00:00Our coverage continues right now with our good friend and storm chaser Aaron Jajak.
00:05He joins us from Charlotte, North Carolina, and man, they are going to get hit hard today, Aaron, and power outages are a big concern.
00:16Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm very concerned here in Charlotte of those long duration power outages.
00:21As you can see, we're really just in the infant stages of the storm right now here in Charlotte.
00:26We had sleet start falling last night, maybe around 7, 8 o'clock at night, a little bit of spitting here.
00:32Started getting a little heavier around 9 p.m., and then through the night, you know, I woke up around 5 a.m. to come see the scene out here,
00:38and you can see we've got sleet and mixed precip. Freezing rain has also been falling here.
00:44So a mixed precip right now, and you can see the sidewalk here that I'm walking on.
00:48Some of the stuff can move, but underneath this layer is a very slick layer underneath the snow here that you're seeing.
00:54It's snow, but it's mostly just sleet that's collected. It looks like snow.
00:58So looking off to the west, I see a big area of what's going to be freezing rain moving this way.
01:05It should be here in the next half hour to an hour, it looks like, and that's where we're really going to see the meat of the storm cause problems here in Charlotte
01:12with that ice collecting on power lines and trees.
01:15As I mentioned, long duration power outages as that ice builds up.
01:19You know, we could see that ice up to 3 quarters of an inch, maybe even more in localized areas.
01:23But it looks like we're going to be in for a ride here in Charlotte through today, all day,
01:28as this freezing rain moves in, eventually moves out of the area here late tonight and tomorrow morning.
01:33So back to you guys.
01:35Yeah, and really quickly here, you've been in Charlotte a little time, some time.
01:39Was there a lot of pre-treating? Have you seen crews out yet?
01:44How much is the city prepared for this?
01:46Yeah, I'm glad you asked that, because I did just take a drive this morning about a half an hour ago.
01:54Just down the road, we have I-77, the I-85 junction.
01:58And in the secondary streets, you can see they're covered in snow, just like the sidewalk and the parking lot here.
02:03Secondary streets are pretty rough.
02:05The interstate is not too bad.
02:06They are running plows across there.
02:08They have treated it.
02:09I can see those treatment lines yesterday.
02:11I can see, you know, obviously the sidewalks and stuff for shopping centers, they're laying down salt.
02:16But the interstate is in decent shape right now.
02:18It's a little wet, a little slushy in some parts.
02:21But travel, cars are moving along the interstate.
02:23The secondary roads, not so much.
02:25Thankfully, it is a Sunday morning, so not a lot of folks moving yet, you know, quite early.
02:30But today is definitely a day, like, it is, you do not want to be out driving in this,
02:34especially as that freezing rain moves in here into Charlotte later today.
02:37Travel will be impossible.
02:39I've got a four-wheel drive vehicle.
02:40I was able to move around right now pretty well.
02:42But even with a four-wheel drive vehicle, all-wheel drive, once that ice hits
02:46and we've got an inch of ice on the ground, nobody's going to be going anywhere for a bit
02:49until this stuff unthaws.
02:51Yeah, that's for sure.
02:52Four-wheel drive does not matter when it comes to ice.
02:55Storm Chaser, Aaron Jajak, thanks for joining us.
02:57We'll be checking in with you throughout the morning there.
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