South Carolina Sees Snow On Beach

Beginning late January 30 and lasting until Sunday February 1, Winter Storm Gianna slammed parts of the East.

This second winter storm in a week hammered parts of the Southeast with heavy snow and intensified into a potent nor'easter, bringing strong winds and coastal flooding from the Carolinas to New England.

For parts of North Carolina, this storm proved historic, with nearly a foot of snow in places like Charlotte, nearly double what the city sees in an entire winter season.

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Power outages and life-threatening cold followed days after the snow and wind moved away.

(MORE: How To Survive A Winter Power Outage)

Snow Reports

Unlike Fern which brought all types of wintry precipitation, Gianna was all about the snow.

The winter storm wrung out at least a foot of snow in over 100 locations in North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and far southern Virginia. The highest was in Faust, North Carolina, with a whopping 22.5 inches.

One notable swath of heavy snowfall occurred along the I-85 corridor from Charlotte to Greensboro, where 8 to 15 inches of snow fell. Early Saturday evening, a crash on Interstate 85 northbound trapped 100 vehicles when tractor trailers behind the scene of the original accident became stuck.

Charlotte saw 11 inches of snowfall in one day. That is more than they often get in an entire season. It is also a tie for the 4th snowiest day on record for the city.

Several locations in eastern North Carolina have also picked up over 10 inches of snow, including near Greenville and Morehead City. One storm chaser in North Carolina's Outer Banks documented that conditions deteriorated quickly early Saturday evening in Kill Devil Hills.

Parts of northeastern Georgia have picked up as much as 8 inches of snow. There was even snowfall in Atlanta, which caused some hazardous roads.

At least light accumulations have been reported as far south as Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. Flurries have fallen in northern Florida, including Marianna, Tallahassee and Jacksonville.

This snowfall, along with gusty winds, led to thousands of flight delays, and cancellations of events for the Braves and NASCAR in the Southeast. For a more comprehensive list of impacts as they occurred, view our recap of the event below.

(Live Blog | Saturday, January 31)

Bitter cold air will blast into the Southeast behind Winter Storm Gianna. Such brutal Arctic air has already proven fatal earlier this month. For more on the potential record cold, check out our comprehensive forecast.

Brutal Cold That Followed

After the storm wrapped up, the East was not out of the woods yet.

Bitter cold swept in after Gianna, sinking all the way down to Florida. Florida in particular saw the coldest temperatures in more than 15 years as arctic air traveled some 4,000 miles to leave millions in the Sunshine State shivering.

Notable cold records were broken along with Gianna. On Monday, February 2, Melbourne, Florida, saw a low of 24 degrees. This is a monthly record low, breaking the previous monthly low of 25 set just Sunday, February 1. The record before that was set all the way back in February 26, 1967.

Here are some of the most notable daily record lows broken from the morning of February 2:

Wilmington, North Carolina: 14 degrees (Old record 17 set in 1980)

Tallahassee, Florida: 18 degrees (Old record 19 set in 1951)

North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: 19 (Old record 20 set in 1945)

Orlando, Florida: 28 degrees (Old record 32 set in 1980)

More record low temperatures were broken across Florida on February 1. Most notable was Orlando, which saw a low of 24 degrees. The last time Orlando dropped to 25 or lower was December 29, 2010. Daytona's 23 degree low, Vero Beach's 26 degree low, Leesburg's 23 degree low and Sanfords 23 degree low all were all-time February record lows.

Cold Streaks

It was not just that it got cold, it was that it stayed cold.

New York rose above freezing on February 2, ending a streak of 9 consecutive days at or below freezing. The last time this occurred was in 2018, when there was a 14-day streak ending on January 1, 2018.

Washington, D.C., rose above freezing on February 2 as well, which ended a nine-day streak below freezing dating back to January 24. That nine-day subfreezing streak since last Saturday would be only the sixth such streak or longer dating to 1872, and their longest since mid-to late December 1989.

This cold was one of the top 10 coldest two week-streches for much of the Midwest, Northeast and South, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

Winds

Along with the snow, gusty winds blowing snow around dropped visibility for commuters. Widespread gusts along the East Coast generally ranged from 40-60 mph with isolated gusts in North Carolina exceeding 60 mph.

These winds, in parts of eastern North Carolina, southeast Virginia and eastern New England, led to some damage to trees and power outages.

For more on this as well as impacts from the heavy snow, check our live blog from February 1 and 2:

(Live Blog | Sunday, February 1)

(Impacts Recap | Monday, February 2)

Coastal Flooding

Coastal flooding at high tide occurred as the low moved along parts of the East Coast. Most notable areas that saw some coastal flooding were the Virginia Tidewater and northern Outer Banks, where strong winds pushed water toward the coast.

Bomb Cyclone, Nor'easter

This all was brought about by a low pressure that formed off the Eastern Seaboard. It fed off the relatively warm ocean and bitter cold air over the eastern US and rapidly strengthened into a "bomb cyclone" the morning of February 1. The storm had to drop 24 mph in 24 hours to become a bomb cyclone, which it did by dropping 27 mb in 24 hours.

It's a scary sounding phrase, but bomb cyclones happen about once a year off the East Coast in the colder months, feeding off the sharp contrast between cold air over land moving over the warmer ocean.

This East Coast storm also become a nor'easter, a term for an East Coast storm in which the winds ahead — to the north — of the storm come from the northeast.

(MET 101: Bomb Cyclones | Nor'easters)

Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.