It has been seventeen years since a record snow storm buried Raleigh under 20" of snow. The official total for the January 24-25, 2000 storm at the Raleigh-Durham Airport was 20.3." Some locations near Raleigh reported up to 24".
Many locations in central North Carolina from Anson County near the South Carolina border to near the Virginia border northeast of Raleigh recorded at least 15" of snow. Snow was not reported in most of the mountains of western North Carolina.
The large amount of snow was a surprise to many as the storm was not well forecast by computer models. Many meteorologists including researchers at North Carolina State University have since studied the storm, and many advancements have been made in computer forecast models. This research along with improvements in model forecasts will hopefully prevent a large suprise snow storm in the future.