My temperature is now 32 degrees here in northern Cumberland County. Temps are a degree or two colder closer to Jamestown, temps are around 33 degrees in Crossville. I also have drizzle pouring down. I told someone earlier that I wouldn’t want to be out and about after 9:00 pm. Be very careful on bridges and overpasses tonight. As we go through the night, all roads may become trivial with freezing drizzle.
I’m watching some moisture gather in Mississippi and that is headed in this general direction. While the bulk of that will stay to our east, that disturbance will instigate heavier freezing drizzle and dense fog. That is the perfect recipe for black ice to develop on area roadways. Please don’t let that surprise you on the road tonight and/or in the morning.
Overnight lows should stay in the 28-31 degree range across the plateau. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some winter weather advisories issued later for our area for this freezing drizzle. Just to be safe, I’d just go ahead and assume there is one already in place for a glaze of ice on area roadways.
As for school tomorrow, it just depends on how much of this water and drizzle freezes on area roads. Right now, I’d say there’s about a 50/50 chance there will be school. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if icy roads lead to some cancellations.
Moving on….
Friday night and Saturday morning still look trivial to me. I hope we can hover just above freezing, but I fear we will hover right at or just below freezing. A degree or two will make a big difference. This continues to look like more of an impact to travel more than to trees and powerlines. This would mostly be freezing rain and sleet, possibly mixed with plain rain. It’s a messy forecast and I would honestly just plan on being home by dark Friday and staying put through at least noon Saturday.
Then we have Monday to deal with. Folks, I can’t reiterate enough how important it is to monitor the forecast for that event. Honestly, I do not like what I see coming. This continues to look like a freezing rain scenario and I worry there will be damage to trees and powerlines, which is exactly what we don’t want. Let’s hope and pray that by tomorrow it looks more like snow, rather than ice, is coming. This will be a Gulf low and we all know that’s how we get our biggest events.
Then, we have the end of the week. Can you believe we may end up dealing with two winter storms next week? The second one looks more like snow to me at this point and it could be a doozy. The chances of two significant storms in one week is so small that I’m skeptical. Either the second one will dive south or warm up and rain. Surely…….. but stay tuned.
Sunday should be a good day to get out and get prepared for whatever happens Monday, if you haven’t already. See the previous post for a winter storm checklist.
As always, I sure do appreciate you trusting me with your forecast! I know many of you were nervous with that ice storm so close to us and our temps so cold.
Now, go out and flip those windshield wipers up so they don’t get stuck to the windshield tonight. Aren’t you glad I reminded you of that? (ha)
You all take care. I’ll have a full update in the morning.
