Life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flooding rains will continue to occur across portions of central and southwestern Florida. Milton is expected to remain a hurricane while it crosses the Florida Peninsula. Please continue to monitor the National Hurricane Center webpage for the latest updates! Read More >
Winter Weather Preparedness Week for North Carolina
December 3rd - 9th, 2023
Please join us in promoting winter weather safety during this year's "Winter Weather Preparedness Week". The National Weather Service asks emergency management, public safety officials, local media and Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors to help join forces in improving the nation's readiness, responsiveness, and overall resilience against extreme weather during the winter weather season.
Each day this week, a different topic will be covered. Click on the tabs below for more winter weather preparedness information.
Sunday
Winter Season Outlook and winter weather terminology
This will provide you with some terms the National Weather Service uses to describe winter weather as well as the definitions of watches, warnings, and advisories issued for winter weather events.
Watches are issued when a storm is in it's early stage of development, and may create conditions that may harm life and property. Hazardous winter weather is only a possibility, not a certainty. The following are the watch headlines issued for winter weather events:
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Warnings are issued when the threat to life and property is imminent or has already begun from severe winter weather. The following are the warning headlines issued for winter weather events:
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Advisories are issued for less serious weather conditions that will not cause immediate threat to life and property. Advisories will be issued when weather conditions will impact motorists, outdoor activities, or public events. These events could become life-threatening if proper precautions are not taken. The following are the advisory headlines issued for winter weather events:
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Monday
Winter weather patterns affecting North Carolina
The most common and dangerous winter weather systems which can produce snow and ice are strong coastal low pressure systems known as nor'easters. This was the case almost 2 years ago on January 3rd - 4th, 2018 when more than 6" of snow fell inland across our area. In addition behind the system, often we can experience a period of very cold weather. This happened with the early January 2018 storm when many locations away from the coast had morning lows below zero, behind the system. In fact some areas had snow and ice covered roads for days! Who says Eastern North Carolina can't experience winter?
Winter storms can make driving and walking extremely dangerous. The aftermath of a major winter storm can have a devastating impact for days or even weeks. Winter storms can be deceptive killers because most deaths are indirectly related to the storm. People die in traffic accidents on icy roads, have heart attacks while shoveling snow, or succumb to fires or carbon monoxide while trying to heat their home improperly. With proper planning and preparation, you can limit or even mitigate the impacts from winter storms.
Winter infographics
Tuesday
Preparing your home for winter
Stock an emergency supply of food and water prior to the onset of a winter storm. Include food items which require no cooking such as canned meats, peanut butter and other non-perishables. Also do not forget to have necessary medicines and baby items on hand. A three to five day supply of food and medicine is generally sufficient. A lot of these items may already be in your home from your hurricane kit.
Severe winter storms can produce conditions which can isolate you in your home for several days. Prolonged loss of power and telephone services can severely limit your ability to heat your home and call for help. In severe winter storms, obtaining supplies, food and other necessities can be hampered or prevented by poor road conditions.
Example home emergency supply kit
Winter infographics
Wednesday
Driving in winter weather
Seventy-five percent of all winter weather related deaths occur on the road, either in accidents or by people becoming stranded. When the weather is bad and driving conditions are poor, the best bet is to stay at home
Winter infographics
Thursday
Excessive Cold/Reducing the fire risk in your home
Cold weather is a fact of winter. With the cold temperatures comes an increase in the number of house fires. House fires resulting from heating material within the home ranks second for the most deaths and property loss. Chimney fires are the number one cause of home heating fires and typically the result of a poorly maintained chimney where creosote is allowed to build up. Space heaters are typically involved in 25 perfect of home heating fires and account for 74 percent of the deaths. Be sure to test some detectors and replace any broken detectors and dead batteries.
Winter infographics
Friday
Winter climatology and becoming a winter weather observer
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
To accurately understand what is happening across our area in real time, we have over 500 weather spotters that have been trained to reports all types of weather to us, including rain and snowfall reports. Training is held year round and you can always find online training via our YouTube Channel. For more information on the program visit our local spotter page. We can't stress how much these real time, ground truth, reports, help us at the office.
If you're looking for something to do on a more consistent basis, have you ever heard of CoCoRaHS? Citizen scientists wishing to report snow and rainfall amounts are encouraged to join the community collaborative, rain, hail and snow network. Daily reports are sent via the internet and used by the National Weather Service and other agencies daily. For more information please visit: http://www.cocorahs.org.
Saturday
Dangers associated with freezing rain and sleet
Ice falling in the form of freezing rain is particularly dangerous and poses a variety of problems. The ability of freezing rain to accumulate on nearly every surface, including trees, power lines, and bridges, makes it one of the most dangerous forms of winter weather. As little as a quarter of an inch of freezing rain can create widespread power outages. On February 17th of 2015, inland areas of Eastern North Carolina saw widespread freezing rain of up to a quarter of an inch of ice which created power outages.
When driving, ice can be very difficult to recognize. The roadway may appear to be wet when in reality when appears to be water may actually be ice. If the temperature outside is below freezing, ice can form on the roads, especially on bridges and overpasses. When encountering ice, do not panic and do not stomp on your brakes. It is safer to slowly decelerate to a stop.
Winter infographics
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You can also contact:
Eric Seymour (Eric.Seymour@noaa.gov) for additional information about NOAA's 2023 National Weather Winter Weather Preparedness Week.