🍑 Atlanta Weather

Southern heat, softened by elevation

Atlanta has a humid subtropical climate, but a detail people overlook is its elevation: at around 1,000 feet (300 m) on the Piedmont plateau, it sits higher than almost any other major city in the Deep South. That altitude takes a little edge off the summer heat, making the "Hotlanta" nickname somewhat overstated — though the humidity and famous spring pollen are very real.

Warm, stormy, pollen-heavy seasons

Summers are hot and humid, with July highs in the upper 80s°F (around 31°C) and frequent afternoon thunderstorms — but rarely the brutal triple-digit heat of cities farther south. Spring is lush and green, infamous for blankets of yellow pine pollen that coat the city for weeks.

Ice, not snow, paralyzes the city

Winters are mild, with January highs around 53°F (12°C), and snow is rare. But Atlanta's signature winter hazard is ice: even a small amount of freezing rain or snow can gridlock the sprawling, hilly metro, as the 2014 "Snowpocalypse" — which stranded thousands on the highways — made nationally famous.

Atlanta is fairly wet, averaging about 50 inches (1,270 mm) of rain a year, spread across all seasons. Autumn brings the most settled weather: warm days, cool nights, and clearing skies.

A mile-high Southern city

At around 1,050 feet (320 m), Atlanta sits higher than most Southern cities, which tempers its heat just enough that summer highs hover near 89°F (32°C) rather than the triple digits common further south. Afternoon thunderstorms are near-daily in July and August.

Winter's rare but infamous event is the ice storm: even a half-inch of snow can shut the sprawling metro down, as the 2014 'Snowmageddon' gridlock showed. Atlanta also lies far enough inland that hurricanes arrive only as weakened rain-makers, though they can still drop several inches at once.