Historic snow fell in parts of North Carolina this past weekend, including along the coast.
We spoke with Erik Heden of the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City Sunday morning about the storm.
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Watch the full interview here.
Newport, North Carolina saw at least 15" of snow, according to the NWS - a record for a two-day snow event at that office. Snow drifts were even higher.
It's actually more snow than Spokane, Washington has seen all winter long.
What criteria need to be met for a blizzard?
In order for a blizzard to occur, a very specific set of criteria needs to be met.
You have to have either falling or blowing snow, sustained wind or frequent gusts in excess of 35 mph and visibility of a quarter-of-a-mile or less. These conditions should last for at least three hours.
Was it a blizzard along the OBX?
More than a foot of snow was observed across a large portion of the coast, which checks off the snow requirement.
Wind gusts definitely exceeded 35 mph across the Outer Banks and other portions of the coast, and the storm definitely lasted longer than three hours.
However, when we checked multiple stations along the Outer Banks - the 0.25 mile visibility wasn't always met.
It's almost like a batter in baseball going for the cycle and missing out on the triple.
That said, there were times when stations recorded visibility of 0.25 mile or less.
Just because it wasn't recorded at a designated weather station doesn't mean it never happened. (Holy double and triple negatives, Batman!)
Blizzard and whiteout conditions were most certainly reported during the height of the storm.
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Since opening in the early 1990s, the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City had never issued a Blizzard Warning.
The entire state was under a Winter Storm Warning for Saturday's storm.