TRIAD – The chances of a White Christmas in the region are fading like the melting snow and ice from last week’s storm.

The National Weather Service indicated Tuesday that a weather system pushing across the country and expected to reach the Southeast later this week isn’t likely to bring snow here.

The system may produce a brief period of freezing rain early Friday morning, but no accumulation of ice is expected. The precipitation will turn quickly to rain, said Barrett Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service regional office in Raleigh.

“When the rain starts, likely early Friday morning, any freezing rain will quickly turn over to all rain. We’re not anticipating any kind of issues at the moment, and it’s still uncertain whether it will be cold enough at the onset for any freezing rain,” Smith said Tuesday.

Meteorologists aren’t expecting the amount of rain later this week to cause any flash flooding problems on top of the water draining into creeks and rivers from melting snow and ice.

The rain should end by Friday night, ushering in a period of several dry days, Smith said Tuesday.

“I don’t think we’ll get enough rain (Friday) to cause any flooding. We’re not talking two or three days of rain coming up. Most of it is going to fall within 18 hours,” said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.

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