Wintry weather spreads across the South

Significant snow and icy precipitation are moving from Texas to the Carolinas.

Transcript

00:00For more on the current situation, let's bring in AccuWeather chief meteorologist John Porter.

00:06Good afternoon. Another major winter storm, this one affecting the southern part of the United

00:11States in an area less where snow and ice is less common. There's less snow plows and less

00:17snow fighting equipment. And you know, John, we continue to monitor this ever developing

00:25situation. And on the map behind you, we see a lot of different colors. Can you just break that

00:30down a little bit more for us? Yeah, and that's going to be emblematic of what we're going to

00:34be dealing with here over the next couple of days. To the north, in the blue area here, this is all

00:38snow. And where that blue is darker, that's where we're dealing with some heavier bands of snow,

00:44maybe falling at one to two inches per hour near the Red River, the Texas-Oklahoma border.

00:48To the south, this pink color is an icy mix of sleet, which is ice pellets. Those are what

00:54ping off your windshield and off your home. And then further to the south, we're dealing with

01:00rain here. So that's some even some thunderstorms toward the Gulf Coast. So all of this is going to

01:06be spreading to the east and creating a real mess. Yeah, you mentioned spreading to the east, right?

01:10Let's play this out for the viewer. Future radar showing that we have kind of that mixed bag still

01:16sticking with us here across a lot of the south central states. We do. Here's that sleet and

01:20freezing rain from northeast Texas all the way across into portions of northern Alabama. To the

01:26north though, from north of Dallas to Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, this is mainly snow

01:32and it's a big snowstorm in those locations. Yeah, and you know this is going to continue east,

01:38right? And you see the pink right there in Atlanta. We are concerned about some slick travel

01:43here in a lot of major metros. Yeah, snow, sleet, freezing rain mixed there. Late Thursday night and

01:49through Friday, a very icy time in the Atlanta area. And then over time, that's going to spread

01:53up toward Columbia, South Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, Raleigh as well. All cities that

01:59may be dealing with significant icy mix issues and slippery travel, dangerous travel. All right,

02:05John, I want to go back to the snow really quickly because this is a big storm for areas like Little

02:11Rock, Dallas, Memphis. Can you just break down the numbers of what these mean for these areas?

02:17That's right. That icy mix is going to be transitioning to all snow. It could snow hard

02:21for a couple of hours in the Dallas area. There could be higher snow totals on the north side of

02:25the metroplex up toward Little Rock, six to ten inches of snow. And then right in that corridor

02:30up to Nashville and parts of Kentucky, also up into the higher ground of the southern Appalachians.

02:36It's a significant snowstorm. Yeah, we're going to continue to monitor this. Essentially,

02:42pretty scary in a treacherous situation, especially if people are going to be traveling.

02:47We talked about the Cotton Bowl earlier, John. This is going to be a big weekend here.

02:53Yeah, that's right. Because even after the snow and ice ends in the Dallas area,

02:57there can be a refreeze concern on Friday night. So watch out for slippery travel

03:01after the Cotton Bowl and across much of the south here during those overnight periods.

03:06All right, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter, thank you so much for joining us again.

03:11We'll be sure to check back in with you. Sure thing.