turns to snow. this is coming our way. it is dark blue. that's heavy snow that will come right up in to haywood, jackson, transylvania, buncombe county. decent break over henderson county. and look at all this yet to come. that's the back side of the storm. that has to swing through this evening and overnight. when it does, we can get another two, three, maybe four inches out of that. leicester carpet sales news13 sky cam network. 20 degrees up in the black mountains over yancey county. 25 degrees in black mountain and it's still snow. not much pavement to see through the snow. icy, icy, icy. so don't get out and try to drive around signed of sight seeing. balsam gap. then you get down to the upstate. look at this mess.

sleet, freezing rain and some snow. in fact, we have some impressive snow totals, zack. we'll show you that in just a bit. >> zack: we were talking about up to 15 inches in spots in western north carolina. there's going to be a lot more on the way. as you said there is that little bit of a lull. but there is certainly inches coming from the west. old fort, many of you guys there. crusoe getting close to that one inch mark. mills river, leicester at 9. we continue to increase those but ever so slightly. everyone i seeing over a half foot of snow. we're going to be talking about wind coming up for tomorrow with gusts pushing closer to 15 to 20 miles per hour. gusts of 40 miles per hour. >> jason: landrum even in the upstate. we're looking at snow tonight, tapering a little bit. mostly focused on the northwest

we're talking the mountains mostly. i don't see anything happening south. the black ice a big deal for several days to come. >> zack: coming up, we'll talk about our new storm totals. >> jason: keep it right here. >> tammy: thanks, guys. developing right now, thousands of people just got their power back up in asheville. >> darcel: more than 7600 customers were affected. officials say the outage was caused by damage to transmission lines. more on power problems in just a minute. but let's turn to the road conditions now. >> tammy: news 13's frank kracher joins us live in asheville. frank, what have you been seeing out there today? >> frank: quite a bit of everything from cars in ditches to slipping and sliding. and of course that major effort to stay ahead of the storm.

that's the heaviest hit right there. >> frank: dennis has been with the dot for 26 years. >> the blizzard of 93 and then it could have cared less if it ever snowed again. but you gotta do it. >> frank: doing it to keep this from happening. drivers not able to make it up hills in the interstate. the dot having to push them on their way. there will be more of this as day turns to night. >> snow melts just a little bit then it's going to turn to ice. that's going to cause another problem. >> ice, you can't do nothing with it. >> frank: dennis spending a good part of his day working western buncombe county. he is surprised by what he sees. >> usually 63 is bad.

warning and stayed at home. >> frank: some stayed home and played. using the snow covered road to their advantage. >> it's slippery and do what you want. ain't nobody on the road. slow down when they come. just have fun. >> frank: fun for all those four-wheelers but serious business. a lot of work ahead for those guys in the dot crews. they have hundreds of miles of road, multi-lane road that they'll have to plow and keep plowing until the snow stops. now time to look at traffic on the road with jaclyn deaugustino. >> jaclyn: thanks, frank. i-240 east bound near exit 3, look out for a wreck in the area of the bowen bridge. traffic is slow moving along

a crash on future i-26 east bound. also happening on i-26 east, crews are working a crash at brevard road. look out for that as well. update on the interstate, parts of i-26 and i-40 were shut down earlier this morning. all those interstates are back open. keep in mind the main roads are drivable in our area. it's the side roads that are a problem area right now. most events in our area are canceled. so if you do have an event going on, just be sure to call ahead before you head out the door. that's a look at your on time traffic report brought to you by debruhl's used car superstore. >> tammy: news 13's kimberly king is live in henderson county. >> darcel: kim, power crews were busy today. >> kim: darcel, they were. in fact, we saw duke trucks going east and west bound here on i-26 behind me in henderson county. they got busy early this morning.

we were told close to 200 trucks were parked. that was the staging area at the ag center. they were heading to calls for help in spartanburg where we've learned there were more power outage problems. the trucks coming in from across the country from as far away as oklahoma, indiana, and michigan. now in upper road here in henderson county, right now the snow has tapered off, as jason mentioned mentioned. earlier in the day we had heavy sleet. six to seven inches right where i'm standing. but of course we still have the night to look forward to for more accumulation down here. definitely we are seeing fewer numbers of cars out on the roads in the last hour and a half. it was heavier traffic earlier today. reporting live, kimberly king, news 13. >> darcel: there were also some power issues in the western

>> tammy: news 13's john osstendorf. >> john: the main roads are passable but there are certainly some issues with electricity. duke energy says about 700 people are still without power. we found a crew south of dillsboro. they had to brave narrow and snowy roads to repair two powerlines. two power poles that actually snapped. neighbors started digging out this afternoon. many said they are glad the storm wasn't worse. >> it's okay. it just flickered on and off. i'm glad nothing happened for us. >> john: now the crews started working in her neighborhood just about an hour to hour and a half ago. and that work is going to take time to repair. but they're going to stay on it and get it fixed tonight. as you see behind me, u.s. 441 is still relatively clear.

really stay off the road tonight. reporting live in jackson county, john ostendorf, news 13. >> reporter: a hot spot for rescues. in fact, you can see the most recent happening behind me right now. what drivers had to say about conditions they were forced out in to. next. >> rex: i'm rex hodge in haywood

a look at the you're watching news 13 with darcel grimes, tammy watford, chief meteorologist jason boyer, and on time traffic with jaclyn deaugustino. this is news 13 at 5:00. >> darcel: some drivers who braved the roads today found themselves stranded in icy conditions. vehicles were abandoned across buncombe county after landing in ditches. >> tammy: portions of long shoals road had to be shut down after half dozen trucks got stuck. jennifer, what are conditions like right now? >> reporter: tammy, unfortunately those conditions haven't improved today. they've made several passes on that roadway but still tractor

the ice and snow. the incline proved too steep in snow covered icy roads. antonio johnson's big rig got stuck when he realized his delivery point was closed. his truck slid. he wasn't alone. because of the volume of rescues, tow truck drivers told us the wait is three hours. it made johnson think twice about continuing. >> once he pulls me out, i'm gone. back to the truck stop. i guess i'll be there until monday. >> reporter: he won't be the only driver. many told us today that with conditions expected to continue, some delivers and pick-ups will now have to wait until monday. now remember that three hour wait. that's enough to keep people off the roads. skyland fire who has been out here all day says if you don't have to be out on the roads, well then you shouldn't be out

coming up at 5:30, what drivers had to say about the conditions they were forced out in to today. in south asheville, jennifer emert, news 13. >> tammy: our live coverage continues with news 13's rex hodge. >> darcel: rex, how are things going out there? >> rex: inches or so give or take. now the main roads out here have been taken care of by the dot. behind me is the smoky mountain expressway. right now you can see both lanes in each direction are open right now. mainly the surface is just wet and covered with a little bit of slush. we're in a lull without any precipitation. this lull shouldn't give you a sense of false security because there's more coming. of course, over from tennessee. and we could see some freezing tonight.

to black ice. we have wind coming. we could see power outages. we've seen a flurry of activity here. a lot of vehicles sliding off the roadway in and in the ditch. we'll tell you more about that coming up at 5:30, including problems that a dot truck actually had today. that's coming up in just a little bit. reporting live from haywood county, rex hodge, news 13. >> darcel: dangerous conditions. >> tammy: you're right. a lot going on out there. it's not slowing down either, is it, jason. >> jason: i'll tell you what, slow down. just hunker down until the roads are going to get better. they're not going to get better. they're going to get worse. even though they plow them. take a look at these temperatures. it's way below freezing. wedged in the upstate. getting close to freezing in columbia. almost freezing in charlotte.

franklin above freezing. andrews, got in to the 40s today. how much more snow? that's the big question today. is it going to be snow mostly or ice? there could be some of that, too. when will it end? those are big questions that i'm going to answer after the break

now your news 13 skywatch weather. >> jason: we are not done yet, folks. i know there's been a break in the action, if you will, for the snow fall. here comes another heavy band hitting oconee county hard right now. headed in to transylvania. it is lake toxaway, cashiers, highlands, all the way up highway 64. this will travel to buncombe and eventually asheville. there you go, in waynesville, still seeing the snows. you can actually see some of the rain changing over to snow. we're getting colder air now down to the surface and through the entire column from snow to sleet and back to snow in most cases. this is going to be the theme for the rest of the evening. there's that break in madison county, marshall. blue ridge parkway down to henderson county and transylvania county. not much happening yet.

haywood county up toward cold springs ranch, north and east of bryson city. snow back to the west. in fact, all of this has got to come through this evening. chattanooga wintery mix. overnight, periods of snow here. this is what you can expect with your winter time line. saturday morning, the snow will shift farther east and north. saturday evening we're seeing mostly snow toward the tennessee border. you're not going to be done in yancey, mitchell, avery county until late in the day. western north carolina university and our leicester carpet sales news13 sky cam network. look at the heavy snows earlier coming down. not as much on the ground there. but we've seen easily 6 to 8 inches in places in that area. ice and sleet threat. those are dropping becauau i just don't see much of that at all. we had sleet earlier.

that threat will increase overnight tonight. storm threat in the upstate. snow not as big of a threat. but you had ice earlier today. here's what you need to know. dangerous to impossible travel. i know you hear impossible and you think, no way, i can get around in this. those higher elevations, you're not getting up those things. don't get up there at all. don't you get out unless you absolutely have to. have an emergency kit handy. check on the elderly and the pets as well. here's our storm later on this evening and overnight. moves off the coast. there's the wrap around moisture from it. northwest flow really hammers the northwest mountains and stretches up through the shenandoah valley. that will be the case all the way through tomorrow afternoon. so feet of snow expected in those areas. here's our back edge of the storm tomorrow. lunch hour, north w wnds to northwesterly winds.

across the area. a lot of those trees will be stressed out. likely going to have more power outages through the day tomorrow. sunday, it is going to be beautiful with sunshine back in the forecast and the melting will begin. 16 to 20 plus inches in the purple. that's the blue ridge parkway. southern yancey, avery, mitchell. 12 to 16 inches for everybody in pink. that turquoise, y y're looking at 4 to 8. 8 to 12 in the darker blue. 1 to 4 in areas like greenville county. 20s and 30s for lows tonight. sub-freezing in all locations. and h hhs tomorrow, not much. it's still below freezing in many cases around here. there's your forecast. 40s sunday. by then, we'll see rain chances.

there's a lot of water in this snowfall. >> tammy: okay. we'll be right back. snow, is it fun or

i'm john le, coming up, we >> tammy: the winter storm in transylvania county has brought

>> darcel: let's go over to news 13's john le. john, what have you noticed today? >> john: folks driving by. take a look at these folks, the looky lous out. no offense. folks driving around, walking around. overall, not a lot of traffic downtown or throughout transylvania county, really. people are heeding that advice. stay off of those roads. because of that, they're staying safe. as we take a look at video from earlier today. we found one poor guy stranded off asheville highway. he was sort of spinning his wheels. all he had in the car to help himself was a 4 x 4. which in the handbook is probably not good. but that's all we had. we had folks having fun in the snow. that would be at these marlow residents. where kids were out there. they invited other kids. they were having a blast in the front yard there.

it's like a roller coaster. we haven't had snow like that in brevard in years. and that is the truth, indeed. now here in downtown brevard, you can pretty much hear a pin drop at this point. a few businesses open. including the toy store here. however, not many customers to speak of. those roads. john le, news 13. >> darcel: still ahead, a look at the winter storm courtesy of our these little guys? they represent blood cells. and if you have afib-an irregular heartbeat that may put you at five times greater risk of stroke they can pool together in the heart, forming a clot that can break free

where it can block blood flow and cause a stroke. but if you have afib that's not causededy a heart valve problem, pradaxa can help stop clots from forming. prpraxa was even proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke, in a clinical trial without the need for regular blood tests. and, in the rare event of an emergency, pradaxa is the only oral blood thinner other than warfarin with a specific reversal treatment to help your body clot normally again. pradaxa is not for people who have had a heart valve replacement. don't stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. stopping increases your risk of stroke or blood clots ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before any planned medical or dental procedure. pradaxa can cause serious, d sometimes, fatal bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding. and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if y y're 75 or older, have kidney problems, stomach ulcers, a bleeding condition, or take certain medicines.

indigestion, stomach pain, upset or burning. don't just go with the flow. go with pradaxa, the only blood thinner that lowers your risk of stroke better than warfarin and has a specific reversal treatment.

>> tammy: dozens of viewers sending snow photos to our news room and we love it. >> darcel: this first picture comes to us from mary edwards. this is on deer lake drive. gorgeous. >> tammy: our next photo is courtesy of jack and vicki boyd. they call this shot cabin in the snow. that's in cacaler. that's pretty. >> darcel: stay inside there. finally we have a picture from judy presnel. judy reported several inches of snow in the area. >> tammy: doesn't look like she's going to be serving company anytime outside. >> darcel: coming up, our team coverage of the winter storm continues. >> tammy: plus how it's affecting the rest of the country.