Winter attacks from every side

Anyone in the Charlotte region who dislikes winter weather must feel besieged today, with snow and cold weather seemingly attacking from all directions.

After all, snow is expected to fall this afternoon in Charleston, and bitterly cold arctic air is pouring into the region from the northwest.

The big news for the area continues to be the possibility of a snowstorm Tuesday into early Wednesday, but there is more on the plate this next-to-last Saturday in January.

We still don't have a firm grasp on exactly what will unfold with the next winter storm expected for the Carolinas. The general thinking hasn't changed ... low pressure will form in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and then move across the Southeast.

That low pressure will intensify and take a run up the East Coast, bringing absolutely awful weather to the big metropolitan areas that already have been clobbered several times this season.

But what about the Charlotte area?

Blair Holloway, of the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C., said Saturday morning the current guess is Charlotte will get rain to start Tuesday, but precipitation will change over to snow. Areas to the north and west of Charlotte would get mostly snow.

This might sound familiar, Holloway notes. "This would be similar to the Christmas day storm," he says.

Meanwhile, Accu-Weather is predicting some rain and some freezing rain for Charlotte, with heavier snow reserved for the foothills and mountains. One of the key computer models for weather forecasting, the GFS (Global), predicted Saturday morning that the storm would take a rather northerly track, bringing more warm air into the Charlotte region.

The other models have colder predictions ... and, hence, more snow.

Here's something else to ponder. Some of the models are hinting at a major storm next weekend. I haven't been paying very close attention to that, but my brother Michael -- who is very weather-savvy -- mentioned to me this morning that some weather professionals have been comparing overall conditions next weekend to March 1993 (the Superstorm).

In the meantime, let's look at the two current pieces of the winter picture:

Snow in Charleston? Low pressure formed off the Florida coast Saturday morning, spreading frozen precipitation onto parts of the coast. Light sleet and snow fell near Charleston, but more significant snow fell Saturday afternoon near Wilmington.

Up to an inch could accumulate in such unlikely places as Ocean Isle Beach and Wrightsville Beach this afternoon, before the storm system moves out to sea.

Cold air. Actually, the Carolinas were spared the worst of the nasty cold blast the past few days. Low temperatures Saturday morning in the mountains were in the mid teens, but the coldest air remained north of the region.

Readings were as cold as 11 degrees below zero in Zanesville, Ohio, not far from Columbus, and the thermometer fell to 1 degree at Lexington, Ky.

High pressure responsible for those cold temperatures will move over New England early in the week and pump chilly air into the Carolinas. That will set the stage for our winter storm Tuesday.