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Another blast of winter may be headed our way
Forecast calls for more snow, sleet Friday even as power is being restored to thousands
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Whether you’ve recovered from your latest bout with winter weather or not, brace yourself: More may be on the way.

A winter storm warning including a forecast of 2-3 inches of snow and 0.1-0.25 inches of ice takes effect in Hall County and Northeast Georgia from 4 p.m. today through 1 p.m. Saturday.

The storm could bring snow, sleet and freezing rain north of a line from Jasper to Homer, which includes North Hall County.

Forecasters expect snow to begin this afternoon and transition to sleet and freezing rain overnight into Saturday morning.

“We have another weather system approaching, and we’re expecting more winter precipitation. There’s plenty of cold air as we have moisture moving back over the area,” said Ryan Willis with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

Ice accumulations on trees and power lines is likely and trees and power lines could come down, causing power outages. Travel could become hazardous or impossible, according to the warning statement.

Power companies were finally getting close to catching up in restoring power to the thousands that lost it in Monday night’s ice storm. As of 11 a.m. Friday, justmore than 450 customers were still without power in Hall County, between Jackson EMC, Sawnee EMC and Georgia Power. That was down from tens of thousands earlier in the week.

Most school systems were open today, with the exception of Lumpkin and Habersham counties. Hall County officials reported all schools with power and operational, and roads cleared of debris to allow buses to run.

Willis said the weather pattern is fairly typical for this time of year, but people may be noticing it more because of the cold air that creates the conditions for snow, sleet and freezing rain.

“It’s a little unusual that we have these systems kind of back to back,” he said.

There’s some relief on the back of the system, though, Willis said.

“We’ll actually get a warming trend as we move into Saturday afternoon”, he said, “and the wintry mix turns into rain.”