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January Cold Fronts Can Deliver a Rapid Chill

winter weather

Nov 10, 2016

Folklore-Based Forecasts Offer Little Consensus for this Winter

Our 2016-17 Winter Outlook series includes three posts beginning today and concluding on November 17 with our office’s predictions for the winter. The signs of the changing seasons are all around us, from falling leaves to first fall frosts. Before the days of scientific seasonal forecasts, these observations from nature were the main source of…

Apr 22, 2016

From Snow Cones to Snow Showers: April 1983’s Snow and Freeze

Thirty-three years ago this week amid a warm spring in 1983, an April shower brought a record-setting springtime snow, followed by several days of sub-freezing temperatures that wrecked havoc on the summertime fruit crop. Not unlike our recent winter, the winter of 1982-83 featured a strong El Nino event in the Pacific that brought wet…

Mar 29, 2016

Winter Recap 2015-16: El Niño Fuels Wet Weather, Little Snow

With spring springing and blooms blooming, the winter has wrapped up in North Carolina. While we can’t rule out additional frost or freeze events this spring, we can close the book on the winter, and it tells the story of a season dominated by the effects of a strong El Niño. Our recap of the…

Mar 16, 2016

Hump Day-ja Vu: The Three Wednesday Snows of March 1960

March of 1960 must have felt a bit like Groundhog Day in North Carolina. For the first three Wednesdays of the month, parts of the state saw snow or ice as part of a rare early-spring string of wintry weather. Prior to March, the winter of 1959-60 was quite unremarkable in North Carolina. Mean temperatures…

Mar 1, 2016

An Active February Features Wet Weather, Storms

From the coldest temperatures of the winter to widespread severe weather, February had a bit of everything. Temperatures Swing from Shivery to Spring-like The average temperature from statewide reporting stations last month was 41.93°F, which makes it the 59th-coolest February in the past 122 years. However, a statewide average certainly doesn’t tell the full story…

Feb 16, 2016

Rapid Reaction: Wintry Weather and Spring-Like Storms Hit NC

Our winter roller coaster continued this week as high temperatures plummeted below freezing, we rounded a bend of snow and ice-slickened roads, and temperatures quickly rebounded into the 50s with heavy rain and thunderstorms. It was all part of our latest bout of wintry weather amid an active weather pattern. Arctic Air Settles In The…

Feb 1, 2016

January Brings Cooler Weather and a Taste of Winter

After a warm December, the winter reversed course in January with cooler-than-normal conditions prevailing. Winter’s Chill Finally Arrives The new year brought a much cooler weather pattern for North Carolina. January finished with a statewide average temperature of 37.64°F, ranking as the 32nd-coolest January out of the past 123 years. The temperatures differences from December…

Jan 26, 2016

Rapid Reaction: Winter’s First Major Storm Brings Snow, Sleet, Ice, and Rain

A two-day wintry event last Friday and Saturday was a classic Carolina storm, with a mixed bag of precipitation across the state ranging from heavy snow in the Mountains to sleet and freezing rain in the Piedmont to rain along the coast. The Storm’s Setup The event took shape earlier in the week as a…

Jan 20, 2016

January Cold Fronts Can Deliver a Rapid Chill

Wintertime cold frontal passages can usher in frigid Arctic air, and when warm air is in place ahead of the fronts, they can set the stage for other extremes: rapid temperature drops and large statewide differences. Greatest 24-Hour Temperature Change Temperature decreases of 30 degrees or more during these frontal passages are not uncommon. In…