(Photo by Lincoln County Sheriff's Department)
It was certainly not a white Christmas this year with higher than average temps melting most of the snow cover. However, a slow-moving low pressure system hit right after Christmas to give the area a late coating of white.
This storm didn’t start out as a simple belated Christmas gift of snow. Instead, the storm started off with rain/freezing rain on Wednesday, December 26, with intermittent bursts of snow thrown in as temperatures hovered around freezing. This briefly created hazardous roads Wednesday morning. Roads cleared throughout the day Wednesday as temperatures rose above freezing for most of the day.
Rain continued from Wednesday through to Thursday morning, which is when things started to get dangerous quickly. After hours of rain, temperatures plummeted to below freezing and the precipitation rapidly switched over to snow. This resulted in extremely difficult driving conditions due to roads becoming ice and snow covered, with the rain from earlier in the day freezing underneath the falling snow. Plummeting temperatures, including subzero wind-chills, and high winds added to the travel hazards.
LOGIN to read more.