A winter storm had blanketed much of Arkansas in snow by Thursday evening while leaving residents in southern parts of the state coping with a mix of ice and rain.

Any wintry precipitation in Oklahoma and Texas should end in the morning. Snow will fall from the Mid-South region into Kentucky, Tennessee, far northern parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia into North Carolina, upstate South Carolina and Virginia.

At least 50 million people were under a winter storm warning as of Thursday as the storm spreads along the Gulf Coast Friday, according to the weather service. The storm should weaken by Saturday, bringing lighter snow between 1 and 3 inches to parts of the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and the Ohio Valley before exiting off the Carolinas.