>> darcel: let's get started with our team of meteorologists in the weather center. >> jason: thanks, guys. i'm chief meteorologist jason boyer joined by meteorologist zack green. >> zack: we're talking accumulations one to maybe even three to four inches in some spots as we head to the overnight hours. >> jason: look at the dark blues returning. northeast georgia getting that heavy snow right now. all of that right here is going to make a beeline north and east right in to brevard. rosemund, pisgah forest, cashiers, jackson county, highlands in to southern macon county. walhalla, salem. all of that moving up. highway 64 is where it's going to follow. mcdowell, rutherford county, polk county. a break in the action farther west. but this has got to come our way tonight. this is the upper level part of the storm that's going to bring heavy storms back to the region tonight. here's our leicester carpet sales news13 sky cam network. unca campus. snow on the ground. icy as well. 27 degrees. black mountain, you are socked in. 24 down in rosemund and transylvania county. then we go out towards jackson county. balsam gap with snow. it's mostly sleet and freezing rain now to snow. zach, we have seen some impressive totals, haven't we? >> zack: it really has been unbelieve bl unbelievable the numbers we're going to put up for you are just since midnight. north carolina getting closer to 12 inches. take a look at chesney as well as landrum. a half of foot. so where are we going to be falling in terms of historic snow falls in january? you saw the largest amount came in 1906 and that was 15 inches. 1988, you saw that foot. in asheville i think we can get upwards of a foot. jason is going to show you our updated accumulations map along with some of the impacts that are going to come due to wind. be sure to keep it here on wlos. >> larry: the major part of the storm is road conditions. >> darcel: frank, it's 12-hour shifts for those folks. >> frank: well, you know, these folks are working very hard. they've got 1200 miles of multi-lane road to cover. pushed, as they call it in the business. the crews started spreading salt and brine and sand. the plowing is being done mostly on the interstates. the dot says it hopes to get the secondary some time tomorrow. that depends on the snow fall. crews who work the day shift have a goal that looks forward. thinking about co-workers with a busy and sometimes dangerous overnight ahead. >> we're trying to open up where we can see the lanes in the road to keep all this pushed. and that way it won't be so bad on the night crew. it's hard to stay overnight. >> frank: and it's going to be harder to drive as we get further in to the night time hours. all that slush that's still on the roads is beginning to freeze. we just checked with the highway patrol and they say as it gets darker, their car volume is starting to increase. so they're already seeing dispatch getting more and more busy. best advice, do not go out and drive unless you have to. reporting live in asheville, frank kracher, news 13. >> darcel: and at this hour there are hundreds without power in jackson county. >> larry: news 13's john ostendorf is in whittier. is it getting better? >> john: the snow wasn't here about an hour ago. we have several hundred people without power. now the road behind the u.s. 441 has been clear most of the day. but emergency managers are saying that more snow like this is coming. people should try to stay home. stay off these roads. even though it does look clear. crews are going to be working throughout the evening to get power back on. some of them are working in very tight areas. very narrow. so it's going to take time to let's go ahead and throw it to news 13's kim king now. kim, duke energy is sending crews across the country to help. >> kim: john, you're absolutely right. i'm off i-26 in henderson county on upward road. and back behind me, this is going to be the big concern overnight initially for just anyone that's out driving are overpasses that can freeze over. we do have hundreds of crews that have come across the country to north carolina and help anyone who loses power. one after the other, what appears more like a calvary. >> many of those folks arrived last night. area. so they woke up this morning ready to go to work. >> as we come off the storm marking the grounds that we put on the lines for safety apparatus. >> kim: dwayne from indiana drove 8 hours while he and others were ready around the asheville area. >> a lot of the trucks have been sent either south in to spartanburg where we had some damage. macon-jackson county areas where we're starting to see power outages occur. >> our job is to provide food and lodging. >> kim: she drove in from missouri and is also on standby at the ag center. >> the snow continues to fall. we continue to see some pressure from trees leaning over lines and we continue to watch those closely. have reported there is a lull in henderson county. no sleet, no snow right now but on the ground. there's here off of upward road, it almost comes to the top of my boots here. not quite. i'd say about 6 and a half to 7 inches. have a good evening and be safe. kimberly king, news 13. >> larry: all right, kim. we're going to take a look out west where news 13's rex hodge is. >> darcel: it's been a difficult drive. >> rex: yes, and the first thing i want to draw your attention to is the fact that we've been here for the last couple of hours or so and there's a break. it seems to be coming down quite heavily right now. and sliding, it's fun if you're headed to cata hoochee. dot plows first focusing on major roads. secondary roads remain slick with snow and ice. some places have to stay open regardless of the weather. haywood regional medical center plans for that. >> we've got a section of the hospital where we're going to be sleeping 28 to maybe 30 folks tonight. >> rex: now that includes doctors and nurses just in case they're needed. and back out here live, plows continue to go by on smoky mountain expressway there below me. they've done a good job in clearing it. both ways open in each direction. the pavement is wet. that pavement could turn in to ice here and there. the tricky part about that is you never know quite where it the roads remain treacherous. the adage of the day, don't go out. rex hodge, news 13. >> stay home. that's your best bet. >> darcel: more team coverage ahead with a warning from some of the most experienced drivers on the road. see the video proof of why you should listen to them. >> larry: and just in to the news room, some pictures of what you're seeing around the mountains. the first one from terry ramsey of a car flipped completely upside down in fairview. >> darcel: another dangerous situation in franklin. larry newton says the heavy wet snow caused a branch to break >> larry: stay safe out there, in this line of work only the freshest ingredients make the cut it's important to me to know every dish i serve is the best it can be. especially for this food critic. publix bakery scratch made bread we bake it in store every day with pride so you can serve it with some >> larry: icy snow covered roads made heroes out of truck drivers today. >> darcel: some had to abandon their vehicles. that's what happened after tractor trailers jackknifed. it closed a portion of long shoals road before they could be rescued. jennifer, what are conditions like right now? >> reporter: the road open tonight. but earlier today we saw vehicles on the side of the road tied with a yellow ribbon indicating that that driver was out of the vehicle but that vehicle needed to be towed. that truck that was stuck was towed out. earlier we caught up with antonio jackson. icee conditions wouldn't allow and they had to bring in a big rig tow truck to free him and the ek v. vehicle. >> you got some yahoos that will do it. they say they've been driving 20 plus but that don't mean nothing to ice. >> reporter: that meant a lot of tow truck drivers had to be out today. also got stuck on long shoals road. others rather than risk a crash waited for law enforcement to close the road. he had to slowly back out versus waiting hours for that tow truck. a warning to drivers, don't get out on the secondary. that's where the tow trucks have been needed the last couple of hours on these secondary icy it may be monday before they can get back to their regular routes. jennifer emert, news 13. >> jason: thank you, jennifer. obviously a big time issue if you're out on roads. just don't do it. it's almost impassable. >> zack: take a like at these temperatures. i want us to notice a little further west. slightly cooler than what we saw earlier today. rain and snow could be on the way. >> jason: bryson city, franklin, you're getting close to that magical freezing mark. is it going to be snow and ice for some of us? stick around. now your news 13 skywatch weather. >> jason: well the snow is back, folks. you. but here it is. heavy snows in oconee. pretty good snows back in brevard. this is highway 64 so brevard, cashiers and eventually highlands. that is nothing you want to be in right now. the bands working in to cashiers and jackson and macon county as well. you've seen your snow recently in rutherford, also polk. mcdowell and burke county. it hasn't been terribly heavy. getting a break over the smokys. that snow has moved up towards madison county. the big picture, look at all this. this is going to come on the back side of this system and really move to the north and northeast. and thus, we're not done anytime soon with snow fall. now it may wind down first and foremost for areas southeast in the upstate. here's our leicester carpet sales news13 sky cam network. we're getting dark now. the rock is covered. look at that, snow returning to rutherford county. here's what you can expect. overnight periods of snow. heaviest toward the mountains. the snow shifts farther east. saturday afternoon, it starts to come back from the north and west. counties. you obviously need to know this. it's obviously dangerous to impossible travel. stay home. even four wheel drive is not going to cut it in some of these steeper terrains. don't get out unless you have to. if you do, have that emergency kit with you: blankets, flash lights, batteries, maybe road flares. let somebody know where you're going. food. you gotta have that, too. water and food. always check on the pets and elderly. they are very susceptible to the chill. especially if they lose power, oh man, is it going to be feet of snow in virginia, towards maryland, new jersey. then that system will exit and will get quieter at least. the snows will wrap up some time in to saturday afternoon for most of us. look at these wind vectors hammering through all the way down to the upstate. 20-30 miles per hour gusting at times. it's going to be rough for you up there along the tennessee border for at least another 24 hours. all right. how much more snow are we talking about? this is a general idea. so you get up to about two and a half, three inches in asheville. look at these darker blues. you could see another 5, six inches, maybe even a little more. that's going to add up big time. this is the end all, be all snow totals. 16 plus in the northern-eastern portions of buncombe. that includes buncombe, henderson, all the way through transylvania. 16 plus over the balsams. about one to four there in to cherokee, graham, and also portions of clay county. temperatures will certainly be a big story. we're dropping. 20s for lows tonight. teens in the mountains. black ice is a big deal. mountain valleys, below freezing. asheville and hendersonville. there you go, the melt is on. temperatures will warm. but every night we go below freezing for the next several nights. >> zack: and it's going to take a while before that melt really comes on. sunday, we're looking at that sunshine. overall, it's still going to be a cold day for saturday. >> jason: this goes down as probably the top three snows. >> zack: certainly top five but could be top three. this in forever. >> darcel: our live team coverage continues next with fun why this blast of winter is a >> darcel: today's storm has play. >> rex: some were under the impression that just maybe winter would skip this year. suddenly jason boyer's patent pending flake-o-meter went up. so this is what winter looks like. a driver spinning his wheels with nothing but a 4x4 to try to clear the way for his car. not far away, tyler lewis and others shovel what old man winter keeps putting down. kind of reminds us that winter can be a lot of work. >> the only thing i like about it is watching the kids play. >> rex: some gather at at marlow house for a little down hill play. gavin may seem too young to be a weather historian. >> we haven't had a snowstorm >> rex: then at brevard college what started out as friendly snowman construction turned in toy a full contact snow ball fight in hot pursuit of fun in the cold. >> it's snowing. it's cold. come to brevard. >> rex: but maybe this is the moral of our story when stranded motorists realize they're not alone. along with several others, along with photographer steve wilder and i, gave this car a shove. whether you're at work or play, this is what winter looks like, just in case you've forgotten. western north carolina meets winter. i think i can speak for darcel when i say thanks for coming, winter, now get out of here. get on out of in this line of work only the freshest ingredients make the cut every dish i serve is the best it can be. especially for this food critic. publix bakery scratch made bread we bake it in store every day with pride so you can serve it with some breaking news tonight. the storm, deadly at this hour. 80 million americans. tens of thousands without power. the tornadoes, as well. dangerous conditions from the deep south to new england. blizzard warnings now in effect for several major cities. planes off the runway.