CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – The rest of Friday and Saturday are First Alert Weather Days, as a storm system tracks toward the Carolinas from the Gulf of Mexico, bringing winter weather and widespread issues on the roadways tonight.
- First Alert Weather Day: Snow / Sleet / Ice, travel issues
- Saturday First Alert Weather Day: AM Hazardous Road Conditions, sun back
- Sunday: Slick spots in the morning, sunshine highs in the 40s
Some areas will see accumulating snow and sleet, but the track of the storm is close enough that a warm nose is expected to drift in aloft this evening, allowing for the snow to change into sleet and even freezing rain/ice for areas near and southeast of I-85.
More specifically, the mountains and foothills, where colder air will be locked in, will get more snow. There could be as much as six inches of snow in the highest elevations of the High Country, but that tapers off to two to three inches in the I-40 corridor, even if a little sleet mixes in.
Closer to Charlotte, where more sleet likely mixes in, the amounts get cut back further to an inch or two. Places south/east of I-85 my get no more than a sloppy inch, as warmer air aloft likely means more ice, perhaps up to one-quarter inch there…