day before a significant pattern change brings rain chances Thursday and Friday, and the potential for frozen precipitation this weekend.

Wednesday is shaping up to be more borderline than Tuesday in terms of Fire Danger Statement criteria (minimum relative humidity and winds/gusts) being met. This is largely due to low-level flow turning southwesterly and advecting in moisture as a shortwave trough traverses the Ohio River Valley. This setup supports a continued slight chance to chance (20% to 40%) of rain showers on Thursday and Friday. Both early Thursday morning and early Friday morning are currently forecast to bring low temperatures near freezing in the north Georgia mountains. Thus, a light wintry mix is possible at the highest peaks both mornings, but impacts are not expected.

Global models are painting a concerning picture of what this weekend could look like, with an increasingly strong signal for ice storm potential across at least a portion of the County Warning Area (CWA). An arctic airmass will spill southward from Canada across the central and eastern CONUS, reaching as far south as the Gulf Coast states. Gulf moisture meeting up with and overrunning this cold airmass suggests the potential for a large, generally east-to-west oriented corridor of wintry precipitation across the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard states. Where exactly this baroclinic zone (the boundary between the cold, dry arctic air and warmer Gulf air) sets up will govern where precip transition zones are located.

Other variables that will be at play include...

---> How strong is cold air damming (the wedge)? The cold, surface-based airmass characteristic of the wedge could increase frozen precip intensity/accumulations.
---> Will upper-level features like jet streaks or shortwaves aid in increasing frozen precip intensity/accumulations? ---> What path does a wave of low pressure take along the baroclinic zone? This would largely determine if this event is mostly freezing rain or if there is a gradient of frozen and liquid precip types across the state.

The above variables will likely not come into better focus in global guidance and regional/hi-res guidance until 1 to 3 days out. So, currently, we are leaning mostly on ensemble model guidance rather than deterministic model guidance to gauge the potential for an impactful winter storm. Several pieces of probabilistic forecast information from the NBM (National Blend of Models) that suggest this event is something watch closely include:

---> 20% to 60% chance for freezing rain accumulations greater than 0.1" across much of north and central Georgia.
---> 15% to 45% chance for freezing rain accumulations greater than 0.25" across much of north and central Georgia.
---> 15% to 45% chance for snow accumulations greater than 1" along and north of the I-20 corridor.

The big picture at this point is that impactful wintry weather is possible this weekend, and residents should monitor the forecast closely through the week. Changes to the forecast are likely, so do not focus on predictions of accumulations or timing of precip type transitions at this time.

AVIATION
(06Z TAFS)
Issued at 1224 AM EST Tue Jan 20 2026

VFR conditions will continue through the TAF period, with only a few passing high clouds. Winds will be NW through the day, starting the morning between 4-7 kts and increasing to 7-12 kts during the afternoon. Winds are expected to become light and variable after 00Z.

//ATL Confidence
06Z Update
High confidence on all elements.

King

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS
Athens 22 50 35 57 / 0 0 10 30 Atlanta 26 52 39 54 / 0 0 30 40 Blairsville 18 47 31 51 / 0 0 40 40 Cartersville 21 52 36 52 / 0 0 50 50 Columbus 27 56 41 62 / 0 0 10 30 Gainesville 25 50 36 54 / 0 0 30 40 Macon 24 55 38 62 / 0 0 10 20 Rome 23 57 38 55 / 0 0 60 50 Peachtree City 22 53 37 55 / 0 0 30 40 Vidalia 28 59 43 65 / 0 0 0 0

FFC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
None.