Columbia area under winter storm watch amid heightened threat of freezing rain

UPDATE: The National Weather Service has issued an ice storm warning for the Columbia metro area, signaling high confidence that a quarter-inch or more of ice will accumulate from freezing rain this weekend.

A winter storm watch is in effect for the Columbia metro area from Saturday morning through Monday afternoon, as confidence has increased that an impactful storm may cause significant travel hazards across the region, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm, a mix of sleet and freezing rain, is expected to hit Columbia on Saturday evening — a bit later than previously expected — and continue throughout the night into Sunday morning, National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Carlberg said.

After a break in precipitation Sunday, another wave of primarily rain is expected to fall Sunday afternoon into evening, Carlberg said.

“We’re expecting temperatures to warm up, however, there is a lot of question about how much it warms up before it starts raining again, and when exactly it starts raining,” he said.

The wintry conditions are expected to make roads, especially bridges and overpasses, slick and hazardous, and significant ice accumulation on power lines and tree limbs could cause widespread and long-lasting power outages, according to the National Weather Service.

Wind gusts are expected to be highest on Saturday night, reaching up to 28 mph in Columbia, according to the latest forecast, before settling into the 10 mph to 15 mph range for the remainder of the storm. Strong winds up to 30 mph are expected to return Monday afternoon as the storm system exits, according to a National Weather Service briefing Friday morning.

The winter storm watch currently in effect is likely to be upgraded to a winter weather advisory or winter storm warning, either Friday afternoon or evening, Carlberg said.

A warning, which is more severe than an advisory, would be triggered if there is high confidence that a quarter-inch or more of ice will accumulate in much of Richland and Lexington counties.

An advisory would be triggered by one-hundredth of an inch of ice.

At this point, Carlberg said models point to anywhere from a quarter-inch to a half-inch of ice accumulation in the Columbia metro area, trending more toward a quarter-inch.

“It looks like there will be a very sharp difference between heavy amounts of ice and not that much, and Columbia is kind of right in the middle, so it’s hard to pinpoint that,” he said.

Another quarter-inch to a half-inch of sleet could also build on the ground, Carlberg said, but snow is not expected with this storm system.

Very cold temperatures following the storm, which may result in refreezing on wet surfaces, could allow its impacts to linger into early next week, according to the National Weather Service.

The formation of black ice, which occurs when snow or light rain falls on frozen concrete to form a thin, nearly invisible layer of ice, is possible Sunday night and especially Monday night, when temperatures are expected to plunge into the low teens.

“The latest trends are a little bit warmer,” Carlberg said. “But if there’s any residual water on Monday, then Monday night there would very likely be black ice.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 10:18 AM.