Published Thursday, January 14, 2010
Recent stretch of cold not Coweta's coldest
The Newnan Times-Herald
The bone-chilling cold that Cowetans have experienced over the past week has definitely been unusual, but it's still no match for the winters of 1982 and 1985.
On Jan. 9, The Times-Herald weather station in downtown Newnan recorded a low of 12.7 degrees, at 7:24 a.m. On Jan. 8 and 10, the recorded low just topped 16 degrees.
The winter of 1985 brought the coldest temperatures ever for the south-metro area -- as recorded at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. On Jan. 21, 1985, a low of negative 8 degrees was recorded. The day before wasn't much warmer, with a low of 6 degrees below zero.
The "snow jam" winter of 1982 was only a bit warmer. On Jan. 10, 1982, a low of 2 degrees below zero was recorded. The next day, temperatures dropped to negative 5.
The National Weather Service lists the 10 coldest days ever at Hartsfield. In addition to 1982 and 1985, the winters of 1966, 1963, 1983 and 1977 also made the list.
Our current cold spell began Jan. 2. The low that day was 23.4 degrees, and the high was just 33.5 degrees. The Jan. 3 high was also 33.5.
Jan. 6 and 7 were actually a bit warmer, with a high of 38.6 on the 6th, and 39.6 on the 7th.
Temperatures didn't get above freezing on the 8th or the 9th, but by Jan. 10, temperatures started creeping up. Sunday's high was 33.4, Monday's was 43.8, and Tuesday's was 36.2.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the recorded high was 49.9 degrees -- warm enough to melt remaining ice on the roadways.
When it comes to low temperatures, however, it has been below freezing every night, so far, in 2010. Jan. 1 was the warmest, with a low of just 29.6 degrees.
Those cold temperatures caused many water pipes to freeze or crack, but local water providers avoided the serious problems reported in Atlanta's northern suburbs.
Newnan Utilities had to deal with a few water main breaks, but "we didn't have anything that we would classify as major," said Brandon Lovett, director of water operations for Newnan Utilities.
More common were frozen water meters, which can lead to breaks.
But most of what crews have been doing in the past few weeks is cutting the water off for customers who have a cracked pipe on their side of the meter, Lovett said.
"We've done everything that we possibly can" to help get things thawed out, Lovett said. Crews have even used blow torches to try and thaw out meters.
"When a customer is out of water, we'll do anything that we can to get them back in water," Lovett said.
His repair crews have definitely been busy.
"The guys have done a great job," Lovett said. "They're going above and beyond and trying to make sure we address the customer's problem just as quickly as we can."
And people have "been very understanding of what is going on," Lovett said.
"It could have been a lot worse ... Hopefully we are out of the woods on it," he said.
However, many times, the biggest impact is only seen once things start to thaw and the water starts to flow.
Vacant buildings or other structures that aren't used much could have frozen, cracked pipes that no one has noticed yet.
"It doesn't start to leak until it thaws out," Lovett said. Owners of vacant structures "would certainly be advised to check on those structures pretty often when it thaws out."
When a hard freeze comes, the best thing you can do to keep your pipes from freezing is let the faucets drip a bit.
"Moving water is not going to freeze nearly as rapidly as water that is stationary," Lovett said.
It's also a good idea to disconnect an outside water hose from the faucet before the hard freeze comes.
Senoia's water system didn't have any water main breaks, said City Administrator Richard Ferry.
However, the city did have several main breaks during the heavy rains in the fall, he said.
The Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority didn't have any problems on its side, said General Manager Ellis Cadenhead, but there were about 40 customers who had frozen pipes on their side of the meter.
