UPDATED 1700 2/20/20 - A Winter Storm Warning is in effect until Friday morning. The National Weather Service office in Newport is expecting snowfall amounts topping off at 4-to-6 inches with locally higher amounts up to 8 inches for inland areas including Greenville, Farmville, Grifton, Plymouth Snow Hill, Washington, Kinston and Vanceboro. Closer to the coast, areas including New Bern, Havelock, Oriental and Bayboro could see 3-to-5 inches of snow with winds gusting as high as 35 miles per hour. Winter precipitation in the evening should transition to all snow late tonight with the heaviest snow during the overnight hours.
There are multiple school closures reported including East Carolina University, whose last class met at 3:30 pm Thursday and was scheduled to re-open at 11 am Friday. Craven Community College, Wayne County Schools and Pamlico County Schools announced they will be closed Friday while schools in Greene County closed early Thursday. Check with your school for their Friday opening plans.
UPDATED 6:30 am 02/20/20 - Inland portions of Eastern North Carolina could see several inches of snow as a low pressure system moves off the coast Thursday night. Rainfall will transition to a wintery mix, then to all snow Thursday evening through Friday morning. The changeover from rain to snow will occur from west to east. The heaviest snowfall is expected in areas along and west of Highway 17, with snow accumulation up to six inches possible.
“Up toward the Greenville area and the Williamston area, those folks will probably get some flakes by day’s end on Thursday evening. And down by the coast, we may not see snow until midnight,” said Erik Heden, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It just depends on where you live.”
The current forecast predicts about four to six inches of snowfall in New Bern, Greenville, Washington, and Plymouth. Two to four inches of snowfall is possible in Kinston and Jacksonville. About one to two inches of snow accumulation is expected in Morehead City, Beaufort, and the areas along the coast.
Temperatures on Thursday night will dip below freezing, creating potentially hazardous travel conditions Friday morning with slush on secondary roads as well as overpasses, bridges and sidewalks. Strong wind gusts on Thursday and Friday may cause scattered power outages and blow small limbs down. Any snow that falls may refreeze overnight Friday as temperatures are expected to fall below 25 degrees across the region.
The approaching winter storm may seem surprising given that the official start of spring is only a month away and some places in Eastern North Carolina set record high temperatures in the 80s just last week. But according to Heden, a significant snowfall in late February or March is not unusual.
“Yes, most significant snowfalls have been in the month of January or early February, but we can get these from time to time even followed by periods of warmer weather before. Folks that have lived in the area for a long time may remember one of our biggest snowstorms ever was March 1, 1980. That snowfall, we had 20” to 30” of snow across Onslow, Carteret, and Craven counties.”
The next weather briefing from the National Weather Service office in Newport, N.C. is expected 8 a.m. Thursday morning.
