Sandy brings rain, wind, snow to NC

"The scary thing about this storm is that is such a huge storm in terms of size and how many people it will impact," Fishel said.

At 8 p.m. Sunday, Sandy was packing 75 mph winds, and its center was 400 miles east-southeast of Raleigh, moving northeast at 15 mph. It's expected to turn to the northwest and make landfall somewhere along the New Jersey coast late Monday or early Tuesday, then continue inland as far as the Great Lakes.

So far, North Carolina has seen a storm surge as high as 3.5 feet at Duck, 5.78 inches of rain at Hatteras and 40 mph wind gusts throughout the coast.

The wrap-around moisture from the large hurricane will give North Carolina alternating periods of dry sunshine and rainy clouds on Monday.

The heaviest rain will move to northeastern coastal counties. In the Triangle, light showers could fall at any time of the day, but the best chance for rain will come during the evening, around rush-hour. Winds will gust between 30 and 40 mph.

Very different precipitation will fall in the mountains.

 "It may bring a significant winter storm to the mountains of North Carolina," Fishel said.

By Tuesday, between 4 to 8 inches of snow could have fallen, with some higher elevations maybe getting a foot.

The cold will also come to the Triangle Tuesday, as central and eastern North Carolina dry out from Sandy.

The high will be around 46 degrees on Tuesday and 55 degrees Wednesday. Overnight lows both days will be in the 30s.

"It's going to be very chilly for the trick-or-treaters," WRAL metereologist Aimee Wilmoth said.

 By next weekend, the mercury will creep back into the mid 60s under sunny skies.