How cold does North Carolina get in the winter and is it colder or warmer than New York?

In upstate NY we had -20 degrees F two nights ago. North Carolina doesn’t get anywhere near as cold.

NC is a huge state. Where in the state make a difference of weather. Rule of thumb is that it is warmer than New York or New England. Here’s a map of zones.

North Carolina (western) is in the Appalachian Mountains, and it gets pretty darned cold and wintry and nasty in the winter.

Eastern areas (Wilmington, on the ocean) and even a bit inland are much warmer. Keep in mind that from East to West, NC is a pretty wide state and has a number of different micro-climates.

Perhaps if you can narrow down where you are asking about…

I’m asking about Charlotte.

Generally NC is warmer in the winter than NY. Probably about 10 degrees warmer on average than NYC, but upstate NY is very mountainous and the state of NY goes very very north bordering Canada, so the temps up there are much colder.

You can google the average temperatures monthly for the specific cities you are interested in and compare them. Telling us Charlotte is not enough, what city in NY are you comparing to?

Warmer. Less snow and ice.

Data for Charlotte, NC.

Data for north: Malone, NY

Data for south; East Hampton, NY

Data for west; Jamestown, NY

What about the mountains of NC? Ashville?

OP asked specifically about Charlotte.

I’d just like to piggyback on the question and ask about other places in NC, as per the title question. Hope that’s ok with you, @gailcalled.

Ask OP, not me.

If you want to do the mountains too that’s ok and I’m wondering mostly about New York City.

@RockerChick14: Google “New York city average temperature” and ditto for Ashville.

Between Charlotte and NYC the average high will be about 10–15 degrees higher in Charlotte in the winter depending on the month, but the lows at night probably only vary by about 5–10 degrees. You will get less snow in Charlotte than NYC, although NYC does not get a ton anyway, usually, compared to surrounding areas, but of course some years they get slammed woth a lot. Those 10 degree differences in average temp often mean the difference between getting snow or not. It also mean you get more ice and very dangerous driving conditions when it does snow. NC gets some snow, it warms up, lots of melting, and then freezes overnight and everything is a sheet of ice. It’s part of the reason southerners get a bad rap abput driving poorly in winter weather; no one can drive on ice, not even northerners. Even the snow when it falls is a wetter snow, compared to points north, but actually NYC snowfall gets pretty much a mess very quickly also.

It’s logical that NC would be warmer than NY, as NC is farther south. Even if NC has some really cold days, they’ll be way less than the number of cold days in NY.