South Snowstorm Pushes Eastward Thursday Night

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

January 17,2013; 10:01AM,EST

The caboose in a train of storms affecting the South will trend colder and deliver wintry precipitation farther east than its predecessors, including heavy snow for the mountains and some major population centers. Snow will reach part of the coastal mid-Atlantic as well.

LIVE: Snow Across South; Track the Storm Live

The storm has the potential to down trees and power lines as well as make for difficult travel.
Part of the lower Mississippi and Tennessee valleys has been hit with two ice storms in as many days.
The third and final storm in the series brought a change from rain to snow from west to east over part Mississippi Wednesday night.

The changeover will continue to progress eastward Thursday in the southern Appalachians and then in some areas east of the mountains Thursday night.

There is the potential for a heavy amount of snow in the southern Appalachians later Thursday into Thursday night.
With such a dynamic storm system, there could be thunder and lightning with the snow in some locations.

Heavy snow will fall in the Great Smoky Mountains and other areas in the South before the storm departs the mid-Atlantic coast late in the week. (Photos.com image)

The storm that dropped up to 4 and a half inches of snow on parts of Mississippi Thursday morning was pushing across northern Alabama Thursday afternoon.
Enough snow can fall around Birmingham to make some roads and sidewalks slippery with a couple inches possible in grassy surfaces.
Snow will fall and accumulate in northern Georgia.
Around Atlanta, slippery and slushy spots are possible in the city with an inch or two in the northern suburbs. The mountains of northern Georgia can be clobbered by a half a foot of snow.
As you head north the snow will become more extensive, lower in elevation and will reach east of the Appalachians. The mountains of North Carolina to southwestern Virginia could be on the receiving end of a foot of snow or more.

In Virginia, a swath of heavy snow may extend northeastward from the mountains to part of the Tidewater. Several inches of snow are possible for a large part of the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas will be on the northern edge of the accumulating snow.

Cities that have the potential to receive several inches of snow include Knoxville and Bristol, Tenn., Asheville and Winston-Salem, N.C., Roanoke and Richmond, Va.
Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, N.C. could receive anywhere from 1 to 4 inches of snow, depending on the track of a disturbance in the upper atmosphere associated with the storm.
Due to the recent warm weather, much of the snow will melt on roadways. However, where the snow comes down hard for a couple of hours and in general over the bridges and overpasses and in the higher elevations, slippery travel is likely.
Prior to the snow or a wintry mix, heavy rain and incidents of flooding will continue to shift eastward out of the mountains to the foothills and part of the coastal plain in the South.