Well…it happened. The snow has fallen. All the skeptics who thought we wouldn’t have snow will be surprised this morning. However, people who believed the messages a few days ago from some (other) meteorologists, who said they could see 12-15″, will be disappointed.
It looked like a winter wonderland when I arrived this morning. I stopped for a photo in downtown Portsmouth around 2:30am. Beautiful!
The roads were covered, but the plows did this thing. Snow fell heavily last night until early this morning.
The snow ended around 6:30 this morning. Now snow covers many roads, walks and yards.
An area of low pressure moved along a stationary front last night through this morning. It pushed the moisture north over the cooler air mass in place. At first it was fighting the north wind/dry, but the humidity eventually won out. The low has now moved quite far offshore.
There was also a pocket of energy moving rapidly through the upper levels. The anticyclone will gradually settle in the area today at the surface.
The forecast for this event was pretty good. Here is yesterday’s snow forecast.
Here is the map of snowfall totals that I put together from this morning’s snow reports:
Here are some of the actual reports from people in the area:
There was a strong divide in eastern North Carolina between the Outer Banks and the interior.
While the snow has finished falling, there will be blowing snow today. This will make plowing difficult. Winds will blow up to 25 mph from the north.
Lots of main roads will probably be ok, but lots of secondary roads will probably remain covered in snow.
We will have quite a few clouds with a few sunny peaks. High temperatures will therefore only be around 30 degrees this afternoon. There will therefore be no natural melting. Wind chills will only be present in teenagers and 20s today.
Tonight the sky will be partly cloudy. The winds will also drop. The times will therefore drop considerably. They will go down to their mid-twenties with maybe a few teenagers inland. If there is melting today, it will probably refreeze overnight. Tomorrow, some roads may be in poor condition for those trying to get to Sunday services. Some services may even be cancelled. The good news is that we should warm up on Sunday. High temperatures will reach the mid 40s in the afternoon with partly sunny skies. Hopefully things will be cleared up before people have to go back to work/school on Monday. This is more likely to happen in areas that had 2-4″, but less likely for those that had 4-6″.
So have fun today in the snow, but stay safe! There’s another system that could bring us a bit more wintry weather next weekend, but that’s way too far for all the details. Stay tuned!
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler
