Ice Storm and Winter Weather in North Carolina, January 29 to 30, 2000

Weakening low pressure in the Ohio River Valley, developing low pressure along the Gulf Coast and cold, arctic air in place across the Carolinas resulted in a wintry mess across western North Carolina. This was the last in a series of 5 winter storms that wreaked havoc on western North Carolina in an 11 day span. The ice storm in the mountains consisted mainly of a couple inches of sleet. However, the combined accumulation of the mixture of sleet and snow was generally 2 to 3 inches. Some freezing rain mixed in during the morning of the 30th. Across the foothills and piedmont, precipitation which briefly began as some light sleet and snow, turned quickly to freezing rain. The freezing rain was heavy enough across the southern piedmont, including the Charlotte area, to result in a 1/4 to 1/2 inch glaze. Scattered power outages resulted, with Gaston county reporting 2500 people without power. The entire Duke Power system reported 77,000 people without power.