The National Weather Service (NWS) delivered its own holiday surprise at 3:01 p.m. on Christmas Day when it cancelled a Winter Storm Watch for Sunday evening and replaced it with much a more significant Blizzard Watch and dire predictions of snowfall accumulations over 12 inches.
Coastal communities, including those in Lincoln County, will see the brunt of the coming storm, including the heaviest snow accumulations, according to the NWS.
Forecasters have been watching the system that is predicted to bring us this weather for several days, but the storm track was uncertain – and included the possibility that it might miss us completely. All of that ended Christmas Day.
The present forecast calls for a classic nor’easter sequence, with the storm front now shaping up in the Gulf of Mexico crossing the Florida Panhandle and then strengthening in the Atlantic as it chugs up the eastern seaboard, arriving in Lincoln County late Sunday afternoon.
Snowfall, heavy at times, is forecast to continue through Sunday night and into Monday afternoon, according to the NWS. The strongest winds are forecast for Monday morning, blowing out of the north with a sustained velocity of 25-30 mph and gusting to 40 mph, according to the NWS.
The NWS warns of slick, snow-covered roads beginning Sunday night and then increasing winds on Monday causing blizzard and white-out conditions, making “travel very dangerous”.
The Lincoln County News website will continue to monitor the progress of this event and post any additional information here as soon as it becomes available.
