Any way you slice it, tonight will be icy. Even if you dodge the bullet of sleet and freezing rain this evening, there will be a ton of water left around to freeze as temps fall to around 20.
An impressive surge of cold air has been dropping temps more than 20 degrees over the course of just 2 hours. Temps are running about 36-37 in the Triangle with 34 numbers showing up in the counties just to the north. I don’t expect the Triangle to hit freezing until at least 8pm. So there’s probably not going to be a great deal of freezing rain, in favor of some minor accumulations of sleet. However, the heavy precip is over and what will come thru in the next couple hours will be lighter than what we saw earlier today. So, look for a lull in the precip for another hour or so and then sleet showers mixed with freezing rain…maybe a little snow late?
Sleet falling will be more efficient in cooling the surface and especially warm roadways. This will set the stage for hazardous roads once the temps get a few degrees below freezing.
So, expect minor sleet accumulations and maybe a little glaze in the trees and elevated surfaces. But the real story will be icy roads as the evening wears on and especially as near that low of 20.
5:12 PM, March 5, 2015Mark Hines /
Looking desperately for a “Loel” in the “precept” 🙂