A wisp of snowflakes were at first barely noticeable Friday morning, leaving many people to think Cullman County would escape the problems encountered farther south.

That didn’t take long to change.

By mid morning large flakes thickened the air and began blanketing the grass and trees. While few problems resulted from an otherwise spectacular pre-Christmas snowfall, the Cullman County School System dismissed students by 10:30 a.m., followed by Wallace State Community College at 11, and Cullman City Schools before noon.

The snow-related problems for Cullman County were actually not widespread, but county schools officials made the decision to close after County Road 54 near the Cold Springs School began to develop patches of ice. 

Cullman County Emergency Management Agency Director Phyllis Little said the concern centered on school buses being able to safely transport students home in some areas.

As predicted by the National Weather Service, the snow began to taper off by late morning, but the high temperature reached only 33 degrees during the afternoon.

“We could still see some early morning problems in a few places if roads remain wet and the temperatures drop.” Little said. “The best thing is just for people to drive with caution in areas that are slow to dry.”

Across the state, as much as 5 inches of snow left about 45,000 homes and businesses without power in Alabama.

Alabama Power Co. reported the largest number of outages was in metro Birmingham, where about 25,000 customers were in the dark at midday.

Around 5 inches covered the ground in the city’s southern suburbs, slowing traffic to a crawl on roads including Interstate 65 in heavily populated Shelby County. The National Weather Service said roughly the same amount of snow could fall in a roughly 50-mile wide band stretching from southwestern to northeastern Alabama.

Travel problems could worsen overnight and continue into the weekend since overnight low temperatures are predicted to drop well below freezing.

Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-40s with a clear sky by Saturday afternoon.

Snow continued to move Friday into Georgia, causing traffic problems and power outages. Parts of southern Louisiana and Mississippi had large snowfalls as well.