Raleigh: Freeze warning and frost advisory for Saturday morning

In Raleigh, a frost advisory covers Wake County from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. Saturday, and a freeze warning covers the same hours in counties to the north and west, including Durham and Orange. A freeze watch follows late Saturday night. The products come from the National Weather Service office in Raleigh, posted at 12:57 a.m. Friday. ABC11 published a forecast the same morning. The two accounts share the cold and the split between a warning and an advisory. They do not share one county list.

Update, Saturday, Nov. 14

This section was added at 3:50 p.m. Saturday. The Friday paragraphs below are the original file. They described a watch for Saturday night. That is no longer the latest Raleigh product.

At 10:21 a.m. EST, a Raleigh alert carried the headline that a freeze warning was issued then, running until 8:00 a.m. Sunday. The bulletin says the warning remains in effect. It continues an earlier Sunday warning. It is not the first time the office posted one. At 8:10 a.m. the Sunday warning still covered Person, Granville, Vance, Warren and Halifax, then Forsyth, Guilford, Alamance, Orange and Durham, then Franklin, Davidson, Randolph and Chatham. It said readings as low as 29.

The 10:21 a.m. names, in the order on the alert, are Durham, Franklin, Nash, Edgecombe and Chatham, then Wake, Johnston and Wilson, then Montgomery and Moore, then Lee and Harnett, then Wayne, Anson and Richmond, then Scotland, Hoke and Cumberland, and Sampson. The office calls that group a portion of central North Carolina. It expects sub-freezing weather in the upper 20s to lower 30s, from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. EST Sunday. Crops, other sensitive plants, and outdoor plumbing left unprotected are the impacts it names. People are told to cover tender plants, and to wrap pipes, drain them, or let them drip.

A public statement at that same minute says the growing season ended Saturday morning in Alamance, Davidson, Forsyth, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Orange, Person, Randolph, Stanly, Vance and Warren, after numerous spots went below freezing. Frost and freeze headlines stop in those 12 counties. Orange is in that group. It is not on the Sunday warning list. Stanly is in that group too. It had been on Friday's frost advisory.

At 1:16 p.m. the office posted the warning again for the same 19 counties and the same overnight hours, with the same temperature wording. The later where-line says portions of the Piedmont, the Sandhills and the Coastal Plain. The county names did not change. The pipe line is on this message too.

The News & Observer, updated at 10:15 a.m. by Anna Roman and Lily Carey, says a freeze warning covers much of the Triangle from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday. That edit landed six minutes before the 10:21 a.m. alert. It does not give that clock time, and it does not list the 19 counties. Dan Leins, a Raleigh meteorologist, says in the body that the Triangle should sit right around freezing, maybe 31 or 30, while the western Piedmont, including the Triad, is in the mid-20s and stays off Saturday's warning because it already froze. A key-takeaway box on the page still talks about Friday's morning warning, the frost advisory and a watch. The box is labeled as an AI summary the newsroom reviewed. The Sunday warning in this update follows the article body, and the county names follow the weather service.

WRAL's forecast, updated at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, says a freeze warning is in place Sunday morning. It does not print the issue time, the counties, or the upper-20s phrase. Its note that lows stay in the 30s into Thursday is the station's outlook, not the warning text.

The phrases are not averaged. "Upper 20s to lower 30s" is the 10:21 a.m. and 1:16 p.m. wording. "As low as 29" is the 8:10 a.m. alert. "Maybe 31 or 30" is Leins, in the newspaper.

Saturday is Nov. 14, 2026. Sunday is Nov. 15. Friday, the day of the first messages in this file, is Nov. 13.

What the Raleigh office reported

The National Weather Service in Raleigh says the Saturday-morning warning and advisory remain in effect. This file does not have the earlier issue time. The 12:57 a.m. text is a continuation, and it is also the message that adds the overnight watch.

The warning counties are Person, Granville, Vance, Warren, Halifax, Forsyth, Guilford, Alamance, Orange, Durham, Franklin, Davidson, Randolph and Chatham. The office expects sub-freezing readings as low as 30 there, and it calls the area a portion of central North Carolina. Durham, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Pittsboro, Oxford and Roxboro are among the cities named on that message.

The advisory counties are Nash, Edgecombe, Wake, Johnston, Wilson, Stanly, Montgomery, Moore, Lee, Harnett, Wayne, Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Hoke, Cumberland and Sampson. On that list, temperatures as low as 33 are expected to produce frost. Raleigh, Cary, Fayetteville, Sanford and Smithfield are among the cities named.

The watch sits on both of those county groups for the overnight hours after Saturday and into Sunday. The frost-zone message says 30 degrees is possible then. The warning-zone message keeps its "expected" line, the one that puts the floor at 30, for its counties. Alert headlines for the Raleigh watch give an end of 8:00 a.m. Sunday. The bulletin sentences do not print that hour. They describe the period as late Saturday night through Sunday morning.

On damage, the warning message says frost and a freeze could kill crops and other sensitive vegetation, and could damage outdoor plumbing that is left unprotected. The advisory message repeats that impact and adds two further lines: frost could harm sensitive outdoor vegetation, and sensitive outdoor plants may be killed if they are left uncovered. Both messages tell people to protect tender plants now.

What the Wilmington office reported

A separate watch, from the National Weather Service in Wilmington at 12:22 a.m. Friday, includes Robeson County. Bladen, Columbus, inland Pender and inland Brunswick are on it too, and so are portions of northeast South Carolina. Lumberton is one of the cities named.

That message also allows for 30 degrees, over the same overnight stretch into Sunday. Its headline lists an end at 9:00 a.m. Sunday. The sentences in the message do not give that clock time. The crop, plant and plumbing impact is the same one the Raleigh warning uses, and the plant instruction is the same.

What ABC11 reported

The station's page was modified at 7:41 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 13. A published-time stamp of May 5, 2014, sits on the same address. That older stamp is the standing forecast page. It is not a second clock for this outlook. The headline on the page is "Weekend Freeze and Frost Alerts."

ABC11 described the coldest air of the season so far, arriving Friday and lasting through the weekend. It said frost is possible Friday night, and that freeze and frost alerts are out for the area this weekend.

Its warning list is Person, Granville, Vance, Warren, Halifax, Alamance, Orange, Durham, Franklin and Chatham, for Friday night into Saturday morning, with temperatures that may drop as low as 30. Forsyth, Guilford, Davidson and Randolph are not in that sentence. Neither is a 3 a.m. start or an 8 a.m. end.

Its advisory list is Nash, Edgecombe, Wake, Johnston, Wilson, Moore, Lee, Harnett, Wayne, Hoke, Cumberland and Sampson, and it says temperatures may drop as low as 33. Stanly, Montgomery, Anson, Richmond and Scotland are not in that sentence.

The station's watch line is broader than either Raleigh bulletin taken alone. It says the watch covers all of central North Carolina from Saturday night into Sunday morning, again as low as 30. Wilmington, Robeson County and a 9 a.m. Sunday end are not in this account.

The rest of the ABC11 outlook is not in the warning text. Highs Friday afternoon are in the 50s to near 60, and the page says that range holds through the weekend into early next week. A later sentence narrows the next days: the 50s through Monday, and closer to 60 on Tuesday. A few light showers are possible Friday evening and Friday night, a trace to a few hundredths of an inch. Northwest gusts up to about 20 mph are possible Friday afternoon. Saturday night, the station says, the wind eases, skies are clear, and temperatures fall into the low 30s, below freezing in cooler spots.

What these accounts leave open

The "as low as" numbers are zone forecasts, not a reading from one backyard. ABC11's "may drop" is not the same verb as the warning's "expected" or the advisory's line that 33 will produce frost. This page does not average them into a new number.

As of the Friday messages, the Saturday-night product was a watch. The Saturday section above is the later warning, and it covers a shorter list than that watch. Offices other than Raleigh and Wilmington are outside the original file. The Saturday addition is a Raleigh product.

Triangle Local is not the weather service and not an emergency service. If someone is in danger, call 911. For the alerts themselves, use the Raleigh office and, for Robeson County, the Wilmington office.

Related coverage

Wake County reporting is on the Wake hub. Durham has its own county hub. Chapel Hill and Hillsborough are collected on the Orange hub. Lumberton and the rest of Robeson County are on the Robeson hub. County forecasts are on the weather page. More forecast stories are in Events and weather. The October cooldown after the record highs is a different earlier file.

Photos

Text-only. No image from ABC11 or the weather service is used.