Cold front brings cool to NC, snow to East Coast

A few light sprinkles will linger in central and eastern North Carolina through late Monday afternoon, and blustery winds will gust up to 30 mph.

Temperatures will stay on the cool side for spring weather. The mercury won't get above the mid 50s Monday, and in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, it will fall into the upper 30s.

"The air is so chilly we have some snow along the spine of the Appalachians from West Virginia all the way up into Pennsylvania and New Hampshire," WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said. "We may even see some snow flurries around our mountains as well."

Some flurries flew in West Jefferson early Monday, and another band of snow could swing south over the northern North Carolina mountains later in the day.

"We're talking about more of 'wow, gee whiz, look, there's a little bit of snow falling,' rather than anything that's really going to cause any true problems," Gardner said.

The mountainous areas of New York and Pennsylvania could get up to 12 inches of snow by Tuesday morning. "It's unusual but not unheard of," said Kevin Fitzgerald, a National Weather Service meteorologist in State College, Pa.

Patchy frost could greet some early risers in the Triangle, Fayetteville and surrounding counties Tuesday. Frost is more likely to form in sheltered, outlying areas.

"The chilly air sticks with us for another 24 hours," Gardner said. "After that, things start to warm up gradually."

Tuesday will see a high in the mid 60s, and the 70s will return on Wednesday and stay there the rest of the week.

Tuesday night will see a slim chance of a sprinkle or two, but Thursday has the best next shot at rain. Scattered showers and storms are possible that day.