Abigail Margulis

amargulis@citizen-times.com

Editor's note: Click here for more up-to-date weather info.

The Asheville area will likely see 3-4 inches of snow with a potential for up to 6 inches over the weekend, according to the Friday forecast from the National Weather Service.

Forecasters say the weather event will begin around 1 p.m. Saturday and last until 8 p.m. Sunday with snow most likely beginning Saturday afternoon. There was a 35 to 90 percent chance for anywhere from one-tenth of an inch to up to 6 inches of snow predicted, according to Friday's forecast update.

Snowfall could range from 3-7 inches throughout Buncombe County, 2-6 inches in Henderson and Transylvania counties, 4-7 inches in Haywood County, and 4-9 inches in Madison County, according to the NWS.

Meteorologists on Thursday were officially only calling for 1 inch of snowfall with the winter event beginning after 11 p.m. Saturday.

A winter storm watch is in effect from Saturday evening through Sunday morning for the mountains of North Carolina due to the accumulating snow. Meteorologists say that snow will create snow-covered roads and produce scattered power outages.

Saturday night temperatures will plunge into the mid-20s with highs Sunday reaching somewhere between 30-40 degrees.

There is an 80 percent chance for precipitation Saturday and a 60 percent chance of precipitation Sunday.

Gardeners and farmers may need to take protective measures for nursery stock, fruit trees or valuable plants, but experts say there is no definitive answer for whether or not agriculture will be negatively affected.

"It's hard to make statements that affect everyone," said Alison Arnold, an extension agent at the Buncombe County Extension office. Arnold specializes in horticulture topics including the Master Gardener program.

"These are transitional months," she said. "We are moving from winter to summer, and spring is always tricky here in the mountains, especially with where you live on the mountain including the elevation, exposure and if you face north or south."

Typically, in the mountains gardeners and farmers can expect to get a frost until around Mother's Day in May with a few snowstorms possible as well, Arnold said.

To protect unusual or valuable plants, gardeners can cover them with a blanket when freezing temperatures are possible and uncover them when temperatures warm up, she said.

Arnold encourages gardeners to be patient and to observe how the weather is impacting their plants.

Meteorologists say its not uncommon for the Appalachians to have a March snowstorm.

There have been 21 March snowstorms in North Carolina from 2000-16, according to AccuWeather.

For the Asheville area, in March 2016, only a trace amount of snow was observed at the Asheville Regional Airport, according to NWS archived data. But in 2010, close to 10 inches of snow was observed in March with 8.8 inches falling March 2 and about an inch falling March 22, according to Gant.

The Asheville Regional Airport has also observed measurable snowfall in 2009, 2003 and 2001, Gant said.

The heaviest official snowfall in Asheville’s history was produced by a gulf system similar to the one prepared to lash the South now. That storm, which was March 12-14, 1993, dumped 18.2 inches of snow on Asheville.

Since the National Weather has kept records, which date back to 1869, there have been two top five record-setting snowfalls that have happened in March including March of 1993.

In 1942, 16 inches of snow fell from March 2-3, which is the ranked as the fourth greatest snowfall for the Asheville area.

According to an unofficial record kept with the NWS, Asheville had 26-33 inches of snow from December 5-6, 1886.

This weekend's storm system could bring snow accumulations ranging from from eastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky to Western North Carolina, southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia.