Triangle snow lovers started this week with fantasies of sipping hot cocoa by a fire while the kids built snowmen and sledded merrily down neighborhood hills. But the closer we get to the weekend, the winter storm coming is looking more treacherous and way less fun.
The current forecast, as of Thursday, Jan. 22, calls for less snow than some had hoped for and more freezing rain with an accumulation of ice — the heaviest precipitation expected between Saturday evening and Sunday evening. High temperatures will be the 20s and 30s in the Triangle, with lows in the teens and 20s Saturday and Sunday nights, and in the single digits Monday night. Wind chill values could make it feel like zero or even colder.
For many, it brings to mind a truly awful two-day ice storm that landed in the Triangle on Dec. 4, 2002. It started with a morning of snow, sleet and freezing rain, and by midafternoon, traffic came to a standstill as snow and ice transformed “highways into skating rinks,” The News & Observer reported at the time…