It wouldn’t be a classic North Carolina winter without a bit of ice, a solid snow, and temperatures running the full range from frigid to spring-like – sometimes only days apart.

We fit all of those and more into the 2025-26 winter. In this post, we’ll wrap up the season with a look at the summary and statistics, the snow events and totals, a review of our outlook, and the evolving patterns as we enter the spring.

The Big Picture

With cold weather being a consistent part of the season, this winter was slightly cooler than normal overall. Data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) shows a statewide average temperature of 40.8°F, which was 0.3°F cooler than the 20th-century average and tied for our 54th-coolest winter out of the past 132 years.

Temperatures ranged from near-normal in the west – including a tie for the 35th-warmest winter on record in Hickory – to 4 degrees below normal along the coastline, where it was the 10th-coolest winter on record in Elizabeth City and the 9th-coolest in Williamston.

Charlotte matched its average temperature in a tie for its 49th-warmest winter in the past 146 years. Greensboro and Raleigh were both 2 degrees cooler than normal, and Asheville was a degree below normal for the season.

We saw big temperature swings in each month, beginning with an early chill in December, followed by record highs in the 70s on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In a monthly mirror image, January started warm but saw a series of cold Canadian air masses move in by the middle of the month.

With snow on the ground, that chill continued into early February, including single-digit lows in parts of southeastern North Carolina. The rest of the month was more seasonable, including some 70-degree days that started the spring early.

Since solid rain events were rare and our snow events offered limited liquid precipitation, the entire state was drier than normal this winter. Per NCEI, the statewide average precipitation of 6.96 inches was 4.47 inches below normal, our 8th-driest winter since 1895, and the driest winter in North Carolina since 2000-01.

The driest areas were generally in the Mountains, including the 4th-driest winter on record in Jefferson and the 5th-driest in Marion, Murphy, and Tryon. In the western Piedmont, it ranked as the 6th-driest winter for Hickory, the 7th-driest in Statesville, and the 9th-driest in Charlotte.

Elsewhere, Raleigh had its 15th-driest winter on record, it was the 20th-driest for Fayetteville, and Greensboro had its 30th-driest winter since 1903. Among our coastal sites, New Bern had its 5th-driest winter on record and Greenville recorded its 13th-driest winter.

As a carryover from a dry November, much of the state had less than 2 inches of precipitation in December. January’s precipitation was highlighted by two late-month frozen precipitation events, while February saw weekly rain events generally totaling a half-inch to an inch of precipitation each.

A Snowy Season

From start to finish, and even outside the bounds of the climatological winter, we had multiple accumulating snow events that left many areas with above-normal snowfall for the season.

The accumulations began in the fall, with light snow in the Mountains and up to half an inch in northeastern North Carolina on November 11. That was the earliest measurable snow on record for Edenton, which finished the season with 7.6 inches, or more than triple its normal amount of 2.3 inches.

Early December saw several light snow events, including an inch or more along our northern tier on December 8 and 9, along with a “sound-effect” dusting off the Albemarle Sound on December 14.

January’s first winter storm on the 24th and 25th began with up to 2.5 inches of snow in Ashe County before a changeover to sleet and freezing rain. Jefferson measured a 1.3-inch accumulation in that storm en route to a winter total of 12.1 inches, just shy of its normal 14.4 inches.

The biggest snow of the season came from an offshore low pressure system on January 31 and February 1. Thanks to that storm alone, many eastern areas exceeded their annual average snowfall, including 10-inch winter totals in Greenville, Clinton, and Lumberton.

February brought a few flakes farther west, including a localized inch or so in the northern Foothills on February 5 and a widespread inch or more throughout the Mountains on February 23 and 24. The 7 inches from that event pushed Banner Elk past its annual average of 31.4 inches, with its seasonal total standing at 37.5 inches.

Finally, the strong cold frontal passage earlier this week ended with precipitation falling as snow in the Mountains, including totals of more than 3 inches in parts of Avery, Mitchell, and Watauga counties. Boone added another 2 inches to its annual total, giving it 21.3 inches for the season compared to its normal of 25.6 inches.

With the snow all tallied up, Wilmington had 5.8 inches, well above its normal of 0.9 inches and the most in a winter there since 1999-00. Charlotte totaled 12.2 inches – more than triple its annual average of 3.5 inches – in its snowiest winter since 2003-04. And Greensboro had 12.5 inches, topping its normal accumulation of 7.1 inches.

After long snow droughts ended last winter, those counters reset again this year, with the entire state seeing an inch or more from the late January event. That same storm brought at least six inches in many areas, and the first foot or more of snow in parts of eastern North Carolina since the 1980s.

Reviewing Our Predictions

Our winter outlook, released last November, noted some familiar atmospheric patterns were lined up entering the season.

For one, a La Niña pattern was in place for the second winter in a row, and the fifth time in the past six years. We expected that would bring the usual impacts of drier-than-normal conditions. That was certainly the case in one of our state’s top-ten driest winters on record, although the coastal low behind our big snowstorm was a departure from La Niña’s typical storm track to our north.

Going into the winter, there were also signs that a Sudden Stratospheric Warming event would lead to a cold snap in early December. That was one of many similarities to the 2024-25 winter, and the two seasons followed the same overall trajectory, including the snowiest periods mid to late January.

While we foresaw some chances of cold and snow, our outlook noted that “barring a major event, we anticipate below-normal snowfall for the entire season.” That major event indeed played out, which single-handedly made this a snowier-than-normal winter in many areas – but not everywhere.

Raleigh memorably missed out on most of the snow during the late January event and tallied just 3.6 inches of snow for the season compared to the normal of 5.2 inches. Asheville had 5.4 inches, or barely half of its 10.3-inch normal. And with 8.8 inches in total, Highlands fell short of its normal snowfall of 10.2 inches.

Our most confident prediction was that warmer weather would arrive by February, in line with recent climatology especially during La Niña winters. We did see some warm days throughout in the month, but thanks to the frigid start, this was our first cooler-than-normal February statewide since 2015.

And with a developing drought last fall and a dry outlook for the winter, we anticipated drought would continue but hoped for a reduction in impacts. That was true in some areas, as the snow melt and more regular rain by February helped saturate soils and top off reservoirs, but deeper soils and streamflow levels remained dry.

Those ongoing impacts informed a net degradation of drought throughout the season, with much of the state in Severe Drought (D2) and even pockets of Extreme Drought (D3) emerging in the driest areas.

A Spring Pattern Change

Our drought has now been ongoing for more than six months, and as spring descends upon us, we’ll begin to notice more impacts of those long-running precipitation deficits.

Warmer temperatures will increase evaporation rates, lake and stream levels will decline without more rain, and as farmers and gardeners prepare for the growing season, they may find that soil moisture levels even a few inches deep are insufficient for planting.

Fortunately, there are signs that our recent dry pattern could break in the next few months. The regular rainfall in late February and early March has been a positive change, and several of these events have brought an inch of precipitation or more in parts of the state.

With warmer water now building just below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, the La Niña pattern should finally break after two years. Current outlooks show La Niña fading this spring and a potential El Niño event emerging later this year, which would favor wetter weather in our region.

But we may not have to wait that long for drought relief, as the outlook for late spring and early summer slightly favors above-normal precipitation across the Carolinas. That would be another similarity to last year, which saw drought-relieving rain arrive by May.

If that happens, then the final prediction in our winter outlook – that we’d feel a sense of déjà vu in a climatological carbon copy of last year – may prove to be the most accurate. After all, we’ve already seen analogous large-scale patterns in place, similar timing of our cold snaps and big snows, and ongoing drought in back to back winters.