ATLANTA — For the last 33 years, people across the Atlanta metro have started their day with Severe Weather Team 2's Karen Minton.
Karen’s last day is Wednesday and to say she will be missed is an understatement.
Over the last three decades, Karen has been an integral part of Severe Weather Team 2 as major weather events impacted the Atlanta metro.
[READ: Meteorologist Karen Minton retiring after nearly 33 years at WSB-TV]
Karen says one of the biggest weather events of her career was the Blizzard of ’93.
“I leave him a handwritten note and I said, ‘Glenn, look at this.' And next morning I come in and there’s a note back from him, ‘Yes, this is the big one,'” she said about the lead-up to the storm.
"It looked like a hurricane coming into an arctic air mass and I knew what that meant," said Severe Weather Team 2 chief meteorologist Glenn Burns.
They were right.
[READ: Georgia reacts to meteorologist Karen Minton's retirement announcement]
The storm of the century hit metro Atlanta on March 13, 1993 and it dumped nearly three feet of snow across parts of north Georgia.
Karen and Glenn were the only two meteorologists at WSB-TV at the time, working 12-hour shifts for days.
“I was so sleepy, I couldn’t even see straight,” Karen said.
She even remembers sleeping at the station during the storm.
[PHOTO GALLERY: Meteorologist Karen Minton through the years]
“I had to sleep in the ladies room in the White Columns (WSB-TV’s former home). The ladies room had lounges, sofas, chairs,” Karen said.
Another one of the major events during Karen's watch was the Dunwoody Tornado that ripped through the northern suburbs April 9, 1998.
“I couldn’t see driving in because it was raining so hard," she said.
Karen said she remembers trees were torn down everywhere. Some even fell on a reporter’s house.
“He had to crawl out of his home. The trees had come down and he couldn’t get out the front door," she said.
[WATCH: A day in the life of Karen Minton]
One of the most recent storm Karen warned the metro about was "Snowmageddon" in January 2014.
“We were on the air for 39 hours straight," Karen remembers.
Ice formed on the roads after schools and businesses let out for the day at the same time, snarling traffic. Some drivers spent 23 hours stranded in their cars.
Karen remembers strangers helping each other during the storm and everyone working long hours at Channel 2 looked out for each other.
"It's one huge family here," she said.
Wednesday morning, Karen will give her final forecast on Channel 2 Action News This Morning. We wish her the best after such a distinguished career here at Channel 2.
Cox Media Group
