Severe Weather and Winter Weather Possible Saturday

Weather Update – 10:30 p.m. – Friday, January 18th

A cold front bringing arctic air will arrive on Saturday with a chance for thunderstorms through Saturday morning. The rain that comes with that front could change over to wintry weather by Saturday afternoon and evening. Get ready for some wild weather in West Tennessee over the next 48 hours. A Wind Advisory has been issued for all of West Tennessee from noon on Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday morning. Gusts up to 40 miles per hour are possible and may result in power outages Saturday night.

TODAY
Showers and thunderstorms are likely today as well with strong thunderstorms possible. Southwest Tennessee is at the greatest risk where there’s a level 1 out of 5 risk for severe weather. Damaging winds are the main threat, but an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.

Saturday morning will start off with heavy rain and a continued chance for thunderstorms in West Tennessee. Once again, we’ll remain on guard for severe weather Saturday morning as a cold front moves through the area. Showers will gradually get lighter as we go from the morning into the afternoon. There may even be a break in the rain later in the morning and early afternoon with some sunshine that could provide local city and state transportation departments to pre-treat the roads before rain changes to snow Saturday afternoon and evening.

In a “worst-case scenario”, a band of heavy snow will allow parts of West Tennessee north of I-40 see between 2 and 4″ of snow fall late Saturday afternoon and evening. A trace to 2″ of snow would be possible in this situation along and south of I-40. Right now this isn’t a likely way for the weekend to pan out.

In the “most-likely case scenario”, most of our viewing area sees a trace to 1″ of snow fall with a band of heavy snow in northwest Tennessee bringing 1-3″. Parts of West Tennessee south of I-40 may not see much at all. Stay tuned to WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News for updates to the forecast snowfall totals, and keep up with Storm Team Weather Online too for more updates.

Tom Meiners
Storm Team 7 Chief Meteorologist, CBM
Twitter – @WBBJ7TomMeiners
Facebook – facebook.com/WBBJ.tom.meiners
Email – tmeiners@wbbjtv.com