Winter storm takes warmer approach

Winter's cold hands are reportedly just slightly warmer this weekend While a winter storm watch was instituted for the region from Friday to Sunday, a shift in the weather's trail has caused the expectation of snow amounts to dwindle and the temperatures to slightly rise. National Weather Service Morristown Meteorologist Kyle Snowdin said the storm's pathway has shifted even further north, causing Johnson City's predicted snowfall to drop from earlier predictions of four to six inches. "Overall, we're starting to kind of see expected snowfall values going down," he said. "That should hopefully reduce snowfall impacts. Right now, we're adjusting our accumulation to around an inch or two, and some of that could include sleet, so that might impact the total snow depth there." While the snowfall amounts are expected to be lower, Snowdin said the cold will also likely affect Johnson City's ice accumulation, which he said is estimated to be between two and three-tenths of an inch. "That's definitely starting to get to kind of those concerning levels where power outages can become more of an issue," Snowdin said. "Generally, once you're under two-tenths of an inch or so, you do expect some power outages and things like that will happen. Once we start getting up to this quarter-inch or three-tenths of an inch, we're definitely starting to get more concerned about some more scattered power outages." Temperatures for Friday and Saturday remain relatively the same from previous forecasts. Friday will see a high in the lower 40s while Saturday is predicted to be in the mid-30s. Weather lows for both days dip into the 20s during the night. Sunday, however, is looking to be warmer than originally anticipated, with temperatures for the day rising from the predicted mid-20s range. "High temperature for Sunday we have near 40," Snowdin said. "The real cold temperatures are when they start coming in that early week there, so that Sunday night, early Monday morning we drop down into the mid-teens – 15 or 16 degrees – for the low temperature." Snowdin said a frigid Monday and Tuesday are still anticipated, though, with highs for Monday being in the mid-20s and low single digit temperatures heading into Tuesday morning. While the weather predictions have seen slight changes, Snowdin said the chance for power outages is still a risk, especially with the amount of ice accumulation that could be seen. "That could be a concern, is longer duration power outages," he said. "People [are not able] to heat their homes appropriately when you start to get those well-below-normal temperatures in. That's something we'll definitely be keeping an eye out [on]."