Rome, Georgia: Where geography meets meteorology
Forget all this paranoia over COVID-19. Will some of you scientists please spend some more time trying to find a cure for the common cold? It’s been around much longer and, nowadays, every time you sneeze people look at you like you’re carrying the bubonic plague.
I wonder if, centuries from now, people will refer to COVID-19 in the same vein as the plague.
At any rate, with that introduction, let’s get to the real topic of the day. Weather.
We live in a little corner of the world that is blessed in so many ways, but winter weather is a curse from Mother Nature. You don’t hear much about Mother Nature’s roots but I’m pretty sure that somewhere in her family tree is the blood of Satan himself.
Yeah, we get a lot of spectacular days, but once the calendar turns past Thanksgiving it can be pure hell. At least from the standpoint of someone who has to be at work even if there are 23 inches of snow on the ground.
That’s the one aspect to being a journalist that no one taught in undergraduate classes. When the weather is horrific, somebody’s got to be there to keep the rest of you informed.
I’d love to leave that up to Jim Cantore and Ginger Zee but they rarely focus on Rome. And our weather is really pretty different even from the forecasts that are spit out by the meteorologists in Atlanta.
The Glenn Burns, David Chandley, Joanne Feldman types in Atlanta just don’t get Rome’s weather in the winter. They stand in front of their green screens and talk about the weather up in the mountains as they point to Rome.
Note to Atlanta TV weather people: The elevation at the airport in Rome is 644 feet. The elevation at the Atlanta airport is 1,027 feet. That’s pretty close to the equivalent of a 40-story building higher in Atlanta than Rome.
Heck, the airport in Calhoun is at 651 feet and up in Dalton it’s only at 710 feet.
Just who is it on the mountaintop? Let’s look to the northeast.
The elevation at the Gainesville airport is 1,276 feet. The Blairsville airport is 1,907 feet. The Blue Ridge Skyport is 1,946 feet. Now we’re talking about the mountains. And their weather is HUGELY different from ours.
We have to remember that Rome sits low in an incredibly fertile valley where two significant rivers, the Oostanaula and Etowah, merge to form a third, the Coosa.
It’s not exactly like being at the bottom of a coffee cup, but think of Rome more like the center circle of the saucer that holds the coffee cup.
And that makes an impact on our weather. A big impact.
That, in large part, is why it’s so doggone humid here in the summer.
At this time of year, there are two other factors that you have to consider when looking at forecasts for wintry precipitation. One is called the Cumberland Plateau and the other is called Lookout Mountain.
They have a tremendous impact on how low pressure systems that traditionally move in from the west affect Rome’s weather.
Let’s use another analogy. Think of Rome as sitting inside the shadow of Lookout Mountain By the time weather systems from the west and northwest cross the Cumberland Plateau and Lookout Mountain, they have generally lost some of their punch. They bounce over the mountain and land in Canton, maybe Jasper or Ellijay.
If the weather is coming from the southwest, as a lot of storms that bring tornadoes do, they’ve got a little better chance of having a greater impact on Rome and Floyd County.
I suspect you’re familiar with a line from Cave Spring up through Lindale referred to our as tornado alley. The weather swoops in below Lookout Mountain and is unimpeded by the high ridges.
Yeah, there are high spots like Flag Mountain or Cheaha Mountain but those are isolated protrusions from the plain, not a thick major ridge line for Mother Nature to deal with.
Remember, I am not a college educated meteorologist. I’ve just lived here more than half of my life and I’ve had to keep an eye on the sky in the best of times and the worst of times. And I can be wrong.
When it comes to those snow forecasts, Rome is most likely to get hit the hardest when the moisture is coming almost due south and the extreme cold has been locked in from the north for a day or two.
Don’t get real lathered up about storms coming in from the west or northwest, though they can occasionally cause problems.
Consider the Blizzard of ’ 93 as our championship example. That was fundamentally an early March hurricane coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. The cold had been here a day or two.
As I was watching and preparing for that storm, I was guessing 6 to 8 inches of snow. I had brought my sleeping bag from home, expecting to have to spend the night at work. I didn’t think I’d need to pack a suitcase with clothing for several days.
I was not anticipating having to spend five nights at work before I could get out and get to a friend’s home in north Rome for a shower, then put the same stinky clothes back on.
I suppose that falls into the category of too much information. Just be glad you weren’t there.
So, for the next three months or so, keep your eyes on the thermometer and look for rain coming out of the south.