Snow drifts mix with pollen drifts amid very rare April snow

Caroline FloydMeteorologist

A whole new kind of 'yellow snow'

Pollen drifts are common across the Southeast in early April, but snow drifts? Not so much.

Spring weather arrives a lot sooner in the southern United States than here at home, but with the new season officially upon us, some parts of the Southeast are taking a detour back into winter as snown accumulates across parts of the Carolinas.

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For context, the average April 2 high in Charlotte, North Carolina (just to the west of Troy, in the above video) is about 20 C. The city has only seen April snowfall twice in the past 20 years, and both times it was only a trace with no accumulation.

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With spring blooming already well underway across the region, pollen is out in force in the Southeast. Abundant tree pollen leads to widespread drifts of the yellow powder in parking lots and a layer of yellow haze on anything left outside.

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With Tuesday's fresh snowfall, there's a whole new kind of 'yellow snow' to avoid for area residents.

The culprit behind this unseasonable blast is the same system on its way to Atlantic Canada for Wednesday and Thursday. The track of the system, moving just off the southeast coast of the U.S., created a 'wedge' of colder air between the Atlantic and the spine of the southern Appalachians, changing rain to snow for some in the Carolinas as the storm moved north on Tuesday. Fortunately this return to winter will be short-lived for the south; Charlotte's forecast high for Wednesday shoots back up to 21ºC.

Thumbnail image courtesy Yvette Makitalo.

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