Latest Triangle forecasts scaled back to 1-2 inches, disappointing snow lovers again
The Triangle braced Thursday and Friday for a fickle winter storm that originally tempted with deep drifts but arrived with broken promises, offering scaled-back snow totals of likely an inch.
Forecasters had called for as much as 6 inches around Raleigh earlier in the week. But the low-pressure system has since shifted east, bringing just 1-2 inches — probably closer to an inch — to the Triangle.
“I’ve been let down more times than I can count,” said ABC11 meteorologist Steve Stewart. “I’m from Colorado and I love snow, but we live in an area that’s at such a disadvantage it doesn’t take much to knock it down.”
Northeast and Southeast NC effects
Because of that shifting low-pressure zone, the heaviest snow dump should fall along and east of Interstate 95, which Stewart called “kind of odd.”
Gov. Roy Cooper warned that calls for snowfall remain heavy in the state’s Northeast counties, while a quarter-inch of ice is expected in the Southeast between Wilmington and New Bern, threatening mass power outages.
“Here we are again,” Cooper said at a Thursday afternoon news conference, noting the state’s second storm in a week. “It’s a familiar forecast but a different place.”
Cooper said 114 National Guard soldiers are staging in the central and eastern part of the state, while more than 300 trucks and graders are working roads that are already being treated with salt brine.
With temperatures expected to stay well below freezing throughout the weekend, Cooper warned that power outages pose a grave threat.
“Look after each other,” he said Thursday, “particularly our seniors and shut-ins. ... We need people to check on their friends and neighbors.”
The only bright spot for Raleigh snow-lovers is that Thursday’s rain should trend toward wintry mix overnight and present light snow sticking on Friday morning.
But while Friday will rank among the coldest days in recent memory, with wind chills in the teens, the afternoon and evening snowfall doesn’t look like it will stack up to early expectations.
“It’s going to feel like we moved to Detroit,” Stewart said. “We have a chance to add to those anemic totals, but the odds of a big snow event are looking bleak. It’s going to take a little bit of a miracle.”
Some school systems closed
Durham Public Schools announced that schools will be closed Friday for staff and students, with no remote learning happening. Wake County followed shortly after, announcing that all students were to be off campus by 6 p.m. Thursday and schools were canceled Friday.
Johnston County also canceled Friday classes.
School districts that cancel in-person classes due to bad weather now have the ability to switch to a remote learning day. Schools distributed laptop computers and, in some cases, hotspots to connect to the internet at home, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University canceled classes Friday; NC State originally called for a two-hour delay.
Duke University is switching to remote classes before 10 a.m. but is leaving open the possibility of some canceled classes. All on-campus classes beginning after 10 a.m. will be held as scheduled.
And East Carolina University in Greenville, UNC Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University canceled all Friday classes.
This story was originally published January 20, 2022 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Latest Triangle forecasts scaled back to 1-2 inches, disappointing snow lovers again."