The big weather item on most people’s minds is still the snow that we had last weekend, and it had been a long time in coming. Let’s get some details from Corey Davis, Assistant State Climatologist for North Carolina. And wow, it had been, what, almost what, 1100, 1200 days, or some, some crazy number I’ve heard like that, since most of North or South Carolina had had any snow, and we got a decent amount.
“That’s right, Mike, you had a bit, almost three years since the end of January in 2022 since most of North Carolina at least, had seen measurable snow. Those snow droughts finally ended in most areas last weekend. Overall, the event played out pretty much like we were expecting. There was some differences of opinion, so to speak, in the models going into that event, some were showing a little bit longer lasting snow event. Some were changing over to that sleet or freezing rain a little bit sooner. But I’d say the consensus from the models ended up matching what actually happened pretty closely in the Raleigh area. We saw a couple hours of snow before it’s changed over to sleet and then eventually to freezing rain. Same story down from the Charlotte area. I know some folks down there were disappointed that they didn’t get more snow at the beginning of that event, but ended up being really more of a sleet of ice event down there. The other good news is, like we talked about last week, this did not end up being too impactful of a freezing rain or ice event. The accumulations generally went into about a 10th of an inch in the Triangle area, and that was one factor going into the storm, is that it was going to be in and out pretty quickly. That precipitation lasted less than 12 hours in most areas. So for the places that got snow, like me here in the triad, it was a solid two, three inch snow event. For other areas, it was at least out of our hair pretty quickly.”
And with that in mind, what’s our forecast look like right now?
“Yeah, this is a forecast with a lot of moving parts and a lot of moving temperatures. Again, the one thing we can say with confidence is it will be cold, especially by Monday, and then lasting through at least the middle of next week, some areas further north and west will probably not get above freezing for several days in a row. And then to the south and east, getting down into South Carolina, those high temperatures may not make it much out of the 30s, especially Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week. There are a couple weather systems that we’re watching. What is going to be the cold front that’s going to bring in all this cold air on Saturday, it looks like we could see some light rain ahead of that front, especially Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening. There’s a chance, if there’s any lingering moisture behind that front, on Sunday, that we could see some snow showers in some areas as well. And then another event we’re watching for is sometime between next Tuesday and next Thursday. Not a lot of confidence in the models right now about exactly how that may play out. Mike, we talked about some of those differences from model to model, and those are really showing up now. Over the last few days, we’ve seen everything from another pretty decent snow event with a low pressure that’s tracking further offshore to more of an icy event if that low heads further inland. And there’s been at least one model that has show no low pressure at all. So, basically, no preset by the middle of next week, so the best we can say now is stay tuned and we are not done with winter just yet, because at least we’ll have the cold air through the next week.”