Good Thursday afternoon to everyone,
Our winter weather coverage is sponsored by Wendy B’s Embroidery & Screen Printing, located in Morganton.
A look at the water vapor today shows the two players that will help produce a wide-reaching winter storm across the Eastern US and back into the Southern Plains. The feature off the coast of Southern California is ready to move on-shore while another piece of energy from the northern stream is diving down and the two features will partially phase to create the weekend mess.
Storm Timing
The forecast is become a lot more straight-forward in that the bulk of precipitation falling this weekend across the Foothills and Western Piedmont will be either sleet or freezing rain. With temperatures expected to drop into the 20’s on Saturday, anything that falls will stick on contact.
Our in-house model seems to be doing a solid job in the timing of the storm. It appears that widespread frozen precip will begin during the afternoon hours, become heavy at times Saturday night through Sunday morning with one more uptick in precip as it ends Sunday evening.
Sleet/Ice Forecast
The long duration of frozen precip and the really cold temperatures is going to lead to a major winter storm that has the potential to be disruptive for several days.
Summary
A major winter storm will impact the area beginning Saturday afternoon and will last through Sunday. Travel and/or utility disruptions are expected across the region and could be significant in some areas.
Foothills Weather Network will continue to monitor this storm at our website and on social media.
