Power Outage in Banner Elk, NC

County comms reported scattered to numerous trees were blown down and isolated power outages.

County comms reported multiple trees and power lines blown down in the Sugar Mountain area.

High winds developed across the mountains behind a strong cold front that swept through the region during the evening. Numerous trees were blown down. There were scattered power outages throughout the mountains.

High winds developed overnight as a strong low level jet, boosted by weak convection, brought damaging wind gusts to the surface. Damaging winds started in a few counties late in the evening, peaking between midnight and 6 am in most locations. Damage was mostly limited to downed trees and power lines, with resulting power outages, but in Madison County, a barn was blown into the road near Laurel.

Strong to damaging wind gusts developed from the northwest across the North Carolina mountains in the wake of a cold front. The main impact was across Avery County, where scattered to numerous trees were blown down and isolated power outages were reported.

As a warm front lifted slowly north across the Tennessee Valley and the Carolinas, an area of light to moderate snow developed across Avery County around daybreak on the 24th, and continued off and on through the day, except across western portions of the county, where snow changes to rain as temperatures warmed above freezing. Temperatures warming above the surface forced a transition to sleet and freezing rain across the southern and eastern part of the county during the afternoon and early evening, but not before 2-4 inches of snow had accumulated. Sleet and freezing rain continued across much of the southern and eastern part of the county through the evening. Ice accretion of around a quarter inch was reported across much of these areas by the time the precipitation tapered off during the early morning hours of the 25th. The weight of the ice downed trees and power lines, with scattered outages reported.