Potential blizzard headed to Southeast this weekend: Latest forecast

Ice chunks float in the Hudson River in front of the skyline of midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building in New York City as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey, Jan. 26, 2026. (Gary Hershorn/ABC News)

(NEW YORK) — A potential blizzard is headed to the Southeast this weekend, impacting the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee.

The storm will begin Friday evening with snow over Appalachia, along the Tennessee/North Carolina border and western Virginia.

On Saturday, the snow is forecast to spread east into eastern Georgia and much of South Carolina, North Carolina and southern Virginia.

The storm could bring powerful winds, which may lead to blizzard conditions. Visibility could be reduced to less than a quarter-mile.

While it is still too early to predict exact snow totals, it appears that much of northern South Carolina, nearly all of North Carolina and southern Virginia will get 3 to 8 inches of snow between Friday night and Sunday morning. Some areas could even near 1 foot of snow, especially along the North Carolina coast where the heavy snow may last longer.

Along with a full moon causing naturally higher tides, large waves produced by the storm may lead to destructive beach erosion and coastal flooding, with 2 to 4 feet water inundation possible from the South Carolina coast to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the coasts of Virginia and Maryland.

The Northeast coast may escape this storm mostly unscathed.

Those along the Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City should see little to no snow accumulation, but they will see gusty winds up to 40 mph on Sunday morning.

A few inches of snow is possible on the coasts of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey, as well as New York’s Long Island and Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.

But if the storm moves slightly west, 3 to 6 inches of snow and blizzard conditions could strike the I-95 corridor from Connecticut to Boston to Maine.

Meanwhile, the deep freeze is ongoing.

On Friday, the the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is forecast to hit minus 13 degrees in Minneapolis. On Saturday, the wind chill is forecast to drop to 2 degrees in Atlanta and minus 1 in New York City.

That cold is also spreading south to Florida. Record lows are possible across the Sunshine State on Sunday, including 20 degrees in Tallahassee, 23 degrees in Jacksonville and 25 in Orlando.

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