As I predicted two days ago, the earliest snows on record are beginning to occur in the Carolinas.

Columbia, SC has just experienced their earliest snow in 125 years of weather records, beating the Nov. 9, 1913 earliest snow record by 8 days. Current South Carolina weather shows it’s still snowing in Greenville, SC.

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting Greenville was especially hard hit with downed trees and power outages. The Smokey Mtns received up to 16 inches overnight. The current U.S. snow cover map shows 18 states with some amount of snow this morning.

Here is the latest model forecast of total snowfall ending at midnight tonight (graphic courtesy of Weatherbell.com):

Early indications are that next Sunday the “polar express” will arrive in the northern plains and Great Lakes with bitterly cold air currently sitting over northern Siberia.