Ready or not, here it comes our next weather
system rolls into East Tennessee overnight
tonight and we will have a very messy
weather day tomorrow across the region.
If you don't have to be out and about,
you should probably plan to stay in place
simply because of the potential for the
rain and the wintry mix and the heavy snow.
Let's kind of walk you through the timeline
of how we see things going overnight tonight.
The main batch of precipitation
will start to move in,
so by around sunrise tomorrow morning,
just about everybody is going
to be seeing something,
but this is where it gets very confusing
and it changes depending on your location.
Are horseshoe counties the plateau?
The Northern Valley,
South East Kentucky and the higher
elevations of the mountain will likely
start the day with a wintry mix or
snow already falling on the ground.
Possibly even light accumulations
by around sunrise,
but the valley,
especially from about Morristown,
down to the South,
is actually exposed to start as rain,
or possibly just a few sleet
pellets mixed in there too.
So that's why the valley is going to
have the lower snow totals because we're
going to have what we call a warm nose.
And we're also going to have down
sloping winds are winds are going
to kind of be out of the east.
In the Northeast,
both of which create a downsloping
motion out of the mountains.
This is why forecasting in East
Tennessee is so complicated and
that creates a warming pattern in
the air and also a drying pattern.
So I want you to take note of something
notice here through the valley,
especially in the foothills.
There may be some periods tomorrow
where there's not precipitation falling
from the sky as we go through about the
noon hour or into the early afternoon.
Because of that Downsloping win.
Again, that's why the precipitation
totals are lower in those places.
Meanwhile, our Plateau counties will
continue to see that wintry weather,
so totals will continue to.
Add up in our horseshoe counties,
then as the system starts to
move off to the Northeast,
our winds will switch to
be more out of the north.
That will start to change over the
valley for rain to a wintry mix,
to sleet, to eventually snow.
We may see that transition actually
happen in the Southern Valley.
First,
you'll see that on our snowfall
totals map as well,
the Central Valley is where our
biggest question mark is located.
Because your totals are going
to depend on the timing of when
we finally see that changeover
from the rain to the mix too,
eventually snow,
and that's probably not going to happen
until after sunset tomorrow night.
The moisture will be departing at that point,
but look at this on Monday.
We have another little wave of energy
coming through that northwest wind flow,
once again bringing more snow to the area,
so this is factored into our totals
that I'm about to show you right now.
Here's how we see things playing out.
Remember, I said the Central Valley,
it has the biggest question mark.
That's why we have such a range of
totals that you could be seeing here.
Some of you from Lenore City up to
Knoxville that does include Maryville Alcoa
and even Sevierville and Pigeon Forge.
Some of you may only see a dusting of snow.
And that may not come until overnight
Sunday night or even into Monday morning.
With that next little little wave
of energy that comes on through.
But some of you could see close
to an inch of snow,
so there's going to be a wide variety
of totals through the Central Valley.
The Southern Valley could be a dusting,
or could be an inch.
It's going to depend on when we see
again that change over, but it does.
We do.
Expect that to happen actually before
the Knoxville area changes from.
About Dandridge, Jefferson City
Morristown northward in the valley,
maybe one to three inches.
Slightly better confidence of
that colder air being in place,
but remember?
The valley totals depend on when
you see that switch over to snow.
This is not going to be as big of
an event for our Foothill areas
as some previous events have been
because this time the wind isn't
coming from the northwest.
It's coming from the northeast so
that downsloping motion I was telling
you about about two to five inches,
maybe in the foothills.
Highest totals up in the higher elevations,
the mountains and the plateau two
to four inches up in northern parts
of Morgan County into southern
Scott and Campbell County,
but northern Scott and Campbell County,
Fentress, and Cumberland.
Could see 4 to 7 inches or maybe
even more depending on how that
snow band ends up setting up.
So when we talk about these totals,
it's important to also talk
about potential impacts.
From the heavy snow,
the plateau and the mountains are going
to see the higher impacts because the
snow that's sitting on the ground.
Obviously the valley with the lighter
totals not going to see as much from
the actual snow sitting on the ground.
Slick roads are definitely expected
on our plateau and counties and up
into the mountains and then the
wind is also going to become breezy
and power outages will be a concern
since this will be a heavy wet snow.
So when you look at this map,
this does not mean that we will not
see snow for these counties that
are not included in these alerts.
What that means is that you're
not expected to have widespread.
Road issues from that snow.
Remember,
you could still see up to an inch
in some of these places.
We now have a winter weather
advisory for Knox and Sevier County
northward in the valley with these
areas shaded in purple that winter.
Weather advisory simply means
that slick roads are possible and
this goes until 7:00 AM Monday,
so that could be from black Ice
2 not just necessarily the snow
accumulating on on the roadways,
but that's what that means.
Winter weather advisory, slick roads,
possible hazardous roads are
expected where you see the pink
in our horseshoe counties here.
That's where we don't want you
traveling if you don't have to be
through the day Sunday and overnight
and even into Monday morning as well.
Wind as I said,
going to be breezy across the area,
everybody could see wind gusts
up to about 30 mph.
But especially in the higher elevations,
that's a high wind warning when gusts
up to 70 mph don't travel through
the mountains if you don't have to.
Newfound Gap Rd is already closed.
We could see almost Blizzard
type conditions in those highest
elevations between the heavy snow
and the wind blowing that snow
around throughout the day on Sunday.
So tonight, to recap for you.
Mostly cloudy.
The precipitation moves in Lowe's
or temperatures.
I should say,
stay steady overnight in the
low to mid 30s in the valley.
A little bit cooler up on the plateau
cold and breezy through the day on
Sunday with messy weather conditions.
Again,
temperatures just hold steady
through the day in the 30s.
But our windchills will be in the 20s
and they will be again on Monday too,
with that little Clipper system sweeping
on through with a little bit more snow,
maybe more light accumulation
possible from that little system.
Tuesday things quiet down and we'll
get to see some sunshine Wednesday.
The next system rolls in and we'll
just check back for updates as we
go through that time and period
from Wednesday into next weekend.
As yes,
some more snowflakes could
fly around East Tennessee.