WASHINGTON — The South and East are bracing for a nor’easter at the end of the week with the potential for significant snowfall.

The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center is warning of heavy, “perhaps crippling” snow across the northern mid-Atlantic region, including the Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia metro areas.

On Wednesday, the weather service issued blizzard and winter storm watches for parts of Maryland, Washington, Virginia and West Virginia. The watches start as early as Thursday and stretch into Saturday.CLICK HERE to see what Chief Meteorologist Frank Johnson and the Stormtracker13 Weather Team thinks will happen in our area.

Prediction center meteorologist Rich Otto says the bigger cities could get 1 to 2 feet of snow, but first, the storm will bring ice and freezing rain to Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas on Thursday night into Friday.

As the storm moves east Friday, it will bring snow to West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. It may reach Philadelphia on Friday night and affect New York City and Long Island as it moves north.

Lonnie Quinn, chief weathercaster of CBS New York station WCBS-TV, reports that computer models show the center of the storm hitting the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains Friday afternoon and dropping as much as 12-20 inches of snow.

The storm could drop as much as a foot of snow from Trenton, New Jersey, in the north to Charlottesville, Virginia, in the south, Quinn reports.

As the East Coast braces for the storm, the Syracuse area already has more than a foot of snow.

Syracuse received 14 inches over a two-day period ending Tuesday.

The lake-effect snow created whiteout conditions along stretches of the New York State Thruway west of Syracuse. Hazardous conditions and multiple accidents caused portions of the Thruway to temporarily close.

In Indiana, snowfall across much of the state has slowed travel and caused dozens of school district closings or delays.

Snow totals reported by the National Weather Service ranged Wednesday morning from around 4 inches in the Evansville area to around 2 inches around Indianapolis. The weather service issued a winter weather advisory for most of Indiana’s southern half until midday.

Numerous crashes and slid-offs occurred on highways in the area, but no serious injuries were immediately reported.

Most school districts in southern Indiana called off classes because or road conditions.

In Missouri, the first significant snowfall of the winter is causing plenty of headaches.

Snow began Tuesday in a swath from southwest Missouri through the northeast part of the state. Amounts were mostly 4 inches of snow or less, but it was enough to snarl traffic and cause several wrecks.

In Springfield, freezing rain mixed with snow Tuesday afternoon. More than three dozen accidents were reported during one 60-minute period. A school bus was involved in an accident near Nixa. One student was treated at an urgent care center.

Snow began at just the wrong time in St. Louis – during the Tuesday evening commute. Several accidents were reported, and roads were still slippery for the Wednesday morning commute.

School closings were common across the state.