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Snow in April? Yes, in York, Chester and Lancaster counties


Yes, that was snow falling Tuesday morning -- in April -- in York, Lancaster and Chester counties.

Weather forecasters said the ground was too warm for the snow to stick. But there were plenty of areas across the three counties where you could see snow-covered lawns, tree limbs weighed down by wet white poweder, and loose, icy sludge on highways.


Snow began falling around 8 a.m. across the Rock Hill area.

It appeared to be the heaviest April snowfall in the area for 38 years, and possibly more than a half-century.

Temperatures were several degrees above freezing, which prevented road conditions from deteriorating. But it fell hard enough in places to accumulate.

For most people in the Rock Hill area, it was the first snow of the season. Some sleet and freezing rain fell during a storm in early December, but the rest of the winter of 2018-19 was marked by rain.

National Weather Service meteorologists said earlier Tuesday morning that they suspected a storm system strengthening off the Carolinas coast, combined with cold air aloft, would cause moderate snow to fall south or southeast of Charlotte. The problem, meteorologist Jake Wimberley said, was predicting exactly where.

The heaviest band of snow appeared to fall in a corridor from northern York and Lancaster counties up into Union and Anson counties of North Carolina. About an inch had accumulated by 9:45 a.m. in downtown Monroe.

A trace of snow was reported in Charlotte in early April last year, but the last measurable April snow, according to National Weather Service records, was in 1981. The last time an inch or more fell in April was in 1961.

The rain and snow will be long gone by Wednesday, forecasters say, replaced by much more spring-like conditions. After a chilly morning, with a chance of patchy frost in areas, afternoon highs are expected to climb into the upper 60s under sunny skies, forecasters say.

And highs will reach the 70s by Thursday, meteorologists add. Highs in the 60s and 70s are forecast into next week.




www.charlotteobserver.com

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