Most of the primary roads are covered with salt, they are in good shape but the secondary roads and the Higher Elevations are turning white now. We will have crews hitting those once daylight comes, the day shift working. But for right now watch out on the secondary roads. Zack even in the overnight hours your crews were working out there as well because of the wind and downed trees. What are you seeing now . We have had a lot of downed trees overnight. The winds have been very rough, especially in the higher mountains. We have probably had 2030 trees down tonight. The crews are getting out, finishing up some of them right now as they are transitioned over to snow removal. Zack i know we have four county trucks out. We have two contracted trucks as well and they are taking out the salt. But there is other treatment on the roadways . We put down a salt and sand mixture, the sand help with the traction right now especially with some of the areas might be turning a little icy. The sand will help you get traction until the salt melts it. Zack yeah. Certainly black ice on the roadways. Seeing the snow, even though its light accumulation blowing across. We want to make sure that we are taking our time on the roads this morning. Chris, thank you so much many for joining us today. We will be tossing it back to Lauren Brigman who has your road report. Lauren thanks, zack. Drivers in the north turkey area of leicester, know land hills drive and eisenhower road is lines. Turning to swain county, highway 441 is closed between cherokee and gatlinburg, tennessee, due the weather conditions. And then, in the upstate, a crash with injuries is reportete in Anderson County. Its on ballard road near the intersections of cherokee road and grant road. Conditions are quickly changing. Too. So find me observe twiwier so let me know of any traffic issues you have found. This is Lauren Brigman for news 13 brought to you with your wired mouse computer solution traffic report. Jay heavy rains and strong winds is causing problems for the mid atlantic. At least three people were holly mototists have been stranded by flooding roads and it dumped rain in alabama, georgia, causing flash floods. If you dont need to make the trip, dont make the trip today. Holly meanwhile, a snowstorm has been pounding the chicago area. Northern i could yeah that can get up to 18. Jay gop president ial candidates made one last push ahead of supertuesday. Holly our chief Political Correspondent scott thuman breaks down what to expect in houston. Reporter we are here in houston and in a state that brags it does everything big. There will certainly be a big texassized showdown tonight on the stage for the last republican debate, before supertuesday. So, here are the storylines. First, ted cruz. He has got three straight third place finishes. Can he rebound . He does have, in one poll, a double digit lead here in his state of texas. He needs a victory to break out of the slump hes been in. Here in houston on wednesday and is hoping to continue some of the momentum he has seen. But, they are all chasing donald trump, of course, who displayed more of the aggressive tone that has been so successful for him. In the past 4 hours, going after cruz, again bringing up the fact he was born in canada, sayinin he may not be eligible to become president and even as he displays an antiestablishment tone of his, getting into a twitter spat with mitt romney, the 2012 gop nominee. So a lot of stake, understandably, as we head into supertuesday. It is not a coincidence that the final debate is being held here in texas. It is considered the crown jewel of supertuesday with 1554 ut e and late into the evening. In houston, texas im scott thuthuman, back t tyou. Jay democratic candidate several stops planned across North Carolina, kings street, myrtle beach and north charlesnd to. President clinton will be in spartanburg for a get out the vote valley at the University South carolina upstate. Holly perny sanders will host a rally at Chicago State University and afterwards he will join the msnbc college tour with Chris Matthews at the university of chicago. Jay it was was an emotional reunion. Holly two teens shot little brodie 18 times with a bb gun and threw a knife at him. He took a big step in his recovery with the man who saved him. For some reason when i walked in, he knew me. It destroyed me, especially when i seen his head and he looked up. Holly the puppys already been adopted. He will spend a few more days in the hospital before getting to go home with his new family. Jay glad hes doing well. Holly yes, i think he found a loving home. Jay dont you know. Other news, a new Asheville Greenway project receives hundreds of thousands of dollars Tourism Development authority. The authority approved 700,000 for the french bruise river greenway. The greenway will run from the French Broad River park to new belgium breu brewery. The money is part of a 3 million award of occupancy taxes for city projects. Holly a local Community College will train workers for hundreds of jobs. Blue Ridge Community will prepare employees for the g. F. Lynn march plant in mills river and will create 350 jobs. Company executives met with School Officials at blue ridge to set up a program. Really, we are beginning discussions and were going to flesh out a training and recruiting program with company all throughout the month of april and by march we should have more details. Holly the plant is expected to be opened by next year. Jay we have a developing story somewhat upstate, where a popular zoo is now in danger of closing. Wild animal park say they are in desperate need of money. Attendance has fallen since last years electrical fire that killed 27 animals. The Officials Say keeping up Infrastructure Improvements toen amal care has become difficult without enough funding so they set a Fund Raising Goal of 500,000 for this year alone. Realistically, we need it this year, prior to december, to make our operation costs run smoothly. And to bring us to the level wheree with should be. Jay along with the 500,000 goal this year, the holly wild staff hopes to raise 250,000 every year after 2016. Donation information is on our web site, wlos. Com. Holly happening to day, a musical based on asheville will be previewed on broadway. The story and music of bright star, written by steve martin, is set in asheville in the 20s and 40s featuring bluegrass music about our city. It is martins first broadway musical. Once they leave the, you thattal tours then they become available for theaters Like Asheville Community theater to do, and it would be a show that i would love to direct or be a part of as an actor or singer. Holly talk about the musical is buzzing around asheville, with people already wanting to get tickets to the broadway show. Jay in this mornings news reel in california hazmat crew quarantines 20 people after a suspicious letter. Holly it happened at a u. S. Customs and Border Protection office. An employee became sick after opening the letter. A hazmat team was called after there was a suspicious substance. The man did not need to be taken to the hospital. Jay an ecigarette bursts into flames at a gas station. Josh hamilton suffered severe burns. He was working the counter when the battery in his pocket caught fire. There was black, there was fire, so i did not think about i could see there is a fire and i need to stop that. Jay hamilton says the recovery has been rough so far with severe leg pain and using crutches to get around his home. Holly authorities in Oklahoma City are trying to figure out how a car slammed into a home. The video shows the vehicle completely inside the structure. The home appears to have suffered significant damage. Early reports say there was no one home at the time of the crash. It is unclear what caused the incident. Jay we have at early bird gets the win giveaway this morning. We are giving away a 1 hour silk peel facial from derma blue dermatology valued for 100. Holly go to facebook. Com news 13 to enter and we will announce the winner just before 7 00. Good luck. Sometimes the two come together and you get a different change. Jay Climate Change versus in weather patterns s n be here to stay. Ingrid here is your harrys on the hill bus stop forecast. , numerous delays and closures. The updates are at wlos. Com. And we are seeing a chance for light snow through drop off time for some. I will show you a look at the radar coming up after the break. How warm we turn. Now, in high definition, this is your news 13 skywatch forecast. Ingrid good morning everyone and welcome back. We have the rain yesterday and severe storms at times, but now, lets take a closer look as to where. At the tennessee line, we are seeing north of bryson city, northern swain county, also northern Haywood County and madison county, around hot springs, mars hill, little creek, even burnsville. Some areas around Black Mountain picking up a light dusting as well. Spruce pine and northern portions of mcdowell county, more of a fix. And also some light show showers popping up on my radar, on again off again in transylvania county, henderson county, the high elevations there. Also, into northeast georgia. Looks like headed towards oconee county. Next hour we will see the chance for light snow to just wrap around. This will be the case throughout the morning, in fact, Black Mountain, look at this camera. Right here. This car at the top top of it. It goes from black to a light white. We have light snow even in Black Mountain, where its 33 degrees. And the road is getting damp. A lot of these roads havent been treated because it rained all day yesterday. So just use caution on your morning commute. At the ashville airport. So, yesterday, we have seen this stay in the positive territory which is good news for surplus for the year. Temperatures continuing to drop this morning. We are at 36 degrees at the ashville airport. 37 right now. 32 in bryson city. So freezing in that location. Cold in hendersonville as 33. Still in the 40s in morganton, to forest city and down into greer, the wind is another issue this morning. We have had reports of a lot of downed trees overnight. 10 Miles Per Hour winds in asheville so its not terrible. No wind advisories or warnings out at the moment. But, the ground is so saturated when we have this wind, it could topple over more trees and cause power issues. 14 Miles Per Hour winds right now in greer. It does make it feel colder in asheville, feels like 30 degrees. So if the kids are on schedule and heading out to the bus soon, make sure that they are bundled up. Winter weather advisory is in effect through friday morning. For accumulating snowfall in the counties shaded in purple. I will show how much will fall in a second. Still moving north and wrapping around the cold air along with the precipitation. So, 8 00, still seeing that light snowfall when youre trying to head out to work and school. Lunchtime, we are scaling back just a bit through the afternoon hours. But, we could still see flurries throughout the day and then another bit of light snow tonight into friday morning. Then we will just see the flurries. How much will fall today . Well, we will see about an inch or so in some of these Higher Elevations, maybe a light dusting down into asheville, and then another bit of that light snow through friday morning. So, when we have a Winter Weather advisory, that means 13, of course very elevation dependent. Dont expect an inch in asheville, more like a dusting. Higher locations here. Higher elevations in buncombe county. Might see a little bit more. So snow and rain possible today. It will stay windy. Temperatures return to the 40s. Tonight, a chance for snow again and 20s. Greenville, sunny skies and breezy. Tonight will be colder and this weekend not looking too bad. At least by sunday. 60s, the chance for some light rain monday. Here is your upstate sevenday forecast. Holly living in the mountains its known the weather can change in a drastic way even in a short period of time. Jay absolutely. This past winter season is no exception to the rule. Shorts and tshirts were broken out as temperatures neared 70 degrees on christmas. Then, not even a a month later, snow records were broken on january 22nd with 10. 6 measured in asheville. Holly el nio is the strongest on record this year, it will come to an end, while Climate Change ise shoveling. We are warming the world. We are warming here in the u. S. There is no doubt in the data, historical data, Climate Change is happening. I think thats the kind of cycle were in here in Western North carolina. I dont see anything slowing down. Holly planet 6 on our reality czech, zack green take versus el nio and which weather phenomenon is responsible for the roller coaster season in the mountains. Jay time is 6 17. A rivalry in acc play, North Carolina at North Carolina state. Played in wolfpack territory. Stan good morning, in sports, it was rivalry wednesday in the acc. One of the biggest north tar heels swept 9 of the last 12 in the series and they have won their first game earlier this year in chapel hill. Wolf pack trying to end the disturbing trend, their fans bringing the roar for the pack and a lot of howling with delighterly. Cat barber had them squealing, 16 points for first 9 minutes of the game. They build a 13 point lead. Carolina answers with justin jackson, 14 first half points. They rally. They will take a halftime lead. They are down 7, now make it 4, he drains the 3. But watch jackson, he is really coming along in the last couple games and what a move he makes on the baseline and won. He scores 17 for the game. And another guy came through as bryce johnson, down low, puts it in, and he howls with delight. 22 points 11 rebounds, cat barber scores 32 but heels continue their domination of North Carolina state. Were at our best in the is getting stops and rebounds thats the thing that killed us in the very beginning of the game. So, once you started to get stops, portion to one shot and getting it out, thats whenever we started making our little run. Stan well, they are supposed to play baseball yesterday. Western carolina at unc asheville, but the bad weather and the threat of more said no, thats not going to happen. So they postponed the game. No word of a makeup date. The twoteam scheduled to play, april 19th in cullowhee. Western 03 so far while the bulldogs are 12. Catamounts home this weekend against louisiana and monroe. Thats sports this morning. Im stan pamfilis. See you again tonight at 6 00. Have a great thursday. Holly this thursday hopefully will be a safe one for folks, ingrid . Things are getting a little dicey out there. People posting on facebook there is freezing rain in the arden area. Ingrid there is a chance of that, snow in the Higher Elevations, thats why we have the yellow caution light in the drive time this morning with the light snowfall. Bit as a lot of locations warm up freezing, into the low 40s but Still Holding on to cold conditions and slick roadways, especially near the tennessee line. This evening another round for some mountain show showers, temperatures dropping back down by around dinnertime to 39. Right now lets get an update from lauren in the ontime traffic center. Are falling power lines still blocking the intersection in leicester . Lauren it is at know land hills drive and eisenhower road. It remains blocked but dispatchers tell me the Power Company is now on scene, and this is in the North Turkey Creek area off new leicester highway. There is also a crash to watch out for in the upstate. Its in Anderson County and injuries are reported on ballard road near the intersection of cherokee road and grant road. Coming up in just about 8 minutes i will have information county. So stay tuned for that. This is Lauren Brigman with the traffic report brought to you by the wired mouse computer news 1 will be right jay we are looking at the best and worst fashions of the oscars last year in preparation for the oscars this year. Ingrid we posted the link to the web site, wlos. Com under news links. What do we have, jay . Jay i thought this was interesting. This was emma stone and elly saab, one of the best from last year. I dont agree with this. Ingrid why . Jay i think she m 4tfsb ec mzojtpb1ig pak on the fence, gina rodriguez. Ingrid thats a similar style, actually, so the last one. Jay i like it a lot. I think it looks good on her. Best, kate plan chet. Ingrid i love the beautiful cut. Jay okay. Worst . Julian moore in chanel. Ingrid i remember this one. Fortunately, you remember the bad ones. Jay the pasty pastries you never forget. Talk about skin tone and colors not blending . Holly guacamole is looking better, isnt it . Jay fair point. Fair point. Worst is Dakota Johnson in yves saint laurent. Ingrid whats wrong with this . Jay i really liked it. I dont see anything wrong with it. Worst, yeah. I dont know what that is. Ingrid the caption on that is just what is happening . Jay what did happen there, and best to Rosamund Pike in in givenchy , you get ups and downs and you either love or hate them. Ingrid we have the update this weekend, looking forward to that. Wind at 10 Miles Per Hour at the airport. Snow is falling this morning, i will show you wh