White Christmas on the way to the mountains

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DANGER, Ky. (WYMT) – Merry Christmas! After a messy early Christmas Eve, the rain turns to snow all over the area.

Tonight and Christmas

Once your area starts to see snow, it will stay in waves all evening, into the night, and into early Christmas morning. Santa will have to deal with it tonight on his trek through the mountains. Road conditions will quickly get bad, especially after dark, so stay off the roads as much as possible later.

Most areas should wake up at Christmas with at least a layer on the grass. Some will wake up a lot more. According to our latest forecast, the heaviest snow tires are in the eastern provinces, with smaller amounts in the west. Most of our area is under a winter storm warning that will last until Friday. Areas along and west of I-75 and parts of East Tennessee are under winter weather advisory, including until early Christmas morning.

Here is the latest snow forecast:

Here's the likely final snowfall forecast we'll be publishing for tonight's system. Most areas need ...
Here’s the likely final snowfall forecast we’ll be publishing for tonight’s system. Most areas should wake up on Christmas morning with at least some snow on the ground.(WYMT)

Now when it comes to temperatures, they will continue to drop through Friday morning, hitting rock bottom in the senior teens. We’ll struggle to get out of the teens under mostly cloudy skies and a snowpack on the ground on Friday for the daytime highlights. The skies are starting to clear up the Christmas night and we’ll see lows crashing into the low teens. Moral of the story for the next few days? It’s getting freezing.

Comprehensive forecast

The sun will return on Saturday and temperatures will rise in the upper 30s. Much, if not all, of the snow should melt in areas of direct sunlight. Unfortunately, sunny skies during the day mean clear skies at night and lows that plummet into the low 20s. That means anything that has melted will freeze again Sunday morning.

The sunshine is back again on Sunday, and this time we’ll be warming up to nearly 50 and only falling into the low 40s at night, so that should help for folks who have to go back to work Monday.

Some rain chances change on Sunday evening and linger in Monday. Tuesday looks drier and colder. We could see another cold front in the middle of the week that will hit the region.

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