WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-NC mountains suffer under blizzard conditions
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Residents in the NC mountains get more snow on Wednesday. (Photos submitted by Kristen Hampton)
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - The North Carolina mountains received even more snow on Wednesday while other places in the WBTV coverage area, including Charlotte, are dealing with extremely high winds. (Read a story about high winds)
Around noon Wednesday, a Blizzard Warning was issued for Avery, Mitchell, Yancey, northern Caldwell, northern Burke and northern McDowell counties until 7 am Thursday.
A High Wind Warning is also in effect for the rest of the WBTV coverage area until 6 am Thursday.
Watch the latest video forecast
In the mountains, one to three inches of new snow had fallen early Wednesday morning for most of the higher elevations in Avery, Yancey and Mitchell Counties. There were six inches of snow reported at Mt. Mitchell.
"With a very unstable atmosphere in place this afternoon, snow showers and squalls will really pick up creating near blizzard conditions at times today," said WBTV Meteorologist Al Conklin. "The mountains could see one to two more inches in the lower elevations and four to six more inches of snow in the higher elevations out in ski country."
Outside of the mountains, the issue is not snow, but rather wind.
"We had initial gusts of 40 to 60 mph in the mountains Wednesday morning and 30 to 40 mph gusts outside of the mountains as the front moved through the area," Conklin said. "There has been a little lull since daybreak, but that will soon change. "
As of 4:30 p.m., the Duke Energy website reported 47,468 outages systemwide in North and Courth Carolina. The highest number of outages were reported in Caldwell (1,289), Catawba (1,886), Mecklenburg (3,505) and Rowan (3,901) counties.
Duke Energy customers are encouraged to call 1-800-POWERON to report outages and get an estimated time of restoration.
Earlier in the day, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation said 353 members were without power with 179 in Caldwell County, 92 in Alleghany County, 77 in Avery County and five in Wilkes County. The outages were caused by high winds predicted to gust up to 70 mph.
If you have a power outage and are serviced by Blue Ridge Electric, you should call 1-800-448-2383.
Here is the forecast for the remainder of the week:
Today: Mostly sunny and cold, high 39, but the wind will make it feel much colder than that. Strong, gusty and damaging wind of 20-30 with gusts over 50 mph are likely outside of the mountains, gusts of 60-70 mph are possible there with near blizzard conditions.
Tonight: Clear, brisk and cold, low 23.
Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, continued chilly, the wind won't be quite so strong, high 45.
Friday: Becoming mostly cloudy, there could be a little rain or snow around at night, nothing major expected at this time, high 44.
Continue checking WBTV.com for the latest updates on the weather.
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