COLUMBIA (AP)

The Upstate is under a winter storm warning starting at 1 a.m. Thursday, while the Midlands and Pee Dee are under a winter weather advisory and parts of the Lowcountry away from the coast are under a freezing rain advisory, according to the National Weather Service.

"Freezing rain is the main threat," said Dan Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Columbia.

"In the warning area we are expecting total ice accumulations of a quarter of an inch. That's our criteria for warnings. In the central part of the state we are expecting ice accumulations of a tenth of an inch," Miller said.The only counties not under some sort of winter weather advisory are along the immediate coast

The precipitation could start as snow in the northern part of the state before turning to sleet and freezing rain. Mostly freezing rain and sleet is expected farther south with temperatures in the pre-dawn hours hovering at or just below 32 degrees, forecasters said.

Most roads should stay just wet, but ice could accumulate on trees, power lines, bridges and overpasses, Miller said.

The precipitation should change to rain across most of the state as temperatures rise above freezing late Thursday morning into the afternoon, forecasters said.

Power companies across the state said they were monitoring the weather and were prepared to respond to power outages.

Several school districts in the Midlands decided Wednesday afternoon to delay opening schools for a few hours. Other districts and city governments planned to check conditions early Thursday morning before deciding what to do.

The wintry weather comes as quite a shock after a long period of spring-like weather. "It's noteworthy obviously that two days ago we were at 75 degrees and now we're talking about freezing rain two days later," Miller said. "But we've seen it happen before."

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