© AP Photo/Jeff ChiuA woman pulls her travel bag in the International terminal at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010.
Holiday travelers in the Midwest braced for snow and ice from a storm Friday that was expected to deliver a rare white Christmas to Nashville and possibly Atlanta before rolling into the Northeast.
A day after the most densely populated parts of the county got a break from the weather, several inches of snow were expected across parts of the heartland. Up to 8 inches could fall in Iowa and 6 inches in Illinois and Minnesota, with forecasters warning drivers about snow-covered roads and limited visibility.
The storm was expected to crawl south into Tennessee on Saturday, then possibly move north on Sunday. Winter weather advisories were in effect from North Dakota into Kentucky.
"People that are going to Grandma's house," warned Bobby Boyd, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville, "need to get going."
In Georgia, the National Weather Service said 1 to 3 inches of snow could fall across metro Atlanta on Saturday. But it said there was still uncertainty about the storm's path, and that any deviation could affect the total amounts. If the forecast holds, it would be the first time since 1993 that snow fell on Christmas in Atlanta, the weather service said. The last time there was measurable snowfall on Christmas Day was in 1882, when one-third of an inch of snow blanketed the city.
Comment: From USGS website: