“All the leaves are green and the sky is gray. I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day.” Bladen County woke up Saturday morning to lush greenery with icy fruit that had blossomed in a winter that has experienced below-normal temperatures.
                                 Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal

“All the leaves are green and the sky is gray. I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day.” Bladen County woke up Saturday morning to lush greenery with icy fruit that had blossomed in a winter that has experienced below-normal temperatures.

Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal

BUTTON UP YOUR OVERCOAT…

<p>The wintery mixture of rain, freezing rain and sleet caused the people of Bladen County to take a break from Mother Nature’s playground - at least for a few hours.</p>
                                 <p>Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal</p>

The wintery mixture of rain, freezing rain and sleet caused the people of Bladen County to take a break from Mother Nature’s playground - at least for a few hours.

Mark DeLap | Bladen Journal

BLADEN COUNTY – Schools experiencing delayed starts, a rush on gas stations and grocery stores, digging out hats, gloves, scarves and heavy coats and gallons of hot chocolate can describe our latest stint with Mother Nature on her tundra playground.

Thursday the Bladen County Schools were on a two day delayed start as many received the notice from Elly Johnson, the director of communications & family engagement.

The exact text received was, “BCS Families—Due to wind chills forecasted to be between 10-15 degrees in our area tomorrow morning, all schools will operate on a two-hour delay for students and staff. Again, there will be a two-hour delay for students and staff tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Please stay warm!”

And the deep freeze continued.

On Thursday afternoon, Johnson issued the following text saying, “Due to the uncertainty of winter weather in our area, as a precaution Bladen County Schools will have an asynchronous remote learning day on Friday, Jan. 10. Asynchronous learning means that students will work independently on assignments posted in Canvas. For students who do not have access to technology, alternative assignments will be provided to complete once they return to school. Additionally, all after-school activities scheduled for Friday are canceled, and any events planned for Saturday are also canceled. We appreciate your cooperation as we prioritize student safety—please stay warm!”

The weather which can be brutally beautiful can cause some challenges for Bladen County, but the schools, the Bladen County Sheriff’s Department, the fire departments and the North Carolina Highway Patrol all took extra measures to ensure the safety of Bladen County citizens and many “heads ups” were given throughout the week.

Most of the winter weather advisories began to appear on Thursday and for Bladen and Robeson counties, the critical times to be careful and stay off the roads were between 4 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday.

According to the Bladen County Sheriff’s Department the storm came and went and there were no medically related incidents due to the weather. The cars were pretty much staying off the roads and the County did not have any weather-related crashes.

According to Reagan Blackman from the North Carolina Highway Patrol, there were no weather-related crashes in Bladen County.

The weather has been colder than normal and a little more angry, but preparedness by our civil servants made a big difference. As for the weather, the cold will continue through until February.

Northern North Carolina got hit hardest by this round of storms and Durham was still reporting snow covered roads on Saturday morning with the secondary roads in every county becoming ice and snow covered and tricky to navigate. As for snow totals in our area, Roxboro, North Carolina, about 2.5 hours north of Bladen was reported as having the most snow totals with 2.5”.

In Raleigh, the new governor, Josh Stein and his team had a public inauguration ceremony planned, but it had to be canceled due to the road conditions and the wintry weather. A block party was also canceled.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol had nightmares on both I-87 and I-40 where snow covered icy roads brought closures and wreckers. A 9-car crash shut down a portion of I-87 and I-40 also had several crashes. The morning brought bright sunshine to the Triangle which some drivers found out didn’t green-light the road conditions as excessive speeds turned disastrous.

On Saturday morning, meteorologist Tim Armstrong from the National Weather Service said that although the storm was over, there was still some residual clouds lingering and that the conditions were improving.

“We did have a wintry mixture of rain, freezing rain, sleet yesterday in the Bladen County area,” Armstrong said. “There were no significant accumulations that I am aware of and the highest reported accumulations of ice were just southwest of Bladen in Dillon where 1.5” of ice were reported. It looks to have been a little less across Bladen County.”

With temperatures going above freezing, the ice began to melt.

“Certainly, across the North Carolina/Virginia border, the highest snow totals were recorded there,” Armstrong said. “And of course, up in the mountains near Boone they had upwards of 4” of snow. We’ve actually had for the last two winters have had virtually no wintry weather across southern North Carolina. Our last measurable snowfall in this part of the state was actually January of 2022.”

Five years since any truly adverse weather, Armstrong mentioned, but also said that when wintry weather does occur and due to the infrequency of it, society is not necessarily prepared as well the impacts are heightened.

“It has been a little below normal for temperatures,” Armstrong said. “Which again, is a little unusual versus the last couple of years. The last two winters were fairly warm but this year we’ve had some lows in the twenties and even the teens. When you look at 30 years of climatology that is not unusual, but because of the last few years, it certainly feels unusual.”

As for the deep freeze, it may not be AS cold, but colder temperatures will linger.

“We stay fairly chilly and below normal, actually for at least the next seven days,” he said. “There are some indications that as we get into February the overall weather pattern will flip and the colder weather goes to the Western U.S. and we will warm up above normal perhaps, but it’s a bit far out to have exact numbers on that yet.”

As the old song from 1928 says and certainly can offer us some advice here in the Carolinas, “Button up your overcoat when the wind is free. Take good care of yourself, you belong to me.”

To see the weather forecast for the next week in Bladen, please visit page 10 in today’s paper.

Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com