Winter Weather — Oconee Mountains, South Carolina

2016-02-15 to 2016-02-16 · Oconee Mountains, South Carolina

Wider weather episode

Very light freezing rain, freezing drizzle, and freezing mist developed across portions of Upstate South Carolina during the morning, in assocation with low pressure developing along a warm front across the Gulf Coast states/Tennessee Valley. Despite the very light nature of the precipitation, due to about a week of unseasonably cold weather, the precipitation froze to surfaces very quickly, and roads became very slick, resulting in numerous traffic accidents. Hundreds of accidents, including at least two involving fatalities, occurred in the Greenville area alone. Although precipitation rates increased during the evening, as the warm front gradually pushed north into the area, temperatures warmed above freezing in many locations, allowing much of this heavy precip to fall as rain. Most locations saw less than a tenth of an inch of ice accretion.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 615013. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.