Snow or a wintry mix is on the the way to much of North Carolina starting Friday. It will make for hazardous driving conditions through the start of the weekend.

What You Need To Know

  • Snow is expected to spread across the western half of North Carolina by Friday afternoon and into parts of the eastern half of the state through Friday night

  • Dangerous driving conditions will develop on roads in much of the state as soon as the precipitation begins

  • The highest snow accumulations are expected in the mountains with the greatest chance to see mostly rain along our southern coast

We're watching a developing winter storm in Texas Thursday. It will track along the Gulf Coast Friday to eventually off our coast by Saturday morning.

That track will bring snow to western North Carolina as early as midday or afternoon. 

With the recent cold weather, the snow will begin to stick to the ground, including roads, quickly. That will make for a difficult Friday evening commute in the western half of the state, including Charlotte and the Greensboro Triad region.

The snow will then spread across the eastern half of the state through Friday evening. Locations close to the southern coast, including Wilmington, should initially see more of a snow, sleet and rain mix.

Warmer air will move inland from the coast through Friday night. That will cause more areas, especially from the Sandhills and along the I-95 corridor to eventually near the Triangle and near Charlotte, to see the snow become a mix of sleet and freezing rain. The southern coast will see a changeover to mostly rain.

Areas that see more of the wintry mix will likely see up to an inch of snow and sleet, and then an icy glazing of up to 0.1" from freezing rain. Some areas from east of Charlotte to west of Fayetteville may somewhat higher ice accumulation amounts.

Near and north of a line from Charlotte to Raleigh should see more snow with sleet mixing in at times. This is expected to result in snow accumulations around 1 to 3 inches.

As is typical with winter systems, parts of the mountains of western North Carolina could see higher totals of around 2 to 5 inches in some areas.

These snow and ice accumulation amounts will not be enough to cause widespread power outages. However, it's always a good idea to be prepared for an isolated outage that could happen in your neighborhood.

Stay tuned to Weather on the 1s on Spectrum News 1 for updates to the forecast.

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