A few days ago I mentioned how my area was going to be hit with a severe winter storm. I explained as a meteorologist how the winter storm could be historic. I decided to do a follow up on the winter storm.

The storm was historic mainly in Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee. I will explain why in more detail. This storm was tricky to forecast. The reason being there was warm air getting pulled into this system aloft.

Some locations such as North Alabama, and North Georgia was expected to get snow. Instead these places received an ice storm. Some places got 0.25-0.33 inches of ice instead of snow. That was not surprising considering the warm air aloft. As I stated a few days ago when you have cold air at the surface and a thin layer of warm air in the atmosphere that creates freezing rain.

Chattanooga Tennessee started off as a chilly rain, before changing to freezing rain, and snow. While Chattanooga did get 2 inches of snow. Chattanooga mostly had ice. A lot of the roads were icy.

Just a few miles to the north the storm really was historic. Especially from Athens Tennessee to Eastern Kentucky. In Athens Tennessee they had 4-6 inches of snow. Knoxville Tennessee was the big winner as Knoxville Metro area had 7-9 inches of snow. I personally observed 9.5 inches of snow. As a Meteorologist the heavy snow belt formed around Knoxville. Here temps stayed below 31 degrees so that was prime for heavy snow. In eastern Kentucky conditions were similar and Eastern Kentucky saw 5-9 inches of snow.

Another historic event about this storm was the extreme cold some places were -5 to 0 degrees as a nighttime low. Most places have lows 27-31 degrees at night.

While 5-10 inches of snow might not be a big deal for many. Here in the south it is historic. While Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee may see some snow or ice. Getting a snowstorm of 5-10 inches is rare. The last time we had a snowstorm was like this was exactly 10 years ago.

Storms like this tend to show up ever 10-20 years.

While I observed 9.5 inches the snow has been slow to melt. Just today only 2 inches of snow has melted. It still a winter wonderland out there.

For these reasons this storm was historic and one I certainly will not forget.

Normally my area has to deal with severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and tornadoes.