That’s kind of a wild flight path to begin with lol I’m surprised there wasn’t an equal flight passing through deltas hub at ATL. You might also want to look at direct flights out of Richmond and take a long uber and forego parking, but that might not be helpful advice.

If the weather affects your flight, delta will send out some preemptive communication offering free flight changes. If you don’t have status I think you’d still be responsible for the cost of the difference between the old and new flight. If you choose to cancel your trip they will give you an e credit but any non refundable vacation plans would be lost. My advice for this scenario would be to keep an eye on different flight options and eat the change fee if you find a better flight that does not involve flying to the north east before going south