Yes, that's snow falling up north

Was it really only a week ago when it felt like summer wouldn't end?

Now the Charlotte area is looking at high temperatures only in the 70s for much of next week, and some residents in the northern-most United States awakened to snow on the ground Friday.

Up to 8 inches of snow accumulated in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the National Weather Service in Sioux City said it was the earliest accumulating snow in the region since 1888. Snow also accumulated the past two days in Canada's Alberta province and in Montana.

Low temperatures are expected to reach the upper 20s Friday morning in parts of Minnesota and the Dakotas, and Great Lakes locations like Cleveland and Detroit will see the mid and upper 40s.

Here in the Carolinas, the heart of the cold air won't arrive. The cold front will stall along the coast, and while cooler air will be sweeping into the eastern United States, the truly chilly conditions will never get into the Southeast.

Meanwhile, it's still tropical weather season in the Atlantic and Caribbean. And there are two areas of interest.

A tropical depression developed Thursday about 700 miles west of the Azores. This system could turn into a tropical storm by early Friday and a hurricane soon after.

However, computer models indicate that the system, which would be be named Edouard if it reaches tropical storm status will curve into the open Atlantic and never threaten the mainland United State.

The other system is crossing the southern part of Florida and will emerge into the Gulf of Mexico sometime this weekend. It will not have enough time to strengthen much, but it will bring heavy rain to parts of Louisiana and south Texas.