- Rain and freezing rain were mixing with gusty winds early Friday to create power issues and travel concerns across many parts of the western Triangle.
Rain began falling across all of central North Carolina Thursday afternoon, and some of the precipitation began changing over to sleet and freezing rain overnight, especially in areas north and west of Raleigh.
At 7 a.m., areas in and around Durham, Chapel Hill and Roxboro were still seeing mixed precipitation, WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said.
"Most of the areas are seeing freezing rain at this point, and this is going to continue to fall in the northwestern parts of the area until 8 or 9 a.m.," she said. "Roads are going to be slushy in spots, and the gusty winds we're getting could bring down wet tree limbs even easier."
About 17,000 Duke Energy customers were without power in Orange County early Friday, and more than 8,000 people in Durham County are also dealing with outages.
A winter weather advisory is in effect for most of central North Carolina, including Durham and Orange counties until noon Friday. Other counties, including Wake, Johnston, Cumberland, Moore are under a wind advisory until 6 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service said. Winds could gust to 30 to 40 mph throughout the day, Gardner said.
"This wind is going to be a big problem for us, and it's going to be gusty all day," she said. "We could see trees down on power limbs and roads even after the precipitation changes to all rain."
The National Weather Service also issued a flood warning for Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person Vance and Warren counties until noon.
Carla Banks, a spokeswoman for Orange County, urged drivers to use extra caution if they must travel during the morning hours.
"Our emergency crews will start trying to remove trees after daybreak," she said. "There are more than 25 areas where we're seeing trees across the roads. We want our crews to be safe as they're working."
The winter weather produced more school closings and delays Friday. Orange, Granville, Person and Mecklenburg County, Va. schools will be closed.
Students in Durham County will start three hours late Friday. Vance and Warren public schools will start two hours late.
Temperatures were hovering just above freezing in much of the Triangle early Friday, but some spots in the western counties were close to 32 degrees.
"We're seeing a lot of slush on roads in our western counties, and bridges could be very slick during our morning commute," WRAL traffic reporter Brian Shrader said. "Even in areas that aren't seeing ice, roads are extremely wet. Give yourself plenty of time to get to work."
Daytime highs will struggle to reach 40 degrees, and continued rainfall will make for a dreary end to the work week. Some areas in the southern part of the Triangle could see up to 2 inches of rain before the low pressure system moves out overnight.
But it does get better. Temperatures are expected to reach 66 on Saturday and 67 on Sunday under mostly sunny skies.
"It's incredible the difference we will see Saturday compared to today," Gardner said. "It's going to be beautiful all weekend."
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Amzing Moment: Wintry mix, gusty winds causing power outages, travel headaches