ASHEBORO N.C. — As fast as it came, it left. After a week of unusually warm weather, rain, strong winds and the first snowfall of the year brought headaches throughout Randolph County.
The system responsible for todays snow was expected to drop some wintery mix mostly in the northern parts of the triad turned out to be stronger than expected according to Scotty Powell, a Meteorologist with Carolina Weather Group. “So the precipitation was a little heavier which allowed colder air to the surface. So that is why some areas was able to see snow that wasn’t necessarily supposed to” said Powell.
The National Weather Service in Raleigh issued a Wind Advisory as well as several flash flood watches in the early morning hours. The majority of the headache came from the rain and strong winds which downed trees and powerlines knocking out power to around 9,000 customers in Randolph County according to the NC Department of Public Safety. By 6:45 P.M. crews with power companies had restored power to almost 5,000 customers without outage numbers down to 3,657. Power is expected to be fully restored to all customers by tomorrow afternoon. Snow created hazardous traveling conditions for many during their morning commute. NCDOT reported over 20 roads closed in across Randolph county due to downed trees and/or flooding.
Due to power outages and downed trees Randolph County Schools closed today and tomorrow will be operating on a 3 hour delay. Asheboro City Schools closed Guy B. Teachey Elementary School at 1 p.m. due to power outages, buth otherwise operated on a normal schedule. The city school system has not announced any closings or delays for tomorrow. (View our Closings / Delays Page for up to date information)
Tonight lows are expected to drop to around 23 which will cause wet roads to freeze. Patches of ice may still be present on roadways in the morning, especially on bridges, creating another hazardous morning commute.
So, was that it for the winter weather for the foreseeable future? Maybe, “Our next storms system will be towards the Thursday /Friday timeframe.” says Powell. “Right now looks to be rain, but we will have to monitor the forecast as models have indicated a chance of some wintry weather, but there is NO guarantee of that right now.”
A Note From News Director
A special thank you to Meteorologist Scotty Powell with Carolina Weather Group for his time today speaking with us. Be sure to check out their website at https://carolinaweathergroup.com/ and follow them on Facebook or Twitter.
Another big thank you to all of our readers who shared photos and videos with us today.