A cold front moved across North Carolina on Monday night (12/2) and Tuesday (12/3). A very cold arctic airmass moved into the state behind the front, as a high pressure system moved into the Great Lakes region (see below). Low temperatures on Wednesday morning (12/4) fell into the teens across the mountains, the 20s across much of the Piedmont and 30s across the Coastal Plain and Coastal Region. Indicative of an arctic airmass, dew points across central North Carolina ranged from -2 to 5 degrees F.
Weather Pattern
Freezing rain accumulation for the December 4-5, 2002, winter storm.
The NWS forecast office in Raleigh issued winter storm warnings for 22 counties in central North Carolina. Advanced lead time for the warnings ranged from 13 to 28 hours. All 22 warnings verified with total ice accumulations from freezing rain exceeding the warning threshold of 1/4 inch. Here are some of the points that NWS forecasters emphasized to issue the accurate warnings:
- Given the Miller type “B” pattern of cyclogenesis with an accompanying strong “wedge” from cold air damming, forecasters expected a precipitation type distribution characterized by corridors of predominant precipitation types.
State Climate Office looks back: https://climate.ncsu.edu/blog/2015/12/nc-extremes-an-ice-storm-for-the-ages/
