A winter that's been otherwise lacking in snowfall for much of the state finally produced some modest amounts across the northwestern half of our viewing area late Sunday and Sunday night, but with soil temperatures around 45-50 when it first moved in, and 40-45 early Monday, along with lots of sun and warming air temperatures to start the week,it didn't hang around for long!

To show how rapidly it disappeared from a "satellite's eye" view, I've got a couple of images to share here. The first is a nice full color high-resolution image from a polar orbiting satellite, taken during the mid-morning hours on Monday before we warmed up much. You can see some interesting details, including lingering clouds over the northeast corner of the state, and the snow-covered ground farther northwest and up into VA and our mountains. Beyond that is a series of black and white images from a geostationary satellite in a much higher orbit. The three images are from just before 10 AM, 1PM and 3 PM respectively, and clearly show how quickly the snow cover was melting away.

We ended up reaching a high of 49 at RDU yesterday, and the warming temperatures will be a notable trend the next few days, with many of us likely to see afternoon readings in the 70s on Thursday...