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While we had our own bout with winter weather this week, our snowy episode pales in comparison to what’s expected across the southeast this weekend. Winter Storm Warnings are already in place from Louisiana to Massachusetts for all the snow, sleet, freezing rain and ice headed their way. This is the first Winter Storm Warning issued by NWS Birmingham since March 4, 2015! In fact, as I was writing this post, the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area was placed under a Blizzard Warning!
This is all the result of a low pressure system spinning along the gulf coast. Areas just north of where this low is are in a kind of battle zone.
While areas in the Carolinas are cold through the entire column of the atmosphere and can support larger amounts of snow, areas to the south closer to the gulf have warmer air aloft. When you get snow forming up in the clouds, melting in a warmer layer but hitting a freezing surface on the ground, you have an instant recipe for freezing rain and ice accumulations.
Further north, this winter storm is going to drop a healthy amount of snow on the Carolinas, including the possibility of 7 inches of snow in the Charlotte area!
And of course this means bread and milk are in short supply around the region.
Just terrifying.
Luckily for us, we won’t have to deal with snow for awhile. The forecast after a brutally cold weekend looks much warmer with temperatures once again topping 50ºF with, yes, a chance for some rain but everything will stay liquid.