S. cold air wedge set up began to evolve from December 7th into December 8th as a large 1038mb Canadian surface high, anchored across eastern Pennsylvania and eastern New York wedged southwestward along the east side of the Appalachians down through Virginia into Georgia.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS RNK wrote it up.
A classic eastern U.S. cold air wedge set up began to evolve from December 7th into December 8th as a large 1038mb Canadian surface high, anchored across eastern Pennsylvania and eastern New York wedged southwestward along the east side of the Appalachians down through Virginia into Georgia. Meanwhile, a cold front was stalled along the southeast U.S. coast. In the upper-levels of the atmosphere a deep western U.S. trough was slowly shifting eastward into the central U.S. Surface low pressure was tracking along the stalled southeast U.S. frontal boundary. This feature combined with the slowly eastward tracking upper-level trough provided for the development of widespread overrunning precipitation into the cold air mass where temperatures hovered in the upper 20s and lower 30s. Given that a layer of warmer air with temperatures above freezing was present just 3000 to 4000 feet above the surface, precipitation fell largely in the cold air at the surface as a wintry mix of freezing rain and sleet, with some snow in the northern portions and higher elevations of the Blacksburg County Warning Area (CWA). This was a near perfect cold air damming/wedge pattern for the mid-Atlantic region and as such proved to be so in terms of winter weather. Freezing rain with ice accumulations ranging from from 1/10 to 1/4 inch were reported mainly across the foothills of northwest North Carolina. With warm air aloft, no significant ice accumulations were reported in the Blue Ridge mountains of Ashe and Watauga counties, nor were any significant ice accumulations reported across the further eastward Piedmont counties.
Here are some of the snow, sleet, and freezing rain accumulations reported across northwest North Carolina as of the morning of December 9, 2013:
Stokes (Danbury) - 0.13 inch ice,| (King) - 0.13 inch,|Surry (Dobson) - 0.25 inch ice,|Wilkes (Traphill) - 0.13 inch ice.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Blacksburg, VA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 8, 7:08 AM EST, 52 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 winter weather, 1 ice storm. Local standard time, as filed.
The North Carolina Department of Highways reported up to 1/4 inch ice accumulation in the Dobson area. Two trees were also down near Dobson.
The Stokes County Emergency Management Director reported 1/8 inch of ice accumulation in Danbury and the King COOP observer measured 1/8 inch ice accumulation.
The Traphill Post Office reported up to 1/8 inch ice accumulation.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in North Carolina in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in North Carolina, December 2013
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 490181, 490180, 490182.