Climatologist Corey Davis, what do you know? We finally, we broke a snow drought in some spots, didn’t we?
“That’s right. Mike, you know, some folks woke up on Tuesday morning to some unexpected snow on the ground. And one of the reasons that this system was such a surprise is that if it had happened at any other time this year, it would not have been remarkable. It might not have even been noticeable. Besides a few sprinkles, this was a fairly weak upper-level disturbance on the leading edge of a high pressure system. There was just not a lot of moisture along that boundary. And really it was only because it was already below freezing and there was more cold air behind it that that precipitation fell as snow instead of rain, so you’re right. Parts of the mountain saw up to six inches of snow early Tuesday morning, and some of those snow showers even made their way into the Piedmont in North Carolina, not a very widespread event, mainly between Greensboro and Charlotte along I-85 but there were some places along that stretch, like down in Lexington and in Salisbury, where they had one to two inches of snow that was enough to cover the ground. And as you mentioned, that did end some of those long running snow droughts. The Greensboro airport picked up about half an inch. That was their first snow since the end of January in 2022 so almost three years after the last snow. They finally saw another snow down in Charlotte. They only had a trace of snow. It was just flooring there for about an hour, so they did not see measurable snowfall there. Because of that, their snow drought is continuing. It now stands out at 1041 days since that last snow event. But at least they can say the flake drought is over. They have seen flakes flying already this winter. So again, for some of those parts of the Piedmont, maybe not an event they expected, especially this early in the season, but congratulations to the folks who did see a little bit of snow this week.”
You mentioned six inches, who got that?
“That was up right along the Tennessee border in the mountains, far northern Madison County, and then also looking at places like grandfather mountain, they had about three to four inches from that event. So that’s actually not their first snow of the year. They had one the weekend before Thanksgiving. That was another pretty significant three to five inch event. So a pretty good early start to the season for the mountains. And of course, that’s good use for the ski resorts up there as well. We know how badly they’re looking for the tourists to come back in the wake of Hurricane Helene. So some snow on the ground will definitely help draw people back to those areas.”
Yeah, and just briefly, some of those areas that you mentioned snow droughts, they’ve kind of been struggling with warmer temperatures over the last few years. They’ve had to be generating their own.
“That’s right. You know, we when we talk about almost three years since the last measurable snowfall across parts of the Piedmont Well, there are parts of the mountains that have been dealing with that as well. The Asheville area has been more than two years up until this event, since they had had a measurable snowfall. And even some of those higher elevation spots in the mountains had been well below their normal snowfall. So with temperatures being that warm over the last couple winters, it’s even been tough to get some of those snow machines working and getting that snow on those mountain slopes for most of the winter seasons. I know last year, some of those ski resorts just started shutting down by the end of February or early March, because it had been so warm coming out of the winter.”
With the end of snow droughts in some areas, on the flip side, we had expansion of drought in other areas. Tell us about that.
“Yeah, Mike, you know, last Thursday morning on Thanksgiving, we had a few very light rain showers across the Carolinas. Then we had that very light snow in some areas this week. But in terms of liquid precipitation totals, it was pretty light over the past week, less than a quarter inch of liquid in most areas. So that really capped off two straight dry months in October and November across most of the Carolinas. And when you’re that dry for that long, you’re bound to see drought, and that’s what we’ve got on the US Drought Monitor now, about 88% of North Carolina now classified in moderate drought, and also parts of South Carolina right along the coast, and then also in some of the upstate areas, like in Greenville, these areas are all seeing rainfall deficits over the last two months in the four to six inch range. The other big impact that we’ve seen this week is with those stream flow conditions. So areas just not seeing that regular rainfall are starting to see those river and stream levels dropping, and we’re now seeing pretty widespread below normal stream flow levels across North Carolina and in some parts of South Carolina.”
Let’s take a look at the forecast. It’s been chilly for a few days. Certainly feels like December. Is that going to continue?
“We are feeling that chill even more today. Temperatures this morning are down in the low 20s. We had an arctic cold front move through last night, and that’s knocked our temperatures back quite a bit. Today, we’ll actually be even colder tomorrow morning, down in the low 20s, maybe upper teens in some areas. So that could be the coldest morning since January, earlier this year. But we will finally start the warm up by Sunday. We’ll be back in the 50s, then the end of the 60s on Monday. The other good news in the forecast is finally a decent chance of rain, and not just one rain event, but two coming early next week. We should have some light rain coming in on Monday, and then another event by late Tuesday into Wednesday. They should be a little more significant. So right now the forecast are showing between those two events, most areas in the Carolinas can expect at least one to two inches of rain. So again, that’s not going to be too much of a difference maker for agriculture, knowing that the growing season is over, but that will help knock back some of those precipitation deficits and probably bring up some of those stream levels as well. So hopefully that will also make a difference for our drought maps over the next couple weeks.”