The extreme northern portion of the state is under a winter weather advisory overnight Thursday as a mixture of rain and snow moves into the area.

The National Weather Service expects the mix to turn to snow after midnight.

Overnight lows from the upper 20's to lower 30's in the north and upper 30's and 40's in the south.

The snow will clear Friday, but the south could see rain mainly during the morning hours Friday.

Expect high temperatures 35 to 45 degrees in the north and upper 40's to middle 50's in the south.

Meanwhile, Gov. Nathan Deal says he will enter an executive order to empower the state's emergency management agency to coordinate across departments and improve Georgia's response to major storms like the one that crippled metro Atlanta last week.

Deal met with the head of GEMA, as well as transportation and public safety commissioners on Thursday to discuss lessons learned from last week's snow storm.

He says the executive order could be in place as soon as Friday.

State and local officials faced criticism in the wake of the Jan. 9-10 storm, which dumped more than five inches of snow on much of the state, paralyzing Atlanta and nearly derailing Deal's inauguration.

Transportation Commissioner Vance Smith says his department is already looking at private contractors to assist state workers for an ice storm expected to hit early next week.

Contributors: Associated Press

Tags: National Weather Service, winter, snow