Thursday saw an encouraging degree of snow melt, as temperatures squeaked above freezing by a couple of degrees during the afternoon hours. But officials say that doesn’t mean it’s safe to hit the roads on Friday.
Winter Storm Grayson dumped between two and four inches of snow around the Cape Fear region – after first dropping a thin coat of ice. City of Wilmington officials posted a late afternoon picture of Independence Boulevard – which looked slushy, but drivable. Folks, though, can’t throw caution to the wind just yet, says Mark Bacon, Meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"Temperatures should fall below freezing fairly quickly after sunset and probably be below freezing area-wide by about 8 pm – and that’s at which point things will start to re-freeze and that process will just become quicker and quicker as the night progresses and temperatures fall into the 20s and the upper teens."
With those temperatures and a northerly wind blowing, Bacon says there will be single-digit wind chills overnight and in the pre-dawn hours of Friday.
" A lot of businesses and schools are closing once again tomorrow. And so I would say to people who don’t have to travel probably shouldn’t do so. And if they do have to travel, they should wait for the temperature to rise above freezing when conditions may improve just a little bit."
New Hanover and Brunswick County Schools, Government offices, and Courthouses are closed tomorrow.
Check with your institution or destination before heading out on Friday.
