Weather

Snow in Roxboro, while most of Triangle sees cold rain continue

A few flakes of snow fell Tuesday afternoon in Roxboro while the bulk of the Triangle saw a steady, increasingly colder rain.

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WRAL Severe Weather team
RALEIGH, N.C. — A few flakes of snow fell Tuesday afternoon in Roxboro while the bulk of the Triangle saw a steady, increasingly colder rain.

Temperatures, which started in the 50s in Raleigh at sunrise, plunged into the 30s with event colder weather on the way.

The ground remained too warm for any snowflakes to stick, though, and clearing skies are behind the cold front.

"It will be clear, windy and colder overnight," said WRAL meteorologist Kat Campbell. "The record low at RDU tonight is 23 degrees, set back in 1977. We could tie that or even break the record."

Durham Public Schools canceled all after-school activities on Tuesday due to the extreme cold.

Most travelers Tuesday were able to take off without delay out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The greater problem was with flight in-bound from Boston, Chicago and New York, where more snow was either falling or in the forecast.

Overall, about one-third of flights had some form of delay Tuesday.

Valerie Morger, who was headed to Montana, scoffed at the Triangle forecast, noting,"In Montant, it's already had five snowstorms."

The wintry weather is thanks to an arctic air mass moving across the country. It brought snow from the Rocky Mountains to northern New England on Monday.

Snow fell Tuesday morning in Boone and elsewhere in the western NC mountains.

The cold in the upper atmosphere allowed for snowflakes to form, but warmer air closer to the ground melted them back to rain in central North Carolina.

"This is an unusually early and cold air mass for November," WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said. "Winds overnight will likely create wind chills in the teens so bundle up overnight and in the morning Wednesday."

Temperatures will plunge to 23 degrees Tuesday night.

Current Temperatures, DMA

Wednesday’s high will be 41 degrees, but wind chill will make the air feel like it's below freezing. Even though skies will be mostly clear, it will be a "miserable" day, Maze said.

“The best we get tomorrow is that it feels like freezing for a little while late in the day,” WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said.

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