It snowed, y’all! Here’s what’s to know as wintry weather hits the Columbia area
It snowed, y’all.
Snow began falling in downtown Columbia a little after 9 p.m. Friday after an afternoon of freezing rain.
An official accumulation of 2 inches was recorded at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, with other areas of the Midlands of South Carolina reporting between 1 and 3 inches of snowfall.
The winter weather tapered off for most of the area around 1 a.m.
It’s Columbia’s first confirmed snowfall in more than five years. The last accumulation of any measure in Columbia occurred Jan. 17, 2017, when the area had 1/10 of an inch.
While S.C. residents should enjoy the rare snowfall, weather forecasters warn that travel can be hazardous. By early Saturday morning, near-invisible black ice could form on roadways and bridges, especially in more southern parts of the region that could see more freezing rain and sleet than ice. All school districts in the Midlands shut down Friday in anticipation of the winter weather, although the heaviest precipitation wouldn’t come until later in the day.
Temperatures hovered around freezing for most of the day Friday. Temperatures will drop into the mid-20s overnight, and with wind chill the low was expected to hit the teens, the National Weather Service said. Saturday should be partly cloudy with a high in the low 40s.
Be sure to bundle up if you do head out in the weather. Frost bite and hypothermia could also be serious concerns if someone is outside for an extended period of time this evening, the National Weather Service warned earlier Friday.
This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 9:14 PM.
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