In 1989, they even enjoyed the proverbial "White Christmas" when a surprise winter storm slipped up from the Gulf of Mexico 

 bringing an accumulation of 12 to 18 inches from Southport to Currituck. 



Not as pleasant in the memory books was the February 1973 storm that was described in a Wilmington Morning Star story as "the 

 heaviest winter blast since 1896, crippling the eastern part of the state with a foot of snow." High winds and record tides buckled the 

 Johnny Mercer Pier at Wrightsville Beach and devoured miles of beaches all along the coast. 



And, in March 1980, a headline stretching across the front page of the Wilmington paper announced "Rare Blizzard Covers 

 Dixie," telling of a snowstorm that "shut down all essential activities in the region." The snow began to fall late on Sunday, March 2. 

 By Monday, the paper said, Wilmington was a "ghost port shrouded in snow." 



Indeed, records of that storm from the State Climate Office at North Carolina State University confirm accumulations of about 1 8 

 inches of snow in most coastal towns and inland to Bayboro and Greenville. Elizabeth City recorded a whopping 25 inches of snow. 



But some Coastwatch readers' winter tales reach back further than climate office data. 



"You know, winters must have been a lot colder in the old days," says Knotts Island octogenarian White. "My daddy used to tell 

 stories about the Currituck Sound freezing solid over back in 1899. People drove horse and buggies across to Currituck." 

 Now that's cold. □ 



COASTWATCH 



