Raise your hand if you remember Raleigh’s great snowfall of 2000.
ICYMI (or were just a wee snowflake at the time), here’s what happened: On January 25, Raleighites woke up to an all time record-busting snowstorm — which lasted the whole day, accumulating 20.3 inches of powdery snow in total.
While the day did bring its fair share of aggravation like power outages and blocked roads (for several days after the fact, we’re told), we’re pretty sure residents across the Triangle also celebrated the snowfall with snowman-making and hot chocolate-sipping (that’s what we would have done.)
Here are some more snowtable facts about the Triangle’s winter weather:
❄️ Other heavy snowfalls in Raleigh:
- 17.8 inches of snow, March 1927
- 17.7 inches of snow, February 1899
- 14.5 inches of snow, February 1948
- 11.5 inches of snow, February 1902
- 11.1 inches of snow, March 1980
- 10.8 inches of snow, January 2002
- 10.3 inches of snow, February 1979
❄️ The earliest snowfall:
- North Carolina has seen flakes fall much earlier in the year. The earliest report was on Sept. 30, 2011, on Beech Mountain in Western NC.
❄️ The latest snowfall:
- Raleigh’s last measurable snowfall was on Jan. 29, 2022, and next month could mark three years without snow. Raleigh’s longest snow drought was 1,164 days, ending in ’93 — fingers crossed for snow before April 7, 2025.
- The most common spring day for snowfall in our city is March 12 with three different recordings.
While Raleigh isn’t known for its chilly weather, Oak City has seen its fair share of below-freezing temps. Raleigh’s coldest day on record was recorded at -9 degrees on Jan. 21, 1985 during a widespread freeze from a southern-shifting polar vortex.
For some context, the last time Raleigh experienced single digits was Jan. 7, 2018 with 4 degrees, and the closest we’ve come to negative in recent memory was 0 degrees on Feb. 5, 1996. Before 1985, the coldest temp on record was a comparatively toasty -2 degrees in 1899.
And before you start Instacarting the milk, bread, and eggs this year, know that this winter’s forecast doesn’t call for much snow at all in the Triangle — but that doesn’t mean we won’t wish for snow days anyway.
