First Snowflakes of Season Headed for Tennessee Valley
A complex storm may bring the first wet snowflakes of the season to residents of the Tennessee Valley tonight into Tuesday.
This same storm system will also spread rain back into the East early this week.
AccuWeather.com meteorologists are becoming more and more confident that this storm will bring a pocket of cold air into a portion of the Tennessee Valley and that it will become trapped there later today into Tuesday.
Right now, it appears that it is western parts of the Tennessee Valley that will have the best chance of receiving its first wet snowflakes of the season as a result of this cold pocket.
In advance of this snow potential, rain will fall today across much of the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. Should precipitation come down heavy enough across cities such as Cape Girardeau, Mo., Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., and perhaps even Tupelo, Miss., this afternoon and evening, it could mix with or change over to wet snow.
This process, known as dynamic cooling, has been known to occur in these types of situations, especially on the back side of a strengthening storm system.
While we are not anticipating heavy snow accumulations, it is certainly plausible that a slushy inch may accumulate in a few locations tonight.
The best chance of any accumulations across Tennessee, Kentucky, northern Alabama and northern Mississippi will be late tonight and into Tuesday morning and on grassy surfaces.
Snow generally has an easier time accumulating at night once the sun has gone down and the atmosphere cools.
Tennessee Valley residents will not be the only ones experiencing a brief bout of winter weather this week.
Wet snow could even translate into the higher elevations of the central and southern Appalachians Tuesday as the colder air shifts eastward, as well as across the eastern Great Lakes as the storm moves north.
Meteorologist Bill Deger contributed to the content of this story.
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| Precip | 3.99" | Wadena, MN |
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