Good afternoon everyone.  Our wild weekend of weather is finally here and things are starting to crank up quickly as we go through the afternoon and evening.  We even have the potential for strong to severe thunderstorms across much of the state before we get in on the wintry weather later tonight and Sunday.

Expect a line of thunderstorms to develop late today into the evening and work across the state.  Damaging winds will be the primary concern as this line moves from west to east.  The greatest threat for severe weather is across the southern half of the state into the Tennessee valley.  Even without true severe thunderstorms, winds can still gust to greater than 40 mph starting late today and carrying us through Sunday morning.  This is when the arctic air moves in with a greater than 40 degree temperature drop overnight in just a matter of a few hours.  Once this happens, sleet and snow will take over for a while.  While we won’t have wintry precipitation for more than a few hours, it can come down hard enough to accumulate across much of the state.  The modest sleet and snow accumulations combined with wet roads that will instantly ice up because of falling temperatures will lead to slick travel conditions for the first half of Sunday.

After the main band of wintry weather moves east, leftover light snow showers or flurries will carry us into the rest of the day as temperatures stay in the 20s.  That will set the stage for an arctic cold night with temperatures by Monday morning ranging from the upper teens east to possible high single digits in the north and west.

A couple of interesting systems are showing up late next week and then again late Christmas weekend.  We’ll talk more about that after we get through tonight’s stuff.  I will have another update coming this evening.  For now, I leave you with your wicked weather tracking tools.

Today’s Risk Area
Latest Day 1 convective outlook

Current Watches
Current Watches

Possible Watch Areas
Current MDs

Have a great Saturday and take care.