This is why Charlotte got little snow on Friday

CHARLOTTE — Friday’s winter storm may have seemed like a letdown in Charlotte where less than an inch of snow fell while other areas got more.

There were several reasons why snow totals didn’t pan out as much as we expected, Meteorologist Joe Puma said. They were the presence of dry air and a change in the temperature profile.

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Dry air: We had to overcome a huge area of very dry air at the surface. We started the day with dew points in the lower teens, which is very dry for a system like that. So, this means the snow was falling from the clouds but evaporating into that dry layer.

As the moisture evaporated, it helped saturate that layer of air and eventually those flakes got through. The delay in the snow making it to the ground resulted in less snow overall.

Warm air came in earlier: With the delay in the onset of snow, the system brought warmer temperatures into the mix, changing precipitation over to freezing rain and ice. While this still has impacts, it was still battling dry air so even those amounts were lower.

So, with those two big factors, our result was much different, Puma said. It was still a very impactful storm and shows that a minor change in temperature can dramatically change the type of precipitation falls.

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