Tri-Cities region recovers from winter weather weekend

KINGSPORT — The region may see some reprieve from last week's freezing temperatures that ensured up to a foot of snowfall over the weekend. About eight to 12 inches of snowfall swept across the Tri-Cities region, according to the National Weather Service Morristown field office. Northeast Tennessee and parts of North Carolina got the most snow in the region with the highest snowfall amounts coming down in areas closest to the mountains. Monday morning temperatures were as low as -8 degrees right before sunrise, according to NWS measurements from the Tri-Cities Airport, a historic low for Feb. 2 temperatures in the region. "The clear skies and the snow on the ground definitely helped get to those really, really cold temperatures up there," said NWS Morristown meteorologist Andrew Moulton. Temperatures throughout the rest of the week will oscillate between 35 to 45 degrees during the day, and 20 to 35 overnight. "[Those temperatures are] kind of more typical what we're expecting this time of year," Moulton said. Precipitation will come through the region starting Tuesday night through Wednesday, starting as a cold rain in the daytime and possibly turning into a light snow at night. "I think the rain might help with a lot of the snow melts because the rain is actually able to get in there," Moulton said. "If it's raining at 45 degrees that usually helps eat away at the snow better than sometimes the sun can do." While forecasts don't show incoming precipitation to be as impactful as this weekend, any rain freezing overnight could cause additional slick roads. "The weather message for this week is just always give yourself a little bit of extra time to get where you're going just in case there's some unexpected ice from rain or snow melting and then refreezing overnight," Moulton said. Sullivan County Jim Bean, Sullivan County Emergency Management Agency director, Monday evening, said the wintry weather continues to cause emergency responders to get more calls. "All the emergency calls have increased throughout all this," Bean said of EMA, Emergency Medical Services ambulance, fire and rescue calls. He said extra fire, EMS and rescue trucks are being used. He said he was surprised few calls about lack of heat or electricity have occurred. "We had a lot of localized power outages," Bean said, adding that "wrecks with people hitting (power) poles and squirrels jumping" into electrical equipment have caused some. Bean said he is looking for the warm spell tomorrow when temperatures were forecast to exceed freezing or 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Per Sullivan County Mayor Richard Venable via a Monday afternoon email, Sullivan County offices will open Tuesday at 10 a.m. Closings, delays As for public school closings, Hawkins County Schools and Scott County (Virginia) Schools announced Monday afternoon they will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 3 to 4, because of the weather conditions. Kingsport City Schools, Rogersville City School, Sullivan County Schools and Bristol Tennessee Schools announced they would be closed Tuesday, as did Johnson City Schools and Washington County (Tennessee) Schools. The Sullivan County Board of Education will meet an hour earlier than normal Thursday, Feb. 5., in Blountville. According to an emailed notice Monday afternoon, the BOE voting meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Central Office, 154 Blountville Bypass, following the non-voting work session that starts at 4:30 p.m. in Room 212. Staff writers Jorgelina Manna-Rea, Rick Wagner and Mike Still contributed to this report.