Saturday night and into Sunday morning hours, roughly 2 inches of sleet and snow fell across the Triad and High Country.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Jonathan Blaes says, that’s the good news.
"Because sleet and snow is always much better than freezing rain," says Blaes. "The air mass is changing a little bit. We're starting to get away from the small snow crystals that we had overnight and into more just sleet in the Triad and some of those other spots north and west. And then as the morning wears on into the early afternoon, we'll see that sleet mix increasingly with just freezing rain."
Blaes says unseasonably cold temperatures over the next few days won’t help area commuters as they attempt to navigate icy roadways.
"Unless those roads are heavily treated and aggressively worked upon, that sleet and snow is not going to go anywhere," he says. "So neighborhood roads, shady spots that won't get any sun for the next few days, they're going to remain ice-covered and snow-covered.
The combination of freezing rain and plummeting temperatures will lead to what he calls difficult driving conditions.
And as for the flight cancellations and delays at Piedmont Triad International Airport, Blaes says maintaining runways isn’t the issue. It’s airline operators.
"They are afraid of having their aircraft and their people locked into places and airports where they're going to get snowed in or stuck," says Blaes. "So, they tend to kind of just cancel things, so when they're ready, they can restart operations more efficiently."
Piedmont Triad Airport Authority's Stephanie Freeman writes that PTI remains open, and while some flights continue to operate, the airlines have cancelled most flights. She's urging customers to check with their airline before driving to the airport.
