March Snows

By now, you've probably heard the chatter about snow in the forecast for late in the weekend and early next week. While it's too early to say exactly what areas of central and eastern North Carolina will see snow and how much will fall, it has people asking how rare is snow in March?


While snow is not a frequent event in March, there are several examples of significant March snowfalls. One famous event was a storm dubbed the March 1993 Superstorm. That storm only produced about an inch of snow across the Triangle, but it was a much different story in the mountains where they measured the snow in feet --

In March 1983, a storm dropped up to 8 to 9 inches on portions of eastern and northeastern North Carolina --

And, in March of 1980, a storm on the first two days of the month produced over a foot of snow in eastern North Carolina --

If you go way back, you'll also find a big snow storm that produced 17.8" of snow in Raleigh. That was the record snowfall for the Triangle until January 2000.

Will March 2009 go down in the book as starting with snow? Stay tuned to News 14 Carolina and Weather on the Ones as we fine tune the forecast for late in the weekend and early next week.