the haywood-jackson county line. we'll have team coverage of the weather this evening. today snow closed several schools. >> darcel: conditions are just a taste of what's expected to come this weekend. jason is in the weather center tracking all of the developments. >> jason: think of it as an appetizer of what is going to be a four-course meal on saturday. most snows exiting now most mountain locations. swain, haywood, madison. a lot of the snow is going to upstate. they even picked up light accumulations of those counties. greenville greenville, spartanburg. these temperatures will go below those numbers tonight. likelihood, too. take it easy.

look at the next one. this thing dives south. it is going to energize itself and really crank up the coast of the carolinas. we're talking a significant event of ice and snow. i'll show you my first call in terms of significant accumulations later in the show. down to 29 by 11 under cloudy skies. we'll stay with the cloudy theme in the upstate with temperatures freezing by 11. i'll see you in a few minutes. >> darcel: 53 accidents were reported on mountain roads this morning and one involved a school bus that lost control on an icy hill. >> tammy: there were no injuries to the students on board but now some parents have questions for the school administrators. >> darcel: ashlea, some were angry that school wasn't canceled. >> ashlea: yeah, some were saying the decision to have classes today put students, put families on dangerous roads this morning.

incident involving the school bus. the bus started sliding down an icy hill and ended up across lanes. there were seven students on the bus at the time. one young man said on the bus none of the kids seemed scared or upset. but one witness said it was alarming to watch. >> i was very, very panicked. there. can roll down that hill. so yeah. that. >> ashlea: now for its part, the district said they made the best decision they could based on the information they had this morning. officials were telling me that in the wee hours when they had to make the call this morning, they weren't saying any snow. talk about snow, zack green is in the weather center tracking the snow. >> zack: thank you, ashlea. and there's also some issues in terms of driving.

ground was minimal today. we certainly saw slick spots. there are a few helpful hints if you are headed out on the road, of course you want to have a cell phone charger in case you do have an issue. you want to check your car battery as well. and if you do break down, maybe just pack a blanket. there's a few other things that you want to keep in mind as well. you can join us on wlos.com and find all the information. a lot of you also sent in some of your pictures today. our first picture comes from tammy. it's from snow on the ground in bryson city. next photo is courtesy of bonnie and david perkins. this is on apple farm road. and our last photo is actually from jeanine dorel. we were live with you during 12 and around 1 o'clock and that's when the snow was really starting to come down.

jason boyer is going to have your full forecast in just a minute. >> darl: and stay with us for continuing coverage of the weather. >> tammy: that's right. we'll have more updates throughout the evening and we'll also get you ready for what to expect this weekend. >> darcel: be sure to check our our website, facebook and twitter pages. and keep sending us photos as well. jaclyn, slick roads are almost a problem everywhere now. >> jaclyn: if you are heading out the door soon, please take it slow on the road ways. let's talk about specific areas where there are weather related wrecks happening. in madison county there is an overturned semi that crashed due to icy road. thankfully no injuries reported there. dispatch in that area is reporting slick conditions gathered around 25-70 as well. henderson county there are two

are active. dot is treating both of these areas with salt and sand. brevard, a crash is blocking both ways of traffic on everett road. we have slick spots listed by county on wlos.com under the traffic report. that's a look at your on time traffic report brought to you by debruhl's used car superstore. >> tammy: the city of asheville's latest attempt to solve the parking dilemma involves hiring a consultant. they're looking for proposals to deliver a long time strategy. frank, that location where you are may be part of the solution. >> frank: imagine driving your car in to this lot, getting out, just locking it up. then you head across the jeff bowen bridge in to the heart of downtown, and you don't even have to look for a parking place. it might happen. if you've been downtown, you've been through this.

locate a coveted place to put your car. >> usually when you do a parking study, it's to say can i put a parking garage in point x or location y. that sort of thing. >> frank: it's ken putnam's job to sve a problem that doesn't get any better, improving parking downtown. >> i hear that reaction a lot. but we just don't have the resources to do it in house. we have to dependenttn consultants for studies like this to give us a road map. >> frank: putnam says it's about development of a long-term comprehensive strategy looking at what other cities of this size do, what they charge. how updated technology might make the system more efficient. one plan may include satellite parking areas. asheville mall where drivers can park and ride. sounds simple but it's not so easy. >> if we were to park cars in those areas then you're sure

get a bus pretty quickly and there's good turn around so when you want to come back to your car, you don't have to wait forever. >> i think the satellite will help with the congestion in town. and alleviate some of the parking problems. . >> in this case we're trying to get something that will help us develop the strategies that we want to use over the next 10 to 15 years. i'm really hoping that this document will not collect dust but it will be used. >> frank: if a satellite parking component works it could be expanded to biltmore village, even to west asheville. the call has gone out to consultants and their proposals have to be in by the end of july. frank kracher, news 13. >> darcel: the annual state of downtown luncheon. the group listened to presentations about achievements over the past year and things

the general consensus is the state of the city's core is good. >> i think we can work on some things going back to parking, cleanliness and safety. that would make the downttn experience better for everyone, visitors and also residents. >> darcel: improve walkability are also considered key concerns of 2016. the association has yet to take an official position regarding rapid growth. >> tammy: coming up, why authorities are looking in to a college professor. >> darcel: and following the

the action you're watching news 13 with darcel grimes, tammy watford, chief meteorologist jason boyer, and ontime traffic with jaclyn deaugustino. this is news 13 at 5:00. >> tammy: we are following a developing story for you. a college professor in ohio is under investigation by the fbi for potential ties to isis. >> darcel: the fbi probe was first revealed by a student newspaper. >> tammy: its editor was among

the fbi as part of an ongoing investigation in to the professor. >> i had written a couple of articles on him. >> tammy: pinnio has denied supporting isis. >> darcel: anger over the water crisis in michigan is showing no signs of slowing down. >> tammy: the governor in the state has apologized and providing more aid. e-mails that could shed new light. >> darcel: some residents are not accepting his apology. >> they haven't had our water tested. so i'm concerned. i have five kids. >> we should never have gotten to this point. we're surrounded by the great lakes.

and city officials should have

>> tammy: rough ride but it's 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.

we bake it in store every day with pride so you can serve it with some publix. where shopping is a pleasure. now your news 13 skywatch weather. >> jason: well i'm sure many of you have already begun your preparations in advance for what's going to be a significant storm. we've talked about it all week. here's what we think our best guess is right now. what to expect thursday overnight, rain and freezing rain will begin. and a mix. so we're going to have some icy situations already by dawn on friday. a lot of this is going to be lower elevations initially. we'll start to work snow in to the higher elevations. friday morning, rain-freezing rain mix to sleet and snow as

work its way through the atmosphere we're going to get it cold enough. then it's snow some time friday afternoon and through saturday. we're going to have a prolonged winter event. 31 degrees right now. cloudy skies. south-southeast wind at 6. humidity is up 82%. it is a damp chill. humidity, well it's 25 for the wind chill. winter storm scenario number one is the gfs model. this is taking it farther north crossing over the appalachians in to saturday. portions of rain. thin band of freezing rain. stretching up the blue ridge in to greensboro high point. areas like hickory, statesville. the snows are mostly going to be north and northeast of that. and then eventually that cold air funnels down behind it. then we turn over everything to snow. and this situation would limit

all right. but the european model, the one we're starting to hone in on is taking the storm south and the farther south it goes somewhere along. i-85 corridor puts us mostly in snow and limits the amount of ice and puts snow down in the upstate all the way across the state in raleigh. and certainly hammer time for those folks down there in the virginias. especially northern virginia. saturday and it's still snowing across the area. that solution brings significant snow fall to the area. i'm going to show you these totals in just a second. first of all tonight, skies cloudy. we start to see the clouds thicken in the afternoon. this is tomorrow night at 9 o'clock. see the moisture coming up? there it is by midnight. start to see the pink and magenta color. notice how much pink starts to show up here later in the morning on friday.

of freezing rain, sleet and snow. now if we see a prolonged event of that, again, that will limit snowfall accumulations. but my thinking right now is this is going to transition quickly to snow and snow through the evening and overnight in to saturday. so first best guess in terms of snowfall. in the pink areas here, the balsams stretching over to western transylvania, yancey, mitchell and avery. 12 to 18 inches. 6 to 10 inches in this dark blue will cover most of carolina. northern most portions of the upstate stretching east to the foothills. and one inch stretching south of i-85. we have freezing rain and sleet. we could see up to a quarter of an inch south. that would complicate and make it a very dangerous situation. prepare for very dangerous driving.

actually below freezing. we get cold and snowy and icy on friday. that snow lasting in to friday afternoon. then we can breathe a sigh of relief. >> darcel: 50 by wednesday? >> jason: i don't want to use the word crippling but in some places you will not be able to get around. >> tammy: all right . >> darcel: still ahead, looking at pregnancy law.

one asheville restaurant >> tammy: in today's health alert, important news for women who recently recovered from a miscarriage. >> reporter: it turns out trying to conceive soon after a pregnancy loss may actually increase the chances of having a healthy baby. previous advice had said that women need to wait at least three months due to concerns about the mother rebuilding folic acid or folate.

as spina bifida. >> but what the recent study showed is it doesn't seem to have an impact and actually patients have a better chance of getting pregnant soon after the loss than waiting after three months or three to six months as the original recommendations had been. >> reporter: dr. regina says this case study confirms that since women often have an easy time getting pregnant again after a loss, there's no need to delay for fear of losing another baby. >> based on this new study, then, what kind of recommendation would you give your patients who had say an early loss in one pregnancy. >> it would be a nice summary to give to them to encourage them that all is not lost with this recent miscarriage. and hopefully would encourage them to try for the next month

>> reporter: so you looked at the trial, did you feel it was a well-conducted study? >> it was a great study. i can think of patients who have proven the results of this study. >> reporter: the study applies to women who have experienced a loss without known complications at less than 20 weeks gestation. it's found that women have the same chances, if not greater, of having a live birth than those who wait three months or more. >> darcel: this study looked at more than a thousand women who were part of a larger trial. kind of challenging because, like, so many balls flying around everywhere. >> tammy: but tucker and his

next in neve >> darcel: students in henderson county get a chance to improve their cooperation and team building skills. >> tammy: as you'll see in my never stop learning report, the way to do that is through playing games. it's a delicate dance this morning for third graders at mills river elementary school. the students must work as a team to move the ball from one spot to another without dropping it.

provided by the ymca in black mountain. students say they're willing to lead and follow. >> you need to be a little bit of both. let other people say their ideas and then you can say yours and you work together to get the best idea. >> it's a lot easier when you have people around you to accomplish things, not just on your own. >> i learned that sometimes when things are even confusing, you have to cooperate. >> tammy: activities are also designed to help students with their memory. they use a game of toss to repeat a pattern over and over. activities were offered to all third graders at the school free of charge. >> darcel: and he's right, you have to cooperate. >> tammy: no matter how crazy it is. >> darcel: coming up, new

>> tammy: news 13 at 5:30 starts