When snow is in the forecast, it's pretty common that I'm tied to the local area for coverage, whether on TV or radio, but the snow expected on Thursday Feb 10th, 2011 was shaping up to be very light (trace to an inch) for most of central NC, while we were forecasting more like 1-4 inches toward the mountains and also across the northeastern coastal plain and central/northern coast. That being the case, I had my usual Thursday/Friday "weekend" off, and my wife Sandy and I decided on a last-minute "snow chaser" trip to our family's place on the north shore of the Pamlico River a few miles west of where it joins with the Pungo.
When we arrived Wednesday evening, it was already raining lightly, and went on to rain more substantially through early the next morning. However, as forecast, colder air rolling in west of a weak coastal low brought a rain-to-sleet-to-snow transition during the night, and we woke up to a snow-covered pre-dawn landscape. I've been going to this place since before I was one year old, and it was the first time I've been there for snow, so it was a really enjoyable visit!
In the end, elevated surfaces like the car, decks, piers and areas with thick grass picked up about a 2-3 inch thick coating of snow, while patches of ground with little grass cover or just some pine straw ended up melting a lot of the snow as it landed. Nonetheless, a beautiful scene as the snow fell at light to moderate rates until 10 or so in the morning, and well worth the trip! I included a few pictures above, along with a National Weather Service contour map of reported accumulations across the state.
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