BLIZAPALOOZA - Atlanta Snow Storm - January 2011

Here is the 2011 Atlanta Blizzard.

The storm came in quickly on Sunday evening, Jan 9th, dispersing a combination of sleet, snow and freezing rain. Most of the precipitation fell within the first hours.

The wrath of the winter weather was felt across the state of Georgia, but Atlanta was particularly menaced by the icy combination due to the high concentration of commuting drivers. The result was absolute mayhem on interstates, highways and roads.

Accidents were everywhere. Trucks were jack-knifed. Cars were running into the median, the ditch or other cars. Some drivers just refused to move for no apparent reason. Some drivers abandoned their vehicles and began walking in the storm, which made a difficult situation more dangerous.

I was in the middle of all this. I thought I was going to spend the night on I-285 over the Chattahoochee River on the north end. When I finally did break through the Demolition Derby, I could see people walking on the overpass from I-75. The whole experience was surreal and seemed to go on forever, but events happened so fast a lot of it is a blur.

When I arrived home 40 miles later, it felt like a miracle. I began looking for video of what happened. My quest eventually resulted in the video you find here. This is a compilation of clips I used to try and recreate the chaos. It's full of close encounters with tractor trailers, BMW cars on fire, cool corgis, spinouts, snowballs and slip-sliding all over the place.

Enjoy!

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• 1/09/2011
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• 1-10-2011
• compilation

[hdyudu]

actually it not reley rare like some people think it is if you take a look at weather serveys going back far as the 60's shows major snowfall like this in atlanta on a one or twice a year bases how ever do to reacent past weak winters across the midsouth

it been a long time we seen a major snowfall

[123abc13579op]

@Harpfrmhel Obviously you don't think so because well, ummm, you live up north in NJ where there is snow all of the time!! In Atlanta, we get some snow almost every year but it is usually 1-3"!! There is also usually nothing on the roads, and we don't pay for all of this snow stuff, to clear the snow because we don't really need it! Where I live in Atlanta, we got around 6-8" of snow, which is crazy for Atlanta!! We also got around 3-4" of snow on the road. So for the south it was a "blizzard"

[PhiTrnh]

The doggy is so cute!

[Harpfrmhel]

You guys just don't understand snow. I watched the video--who were the idiots who thought they would be able to drive fast in a snow storm? They must have been going like 45mph in some cases! You have to drive REAL slow (like 15mph).

I was in Atlanta over the summer visiting my brother. You guys drive REALLY fast as it is, and you ride each other. Can't do that in a snow storm.

I live in NJ, where we had anywhere from 28" to 3' of snow. What you had was certainly no "blizzard".

[RedneckifiedProd]

This is typical for where i live. Try dealing with this EVERY year lol

[padussia]

This is why I stayed my ass home the whole week.

[andr3w000]

yup it was chaos! hahah

[62critic]

The welsh corgi stole the show. Atlanta folk just don't know what to do with all that snow and ice........and then some people are just idiots anyway.

[sierragal100]

Very nice : ) I am 40 miles south of Atlanta, we got 90% sleet and so happy we didnt get out in this!

[Superkyler1]

LOVE your video! Great job and the welsh corgi is adorable! I'm glad you put that footage in of the guy that revved his BMW repeatedly until it caught fire and burnt to the ground. Heard about it- but hadn't seen it.