A storm budding in the south-central U.S. earlier in the week, will take aim at the East Coast, and could deliver both heavy rain and wintry weather.An active pattern will continue to bring several storms from the center of the country to the Eastern Seaboard throughout the week. The presence of many moving parts makes for a more long-term complex pattern.One such moving part is a high pressure system that will move across the northern half of the country late in the week."The strength and location of the high pressure delivering cold to the northern tier of the country will determine how far north the storm is able to go," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert.No matter how far north the storm traverses, the likelihood of rain for states like Mississippi,
Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia from late on Thursday through Friday is pretty high.
The situation with the high pressure will instead determine the precipitation amount, and precipitation type for parts of Kentucky to the Carolinas and Virginia.At this time, the most likely scenario is for the high in the northern part of the country to be pretty powerful, moving farther east and suppressing the storm to the south.Cold present in the Appalachians and to the east of the mountains when the storm arrives could allow wet snowflakes to mix in with the rainfall, especially during the morning and overnight hours."In this scenario, accumulating snow will be possible in parts of Virginia, and in the mountains of North Carolinas," added Reppert.Residents will want to keep a close eye on this storm, and prepare for changeable conditions.Snow falling in the mid-Atlantic is not unprecedented for early November.Richmond's earliest accumulating snowfall, and even Raleigh earliest snowfall is during the first week of November. Snowflakes can come as early as October in these areas. The occurrence of accumulating snowfall in the higher elevations of the Appalachians is even more common.However, a snowy situation in
Virginia and North Carolina at the end of the week is not set in stone.Should the high hang back farther to the west, so will the cold air. Instead of the cold being present during the arrival of the storm, it will follow the wet weather.
This second scenario, combined with a more northerly storm track, would minimize the presence of snow for most across the south. Instead, there is a slight chance for some wet snowflakes to mix in with rain in places like Delaware,
Maryland and northern Virginia.Additionally, the storm may move faster, most locations away from the Carolina Coast and
Florida would be dried out by Friday afternoon.Cold would be able to dive farther to the south, bringing a chill for many across the region, including northern Florida, where cities experienced a record-warm October.Much of the southern and eastern Untied States has seen its fair share of storminess as of late.Cities like D.C., Raleigh, Nashville and Atlanta all recorded above-normal precipitation for the month of October. In fact D.C., and Nashville had almost double the normal amount of rain they get during the month.Download the free AccuWeather app to see the latest forecast for your region. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.