Wake schools taking snow days one at a time

"It's too early to predict Wednesday," she said. School leaders were set to meet Tuesday afternoon to make that decision.

With many secondary and neighborhood roads iced in and temperatures not warming past the freezing mark through Monday, schools systems including Wake made the call early to cancel classes for a second day Tuesday.

Durham and Orange counties will have another snow day Tuesday, while schools in Cumberland County will operate on a two-hour delay.

Although the winter storm left widely varied effects across Wake County – some saw snow, some sleet and some little or no precipitation – Luten said the county-wide practice of assigning and busing students makes it almost impossible to open some schools and close others.

"In Wake County, many students attend a school outside their base school/neighborhood school. This means students might be crossing towns to attend a magnet school or a school they transferred to for other reason," Luten said. "The same is true for teachers. Many teachers and staff work in schools that aren't near their homes but still in Wake County."

She declined to address how long it might take to dig out the entire county and make bus lots and carpool lanes passable.

Warmer weather on Tuesday should hasten the meltdown. Temperatures should be above freezing by noon on the way to a forecast 70 degrees on Friday.

"We should see much more melting of the ice and snow during Tuesday afternoon, and with lows overnight staying well above freezing, thawing will continue," WRAL meteorologist Nate Johnson said.