Icy threat skips High Point

HIGH POINT — The city escaped the brunt of a winter storm that brought ice and snow to points north and west on Monday, but another weather system with wintry precipitation may arrive later this week.

High Point didn’t have significant disruptions from the storm that pounded the Foothills and High Country and brought freezing rain as close as Forsyth County and northern Guilford County.

The High Point Electric Utilities Department reported no outages as of early Monday afternoon.

The High Point Police Department handled two wrecks between midnight and 9 a.m. compared to three wrecks during the same period the previous Monday, Dec. 30, when there was no winter weather.

The storm system compelled leaders of the Guilford, Davidson and Randolph County schools and Thomasville city schools to cancel classes on Monday, which was supposed to be the first day back after the Christmas and New Year’s winter break.

Guilford County Schools officials cited “continued freezing on the roadways in the northern part of the county.”

The primary reason that High Point was spared greater amounts of freezing rain is that the storm system locked in colder temperatures just north of the city, National Weather Service Meteorologist Jonathan Blaes said.

“It was a function of where the colder air was and the precipitation spreading into it,” Blaes told The High Point Enterprise. “Places in the north and northwest had more icing.”

The next weather system could bring frozen precipitation to the Piedmont Triad later Friday into early Saturday, though Blaes said that specifics won’t firm up until Wednesday at the earliest.

At this point forecasters expect it probably would involve primarily snow with much less of a chance of freezing rain or sleet.

The possible impact of the storm will depend on a variety of factors, including the track of the weather system, its timing to reach North Carolina and where freezing temperatures develop, Blaes said.

“We could get anything from very little to a snow that is shovelable and plowable,” he said. “For the snow lovers, this is probably the best weather pattern we’ve had in a couple of years to produce some snow.”

pjohnson@hpenews.com | 336-888-3528 | @HPEpaul

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