The snow is melting, but be careful: Even clear roads and sidewalks may be icy
The Triangle’s first winter storm ended a 14-month snow drought but quickly faded into slush and mud, leaving little behind but the risk of treacherous black ice.
State troopers responded to “many” wrecks across North Carolina but the storm caused no reported deaths by midday Friday. Gov. Roy Cooper cautioned that highways remain slick in spots statewide, noting that troopers had closed some roads and bridges.
“While conditions are improving, drivers must still be cautious on icy roads and bridges,” Cooper said in a Friday press release. “It’s safer to stay home today unless you have to be on the roads.”
Crashes stalled or shut down several major routes in the Triangle early Friday, including northbound U.S. 1 in Cary and the U.S. 64/264 bypass at exit 13. But they reopened shortly after sunrise.
A state Capitol Police officer was injured in a wreck on her way to work Friday. The N.C. Department of Public Safety warned of continuing slick conditions and urged, “We are all susceptible to icy roads.”
The Triangle had not seen measurable snow since December 2018. The National Weather Service reported 1 to 4.5 inches across central North Carolina.
The slushy snow that began falling on the Triangle and Eastern North Carolina on Thursday closed schools across the region and delayed the opening of many government offices until temperatures rose under sunny skies.
But snow that fell overnight had refrozen as black ice in many places, so that even pavement that appeared clear could be slick, according to the weather service.
Duke Energy reported about 2,500 customers in Central and Eastern North Carolina without power at noon Friday, down from a peak of more than 30,000 late Thursday but more than at 6 a.m.
The N.C. Electric Cooperatives reported about 1,900 customers without power at 8 a.m., mostly in northeastern counties.
The region’s first snow fall of the season left a blanket of white clinging to trees and bushes. The National Weather Service says 2.5 inches fell at RDU, but that areas north and east of the airport received more.
The highest readings in the Triangle were in Franklin County, where 4 inches was reported northeast of Youngsville, said Tom Green, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Raleigh.
Downtown Raleigh’s main streets were damp but clear of ice, giving the few commuters no problems.
With ground temperatures warmer than the air, much of that snow melted from underneath, Green said.
“We’ve had an extremely warm winter in general, and we’ve been very warm through the month of February as well,” he said.
The snow that remained began to melt Friday, as temperatures were expected to top out in the upper 30s. But it was expected to remain cold, dropping into the low 20s Friday night into Saturday morning, creating more black ice on wet roads.
The weather service forecast calls for a low of 21 in the Triangle on Saturday morning, which would make it the coldest day of the season so far, Green said. The current low for the season was 24.
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 5:31 AM with the headline "The snow is melting, but be careful: Even clear roads and sidewalks may be icy."
