Beaufort takes a day off for the weather

Well, at least in our area, Leon was a chump.  Snow, freezing rain and sleet fell on Beaufort Tuesday night through Wednesday freezing our bridges over and making life tricky, but no significant snowfall fell on the area from the winter storm that some jokingly refer to as ‘snomageddon’ or the ‘snowpocalypse’, Winter Storm Leon. We’ll call it a dusting, at best.  It’s the ice that nearly gave us fits.

There were auto accidents that led to the closing of bridges onto and off of Hilton Head Island, and ice and sleet affected roads in the Beaufort area, as police officers and sheriff’s deputies escorted motorists across bridges early Wednesday. With temperatures dropping into the 20s on Wednesday night, there’s concern for road conditions again on Thursday morning even though the storm is over.

Lots of local businesses stayed closed on Wednesday and many of our local restaurants were open for hungry patrons.  Beaufort’s got to eat, right? Schools, local government offices, local military offices all remained closed with most opening back up on Thursday.  For a large list of local closures and cancellations, visit here.

As of Wednesday night, the Beaufort County School District has announced a two hour delay on Thursday for all public schools.

The weather caused a morning pandemonium throughout the area as we all woke and Beaufortonians spent the earlier part of the day having some outside fun.  Kids of all ages enjoyed it, playing outdoors all morning long. For some it’s the first time they’ve ever seen any snow, ever. The white stuff is a rare treat in these parts, and you can count on one hand the number of times it’s snowed in the past 30 years, and that makes it special.  The dusting really made for a beautiful scene on some of our area landscapes as well. Mix the natural beauty of the Beaufort area with some ice and snow and it paints a whole different picture.

And we’ll all refer to it in the future as ‘the snow of 2014’, or perhaps the ‘ice storm of 2014’.  Who knows.

Here are some photos from around the area sent to us by our social media fans, and a few we’ve found too:

Cover photo courtesy of Bob Sofaly.