A note from Theo Lane with Duke Energy regarding winter weather

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Winter weather is becoming increasingly likely across northeastern South Carolina and eastern North Carolina Wednesday afternoon and evening. Several inches of snow accumulation are possible, especially across eastern/northeastern North Carolina. The main concern is hazardous road conditions. An area of low pressure will develop near the northern Bahamas later today and move rapidly to the north toward the Carolina coast through Wednesday night. Precipitation will start across northeastern South Carolina around midday Wednesday and then overspread the remainder of the area through the afternoon. For locations along and northwest of I-95, temperatures will be cold enough for all precipitation to fall as snow. However, there is some uncertainly as to how far inland the precipitation will spread. For these areas, snowfall amounts will be less than 1 inch. For locations south and east of I-95, along the immediate coastline, precipitation will fall mainly as rain during the afternoon hours before a transition to wintry mix late afternoon into the evening. Inland, a wintry mix is likely in the afternoon but then the mix/snow line will shift toward the coast and by late evening most locations across eastern North Carolina can expect light snow. Several inches of snow accumulation are possible across eastern/northeastern NC where precipitation will last the longest overnight. Precipitation is expected to end by daybreak Thursday across northeastern North Carolina. The main concern is hazardous road conditions, as it typically takes 4 inches or more of snow accumulation to begin seeing snow-related power outages. However, these hazardous road conditions could result in isolated power outages.