NORTH CAROLINA -- As we watch the forecast and the wintry storm taking aim at North Carolina, it's interesting that big winter storms are rare in December for the Tar Heel State.

  • These storms are rare in December in the Tar Heel State
  • In 2009, a storm brought more than a foot of snow in the mountains
  • Snow also fell Christmas 2010

Storm systems like this typically occur in our area in January and February, and even in early March, but a late fall winter storm is a little more unusual for our state.

Where as the mountains can see an early season snow, its a little less likely that we'll see that wintry precipitation at the lower elevations this time of the year.

However, it does happen from time to time.

In December 2009, a winter storm brought more than a foot of snow to our mountains.  West of the mountains, the foothills picked up 6 to 10 inches of snow and the Triad saw 4 to 8 inches of accumulation. Charlotte up to the Triangle averaged a trace of snow.

The following year, the Christmas 2010 snow storm dropped snow from the mountains all the way to the Outer Banks.  Along the coast, most areas saw a trace of snow.  Farther inland, most areas across the state saw multiple inches of snow including around a foot along the northern I-95 corridor.

As for the storm we're dealing with this weekend, only time will tell on how it will go down in the North Carolina winter weather books.

 

 

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