Morning, y’all! Whenever the weather gets bad in Atlanta, I think about the winters I spent in Syracuse, New York, when you had to allot 20 extra minutes to shovel yourself out of the driveway. Lane lines on the roads become mere suggestions in that lawless clime, as do traffic lights. If you drift, you drift. Why hello, officer, yes, I just ran a red light, and neither of us did anything about it because no act of man was stopping this ice-skating car. Blame the coefficient of friction.
While things may get icy and dicey here this weekend, I am grateful to live somewhere where car doors don’t routinely freeze shut and roads aren’t perennially pockmarked by snowplows and salt.
Let’s get to it.
ICY WEATHER UPDATES
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC 2025
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC 2025
Metro Atlanta is under a winter storm watch from 1 a.m. Saturday through 10 a.m. Monday. That also includes all of North Georgia, stretching southeast to just north of Macon.
- Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Thursday for the next seven days. He also authorized calling up 500 members of the National Guard.
- Double-check plans this weekend. Atlanta Botanical Garden, Fox Theatre, Variety Playhouse and the Masquerade have all canceled events already.
- It’s not just the traffic: Atlantans are preparing for widespread power outages, too. (Ice weighs down power lines.) Charge your devices, arrange alternate heating or power sources, gather your candles and flashlights. Check in on any neighbors or friends who may need assistance.
- Oh, and even if you have experience driving on icy roads, don’t assume the drivers around you do. Black ice is nothing to fool with.
🔎 READ MORE: Weather updates and preparedness resources
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GA LAWMAKERS HOME IN ON DATA CENTERS
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
The 2026 Georgia legislative session is still taking shape, but lawmakers from both parties have data centers in their sights.
Georgia’s one of the top data center markets in the country, but massive projects are drawing more and more criticism from residents and local officials.
In addition to land, power and water consumption, other questions linger: Can companies actually deliver on their outsized promises to bring jobs and profit? Are the tax breaks worth the tax revenue the state and its cities are forfeiting?
Bills that could address data center concerns
- Senate Bill 410 would repeal future tax incentives but still honor any exemptions before the law took effect.
- Senate Bill 34 would expand the ways data centers could be billed for power costs.
- House Bill 1012 would pause data center development statewide until March 1, 2027.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have voiced support for more protections or restrictions. Gov. Brian Kemp could go either way. He vetoed a proposed pause for data center development in 2024, but times have changed.
🔎 READ MORE: What they’re saying about data centers at the Capitol
Did you know? While “hone in on” is a loosely accepted phrase, it really should be “home in on.” Hone means to define or sharpen, like grinding a knife on a whetstone. “Home in on,” like a homing pigeon, means to direct attention to or arrive at a target. You could make the argument “hone in on” kind of works, but true pedants (and copy editors) will go for “home.”
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🏛️ Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger no-showed for a state Senate Ethics Committee hearing in an ongoing dispute over the Trump administration’s demands for the state’s voter data. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones wanted Raffensperger to testify about what Jones claims, without evidence, are hundreds of thousands of votes improperly certified in the 2020 election. Raffensperger has made his response abundantly, succinctly clear: No.
💰 Republican Senate candidate Derek Dooley ended 2025 with more than $2.1 million cash for his campaign. He, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins all have seven-figure war chests at the ready to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff in November’s election. Ossoff began the year with a reported $25 million.
📺 Paramount’s still pushing a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. They just extended the deadline for their $77.9 billion offer in an attempt to disrupt WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix. Remember, WBD and many of its properties (hello, CNN) have a huge presence in Georgia.
🏡 Yet another win for Sapelo’s Gullah Geechee people. Days after the community won a referendum vote to restrict development on Georgia’s historic Sapelo Island, the McIntosh County Commission indicated they’ll support new zoning laws that comply with the decision.
ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER TURNS 100
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta History Center
Wow, 1926 was a busy year for Atlanta. Candler Field Airport (the precursor to Hartsfield-Jackson) opened, the High Museum got its first building, and the Atlanta History Center was born.
Neatly coinciding with America’s 250th anniversary, the AHC has a slate of exciting new exhibits to mark its centennial. They include:
- a commemorative coffee-table book
- an overhaul of roughly one-third of its gallery footprint to update its permanent Civil War exhibition
- a rare touring exhibition of America’s founding documents from the National Archives
- a sports makeover for its Goizueta Children’s Experience
- a project exposing under-told stories from Georgia’s Trail of Tears
🔎 READ MORE HERE: It’s time to make your next visit
This is our opportunity to really open up to the community. We've gotten this place to this point over a hundred years of additions. Now it's time to tie a bow on it and open up the present for Atlanta.
NEWS BITES
Why you should try riesling wine this year
Call it a ... New Year’s riesolution.
Rhode Island may ditch Mr. Potato Head license plates after Hasbro moves to Boston
An old-timey headline for this would read, like: “Rhode Island dishes beef over potato plates as toymaker makes for Bay State.”
‘Heated Rivalry’ stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie to be torchbearers for Winter Olympics
A great show. Just don’t watch with your parents, children, relatives or co-workers.
Kindness at work can mean giving honest feedback, limiting meetings and bending rules
We love you, boss! 😉
ON THIS DATE
Jan. 23, 1960
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Icy winter grips state. A raw, icy weekend is coming up for Atlantans and north Georgians in the wake of the winter’s coldest blast of the year. Freezing temperatures are forecast for Saturday and Sunday … The mercury was expected to sink to the 12 mark in some sections of north Georgia Saturday. A low of 15 was expected for Atlanta.
More than six decades later, we’re bracing for another “raw, icy weekend,” with the mercury in parts of Georgia unlikely to escape the 30s well into next week.
ONE MORE THING
By the way, I meant no offense to anyone from central and upstate New York in today’s intro. They’re built different up there. Seriously, I am in awe of their fortitude.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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