Sammy Boyd’s hometown of Morehead City doesn’t have a fleet of plows, so his waterfront restaurant, Southern Salt, closed down like nearly every other business on Saturday to give a big winter storm time to pass.
“We don’t have the infrastructure like some places do,” said Boyd, who cleared the restaurant parking lot in the afternoon just to make things easier later. While he was out, he said, he saw a few pieces of equipment on the road, “with a little plate attached to the middle kind of kicking the snow to the side.”
An area of the state reaching from Rocky Mount and Goldsboro to the coast and from Jacksonville to the Virginia border was expected to get 6 to 12 inches of snow as two weather systems converged Saturday. The storm also brought bitter cold and biting winds.
Along the coast, snow was falling Saturday from Emerald Isle, Beaufort and Morehead City in Carteret County north to the Outer Banks.
Around 2:15 p.m., the city of New Bern posted photos on Facebook of near-whiteout conditions and said, “Roads are getting bad.”
On Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, where winds of up to 60 mph are possible with the storm, ferry service was suspended and drivers had been warned about possible overwash on N.C. 12, especially at high tide.
On Emerald Isle, the webcam at Bogue Inlet Pier showed snow covering the beach and the wooden planks of the pier, which is closed for the season. Even surfers appeared to be taking the afternoon off.
Snow began falling in Morehead City before lunch and continued through the afternoon, sticking to roads and prompting city officials to ask people to stay home. Storm chasers, more accustomed to driving in hurricane rain, were out in the winter equivalent capturing video of snow-covered streets.
Temperatures in the teens and gusty winds that made it feel even colder discouraged sightseeing. Boyd said he saw very few people out around town.
Boyd, 55, whose speech is seasoned with the Carolina Brogue, remembers big snowfalls at the coast in 1979 and 1989. As of Saturday afternoon, this storm didn’t compare to those in terms of snowfall , but he figured there were 5 or 6 inches on the ground and it was still coming.
Until Friday, Boyd was in the Bahamas. He might have stayed, he said, but the forecast called for cooler temperatures there, too, for the next few days.
He considered hopping farther south to Costa Rica, but said, “I had to get back to my dog.”
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This story was originally published January 31, 2026 at 5:41 PM.
Martha Quillin
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