HOUSTON -- We may be seeing more snow than expected, and it could start falling earlier than originally anticipated, 11 News Chief Meteorologist Gene Norman said. 

“I’ve increased the amount of snow that I’m forecasting for the area,” he said. “We could see from three to five inches from Livingston back to Conroe, over toward Brenham. Two to four inches are likely from Wharton, Sugar Land, Houston and sections of Liberty County.  And the sleet snow mixture along the coast could accumulate at least an inch.”  

He said the mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain could be falling in the Houston area as early as Thursday afternoon and will continue through much of Friday.

“Thursday we will barely get above freezing,” Norman said. “That’s why the moisture that will fall will likely quickly ice up on roads, and bridges, and overpasses, as well as the trees and power lines out there.”

Norman said this winter event won’t be like the one we had a few years ago. Because this time, we could have some serious trouble on the roads.

"If we go back a couple of years to the one we had in 2009, that will pale in comparison to what’s about to happen. Happy memories of making snowmen and snow angels and all of that, unfortunately, are going to be replaced with unhappy memories of all this ice that’s going to be coming in," Norman said.

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A Winter Storm Warning was issued for Southeast Texas, effective from noon Thursday until noon Friday.  In addition, a Hard Freeze Warning was in effect until 12 p.m. Thursday. 

On Friday, Norman said we’ll see lows in the mid-20s and highs near 34 degrees.

“The snow may not taper off until sometime in the early afternoon on Friday,” he said.

On Wednesday, the bitter cold prompted ERCOT to call for rolling electrical outages across Texas to compensate for a power shortage liked to the Arctic blast. The outages were supposed to last anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.