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Christmas travel forecast
Expect a warm up as the week progresses into the Christmas holiday. The FOX 5 Storm Team is tracking that and has a look at the travel forecast.
ATLANTA - It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… is going to be unusually warm!
Christmas Day record warmth in Atlanta
What they're saying:
Christmas week in Georgia is set to feel unusually warm, with temperatures climbing to levels rarely seen this late in December. FOX 5 Storm Team meteorologist Alex Forbes said Atlanta is on track for "a top-10 warmest" Christmas on record as highs push into the low to mid 70s and morning lows stay closer to typical afternoon averages.
Forbes said the warm stretch will build steadily through the week. "I expect Christmas this year to be in the top-10 warmest on record for Atlanta and many cities in North and Central Georgia," he said. He noted that most of the metro will reach the low to mid 70s on Christmas Day, while the North Georgia mountains will stay in the 60s.
Georgia to see warm-up this week
What we know:
The week begins cooler but still above normal, with mostly sunny skies and a light east breeze. A weak disturbance could bring isolated light showers to parts of northwest and west-central Georgia early Sunday, but no meaningful rainfall is expected, and most areas will stay dry. Temperatures warm quickly after that as a broad subtropical ridge strengthens over the region, pulling in warm Gulf air and keeping conditions mostly quiet.
By midweek, the warmup becomes more pronounced. Afternoon temperatures rise through the 60s and into the 70s with partly sunny skies, while nighttime lows hold in the 40s and 50s. The Christmas Eve and Christmas Day forecast calls for warm, mostly dry weather with highs in the low 70s in metro Atlanta and mid 60s to near 70 across the mountains. Atlanta’s record Christmas temperature is 75, and this year’s forecast comes within striking distance.
The unusual warmth continues into Friday and the start of Kwanzaa, with highs again reaching the low 70s and only limited cloud cover expected. Forecasters say the pattern will leave much of Georgia feeling more like early spring than late December.
Atlanta's hottest Christmases
Dig deeper:
The warmest Christmas Day on record for Atlanta was set on Dec. 25, 2015, at 75 degrees. Christmas Day 2016 was just one degree shy of tying that record.
Christmas Days over the last 10 years have all stayed below 70 degrees, though 2021 came close at 69. In 2023, the high reached 63 degrees.
The coldest Christmas Day in Atlanta occurred on Dec. 25, 1983, with a low of zero and a high of only 17 degrees.
In 2020, the high temperature will reach just 35 degrees.
The Source: This article contains an original forecast by the FOX 5 Storm Team. The National Weather Service contributed to this report.