look outside at what things look like. this is from our paris mountain skycam looking into downtown greenville. out there. however, that could soon change. we have live team coverage. mike mccormick is in spartans bird. mandy gaither is inhere. john: i've just seen those pictures from yesterday. three and a half inches yesterday. by this time tomorrow, blowing rock may be closing in a foot of snow. significant snow and i i in through this area, and even for you folks in newberry county, you are under a freezing rain advisory. that starts tonight and goes until noon tomorrow. winter weather advisory for a

and a winter mix of rain, sleet, freezing rain, and snow. there is your advisory until 7:00 saturday, and for you folks in newberry county, freezing rain until noon tomorrow. notice temperatures above the freezing mark. at 7:00, rain comes in, but it quickly changes to frozen precipitation through themountains of north carolina and the foothills of north carolinana as we go through a cold night tonight, the rain starts to gradually mix with freezing rain. the eye 85 corridor, especially of the upstate, the rush hour does not look good, and then with mainly freezing rain. freezing rain and snow through most of the mountains. now back to you. nigel: a big concern is now the roads. crews from south carolina's dot have pretreated them in counties expected to see the ice and

and local in anderson county with more on what is being done. mandy: the number one priority for people during the storm is beside me. they are working to keep interstate 85 as safe as possible. salt and salt brine, two key things to keep drivers safe during the storm. in greenville, pickens counties, south carolina department of transportation crews pr>> i start with i-85, 35, i-26 in spartans berg. we will work towards our main routes, u.s. 25, 26. mandy: it's a lot of area to cover, but crews say it is worth it. the salt brine should keep the ice from sticking to the roads. in anderson county, crews which cover abbeville, greenville, and

, waiting to see what the storm brings. >> it looks like it is going to start out as rain. there isn't a pretreatment wehave that the rain won't wash away. mandy: if the storm brings ice, there is a twofold problem, ice breaking down trees that could break over roadways. crews have to work to keep the interstate, primary, and secondary routes open. they could be icing and cutting -- deicing and cutting trees at the same time. crews say this particular storm has been hard to track, ananthey are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. much salt brine is ready to go in anderson county for the morning?mandy gaither, wyff news 4. nigel: thank you.

greenwood, and greenville facilities say they need help. they need electric heaters, blankets. gabrielle: just a reminder, although they have sure, your pets are not immune to thisaofficials say dogs and cats can suffer from frostbite and hypothermia just like we can, and it is best to bring them inside on nights like th. plus, the cold can affect your pet'sood. animals who don't get enough exercise when it's cold may become irritable and inches. veterinarians suggest opening up the blinds and turning on indoor winter blues. news. schools and offices will be closed on friday, january 22 because of the winter weather coming. greenville county schools just announced they will be closed tomorrow. gabrielle: let's bring you to spartanburg and a look at how

nigel: that is where mike mccormick is live and local. what can you tell us?mike: if you take a look behihi me, you can see a crew replenishing the city's supply of brine. that's the noise. we want to bring in an official with the city of spartanburg. tell us what you have been doing so far today to prepare. >> what we have done so far is we have treated the primary routes throughout the city of spartanburg and other critical facilities, ems stations, hospitals, emergency room's, and the primary routes to and from. mike: what happens now for you guys? >> we are sort of in a wait and see, depending on the precipitation, finding out what we have to do with the roadsdsnd making sure everybody is going to be in a safe manner when they are on those roads. mike: your crews are ready to respond? >> they are ready.

sand-spreaders. we have pretreated the roads, and we will replenish our stockpile of brine, as well. mike: we will send it back to you guys. gabrielle: thank you very much. ahead in our consumer watch, as tax season gets closer, we tell you what to look out for when potential scammer start calling. nigel: if you thought it was hard to get into college, wait until you hear what current seniors have to do just to get noticed in the application process. first, tonight's primetime

marco rubio. he ran for senate saying he opposed amnesty... then he flipped, and worked with liberal chuck schumer to co-author the path to citizenship bill. he threatened to vote against it. and then voted for it. he supported his own dream act and then he abandoned it. marco rubio. just another washington politician you can't trust. jeb bush. he's a leader,

right to rise usa is responsible for the content of this message. nigel: the irs is warning taxpayers of a new and costly tax scam. gabrielle: amon jumpers has the story. >> the irs is calling me ? amon: a new series of public service announcements is warning americans about an age old tax scam. in this game, criminals called taxpayers pretending to be irs agents and demand phony back taxes. often, the criminals threatened to call the police if the taxpayer hangs up. >> it makes me angry. i feel bad for the victims. then i feel angry that these criminals are using the irs as a means to scare people into

amon: the inspector general for the irs says as 5000 victims have paid as much as $26.5 million to the scam artists, who can be located inside the united states or around the wor the scam began by targeting immigrants to the united states and threatening deportation, but the inspector general says it has since mutated and is targeting every demographic. >> early in the scam, the collars had some sort of information. they may have four digits of your social security number. now they are randomly making blanket calls. amon: that's why the agency has released five new videos in both english and spanish telling people that the irs will not call you out of the blue and threatened to arrest you. the government has one piece of advice for anyone getting a call. >> hang up on fraud. >> you can't be tricked into

you certainly can't be tricked into paying the money if you simply hang up the phone. amon: what if the caller really was from the u.s. government? the inspector general says not to worry. the irs will not be offended if you hang up. i am came in jabber's in washington. john: a live shot looking at asheville, clouds moving in from the southwest.

mountains.someth gabrielle: something is snowboarder did that was caught on ca cl charges. christian mares was wearing a camera when he boarded down a steep run at sugar bowl resort in california. the video shows -- you see him being buried under an avalanche, and he eventually fights his way to the surface. the resort said he was an inactive avalanche area that has been closed to the public for six years. he could face criminal charges for triggering the avalanche. the resort said he put himself and other skiers at risk. nigel: rubble.

fell, followed by the second 175-foot structure. the demolition cleared 24 acres of riverfront property for new development. gabrielle: now to video of an attempted carjacking in florida. surveillance video shows two adults and one teenager trying to overtake a driver. the driver was able to fight off the attackers and get away. it was the group's second alleged carjacking of the night. they were eventually caught by police. nigel: 2015 was the warmest on earth ever. according to nasa and noaa scientists, the earth's temperature broke the record by 0.23 degrees fahrenheit or that is the second largest yearly jump since record-keeping began in 1880. the earth's average temperature is now 1.8 degrees warmer than it was in the late 19th century. gabrielle: even the president isn't a immune from the headache of driving and snowy weather.

house last night from joint base at fort andrews. a drive that normally takes 25 minutes took about an hour and 10 minutes. the president eventually arrived at the white house safely. >> now your live super doppler four hd weather forecast. john: the crews in the nation's capital better be ready to move the president through much easier, but it's not going to be easy this weekend. our storm system is going to move up the eastern seaboard, and our nation's capital is under a blizzard warning. they could see as much as two feet of snow with incrdrifts and blowing snow. for us, it's going to be liquid precipitation coming in. look how fast that rain quickly changes over to freezing rain, sleet, and snow for the mountainous areas in the foothills of north carolina.

the area.the temperatures are going to slowly drop into the upstate. we might see a few ice boats -- icy spots. after midnight tonight, that is that is when we see freezing rain and rain and sleet along the i 85 corridor. the asheville, hendersonville area, snow mixed with sleet. this is at noon time tomorrow. all of this pink moves farther south, and the entire upstate is looking at freezing rain mixed with some sleet and maybe snowflakes. still snow will continue. 18 degrees at noon tomorrow in boone with moderate to heavy snow. freezing rain continues, and some models are trying to put out more snow. it's going to be interesting. i think we are going to see more freezing rain and ice in the upstate. tomorrow night is a different

as the storm system moves up the eastern seaboard, an upper-level low moves in from the west. it's going to start the mountains, which will be mainly snowing anyways. then it's going to move to the upstate. i think we will start to see 1-4 inches of snow throughout the upstate, especially along the i 85 corridor. mainly we are going to see over the next 24 hours a lot of ice. we could see as a half an inch of ice. that is a major ice storm. that's going to cause tree limbs to come down on top of power lines, power outages. be impossible to drive on. this closely. the snow, mainly snow in the mountains, that's from tonight through saturday, and we are

here comes our storm system coming from the southwest. some pockets of heavier rain in atlanta as you can see up interstate 75. clouds have increased quickly. this is a live shot in anderson county. over the city of anderson, let's take a look at the temperature. 54 in elberton. it's 34 in boone. when precipitation falls from the dry air, it of operates. that's a process we call evaporational cooling. this is unbelievable. this has been very consistent. this is a model that scares me. this is the gfs, the american model. it continues to show more and more snow across the greenville and spartanburg area. look at how much snow is possible, two feet of snow. it's hard to believe.

if that turns out right, and this is the european model over the northern mountains, you are guaranteed about two feet of snow, but this around greenville is about six inches of snow before it is all said and done. another computer model, which i am favoring a little bit more, showinmountains and less the farther south you go, and i like the rpm computer model. this is 1-3 inches of snow, four inches possible along the i-84 corridor. that's why it's a challenge. rain later on mixed with sleet and snow, and even freezing rain late tonight. 28 in the mountains with rain quickly changing to snow. tomorrow, freezing rain mixed with sleet and snow.w. snow likely in the mountains next with sleet from time to time, but it's mainly going to be a snow event. snow showers continuing on saturday, tapering off by

back to you. nigel: now to our you local shot of the day. take a look at this stunning sunrise over lake russell. gabrielle: before the sun set, there's another sunrise right there. really beautiful. this is lake robinson. nature you keep those pictures coming. please send us your snow pictures. upload them onto the you local section of www.wyff4.com, and we would love to show them on-air. now to a unique view -- another beautiful picture. the northern lights, taken from above the earth. the astronauts shared their view of the aurora borealis from the international space station. thanks, john. they called this magical or the natural light display happens when a burst o o the sun's gas

solar wind. people can see the polar lights from the ground, but it is different compared to this view that the astronauts see. nigel: her rise in a announced another freebie data service. it wilrtyhe tab for your data usage when you download content from their apps and services. verizon believes it could save you money. it will try out the new service next with companies like gameday and aol. watch this. two alabama high schools battling it out on monday night, and then this happened. 2:30 left, the pass goes to the teammates head, hits another member in the head, and the ball goes in. gabrielle: impressive. i had tonight, an unlikely team works together to try to make it

there are.... s.a.t. tests and advanced placement classes...

this. there are sats, advanced placement classes, sports, jobs, extracurricular activities. gabrielle: the pressure on today's high school students who spread thes out in an effort to stand out on college applications is greater than ever, but a group is banding together to say enough is enough. breaking ellis explains. >> for these juniors, applying to college feels overwhelming. do you feel any pressure about the application process? >> definitely. >> everyone is. >> to some, even unfair. >> i also have a job outside of school. trying to get involved in extracurricular activities is difficult. >> a new report released today, in part sponsored by the harvard graduate school of education, endorsed by dozens of top colleges and universities, now recommends stunning changes in

>> it's the first time in history that a large group of colleges have banded together to reshape the admissions process. i think we have unfairness to kids who are economically is a bandaged, and we have too many stressed out and depressed athlete kids. >> among the suggestions, deemphasize standardized testing, making the sats optional, stressing quality over quantity when it comes to extracurriculars and advanced placement classes. is this an effort to level the playing field? >> absolutely. it's an opportunity to fairly capture the contributions of low income and working-class students who have demanding family responsibilities. >> the new applications may include an essay question for students to explain their contributions to others. do you think that a college looks at the contribution you

same way they look at an extracurricular ap course or something of t >> they only see >> you>> a change in college admissions policy could be two to three years asame way they look at an exprocess to a broader group of students and concern for the common good. nbc news, cambridge, massachusetts. gabrielle: news four at 6:00 joins now. >> live, local, breaking news. this is wyff news four at 6:00 in high definition. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is caption contency here we are in maccallum before the storm. asheville public works is getting a head start on the prep work. carol: the buncombe county schools have decided to close schools tomorrow.team coverage tonight on the snowstorm expected to hit overnight and alter tomorrow. michael: our crews are out they're everywhere. carol: let's check in with chief meteorologist john cessarich

this is an ice event. john: it sure looks like it. this same area in the pink, this was under a winter storm watch issued yesterday. it has been upgraded to a warning. i'm thinking significant snow in the mountains and significant ice in the upstate. also, we have winter weather advisory's as far south as atlanta, and includes you folks and abbeys phil. that goes until 7:00 saturday. county, you are under a freezing rain advisory. that runs until noon tomorrow. this is an incredible system, and some of the computer models have printed out an unbelievable talk about later on. here comes the rain quickly in from the southwest. it's going to be liquid evening. some of the rain could be heavy

temperatures to the mid 30's.