AccuWeather.com

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

Feb 16, 2012; 5:42 AM ET

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Will a weekend storm track up the East coast with snow and rain or will it head out to sea? We have to wait a bit to see what is around the bend. (Eddie Green Photo/Photos.com)

A very active weather pattern is in place in terms of the number of storm systems crossing the nation.

One storm in particular bears watching for major snowfall enthusiasts from the southern Appalachians to the mid-Atlantic and southern New England.

The storm in question is now dropping southward along the Pacific Coast states.

Over the balance of the week, that storm will drop across California then into northern Mexico.

By Friday night, the storm will be reorganizing along the western Gulf Coast area, prior to making a northeastward turn later in the weekend.

Most weather hobbyists east of the Rockies know that some of the best snowstorms take a dip over the Gulf of Mexico, gathering moisture before making a northeastward run.

While we have had storms take this path, we have not seen big, cold high pressure areas in the way at the same time.

This storm could have both working for it.

However, the question for snow potential late this weekend from the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians to the mid-Atlantic, New England and the Maritimes will be the exact storm track.

Scenarios range from the storm passing by too far to the south and east (with too strong of a high pressure area) to taking a track right along the coast bringing rain to the I-95 cities (with high pressure too weak, too far away or simply moving out too quickly.)

It will not be until early this weekend that we see exactly where the storm positions itself near the Gulf and how strong the high pressure over the Northeast becomes, before we have a handle on that important future track.

Even in a typical winter, as far as major storms are concerned, most do not deliver big snow.

In the snowiest winters, we have seen several dozen "could be" storms with well less than a handful actually delivering close to expectations.

This is where the potential weekend storm is forecast to be located Wednesday, February 15, 2012. The storm will weaken moving into northern Mexico.

So if you do some simple math, you see where we are at with this storm from an odds standpoint.

Either way, it does appear that the Deep South will get another round of needed rainfall this weekend from Texas to Florida and the coastal Carolinas.