Driving Across TN from West to East - SNow? (Memphis: construction, live in)

[rb4browns]

Hi

I will be driving up to Washington DC from Dallas for Thanksgiving. I believe I-40/81 takes me up over some mountains. Should I expect possible snow?

Thanks!

[mbmouse]

Hmmm....well, not really sure. It isn't unheard of to get a bit of snow around Thanksgiving here but it would only be an inch or so. They keep 40/81 treated pretty good so if you stay to the interstate you should be fine even if there is a bit of the white stuff in this area. The place I would keep an eye on the weather at is the Shenandoah Valley area on VA. The further North and the higher elevation you get along the east coast, the better chance you have for snow. At Thanksgiving time though, it is a toss up time. Some years there is snow, some years it is warm (for Nov anyway.)

[BuzzCam]

Sometimes the Cumberland Plateau between Knoxville and Nashville on Interstate 40 will get snow, but as mbmouse said, the state does a good job of keeping the major roads clear of snow and ice, so I don't think you will have any problems. Once you travel off the Plateau on the west side, about 50 miles East of Nashville, you should have no problems with snow. Knock on wood

If you want to get a glance at some traffic cameras to check road conditions, I have set up a hobby website which displays cameras on Interstate 40 in Knoxville and Nashville. A couple cameras are on the Cumberland Plateau on my Knoxville Page. Make sure you take I-640 around Knoxville as I-40 is shut down in the middle of town for a major reconstruction process. There are signs which will warn you about this when you get close to Knoxville.

Nashville I-40 Cameras Nashville, TN I-40 Cameras-Version 1

Knoxville I-40 Cameras Knoxville, TN I-40 Cameras

Memphis cameras are still in the installation phase, but if they complete them before Thanksgiving, I will make a web page with their camera and repost here with the link.

Bristol Virginia I-81 Traffic Cameras (You will have to scroll down the page)
Buzz's Tri-Cities Weather Radar and Webcams Page

Have a very safe and pleasant trip!
Buzz aka BuzzCam from Nashville

[Tennesseestorm]

Originally Posted by rb4browns

Hi

I will be driving up to Washington DC from Dallas for Thanksgiving. I believe I-40/81 takes me up over some mountains. Should I expect possible snow?

Thanks!

Highly unlikely... I have lived here for 32 years (since birth) and I recall very few snows in the month of November, even up here in northeast Tennessee. Now back before the 1980s, I would say yes... I hear my grandparents and the older folk around here speak of how we used to get alot more snow in decades past, but over the last 20 years, its changed alot. We only get about 12-15 inches of snow per year on average and most of that is January-March and we are lucky to even see that much these days.

Like MBmouse and Buzzcam stated, if anything it would probably only be a chance in the higher elevations on I-40 as you cross into NC of up I81 into the higher elevations of western and central Virginia. I have seen in snow in Marion, Blacksburg, Wytheville, etc many times and be rain just to the southwest of there in Abingdon, Bristol and points south and west. As you get past Abingdon, you start to head into higher elevations and the temperatures fall dramatically in many cases. For example, in certain times in the winter, I have seen it in the 60s here in Bristol, 50s in Abingdon and it will be in the 30s in Marion! Sometimes a east wind will bank up on the east side of the mountains and create a much different weather scenerio across that part of the country and this can occur even down into central/western North Carolina, central/western South Carolina, northeastern/eastern Georgia and sometimes even into east central Alabama. It will be cooler on the east side of the mts than the west side.

If you are heading to DC, you will not be going over the mountainous area of I40, except in Crossville, on the Cumberland Plateau it gets kinda high in elevation and you may encounter some wx weather if that type of system is in the area, but you will turn onto I81 and head northeast. On the the east side of Crossville, you will drop into the valley and lower elevations in the Knoxville area- where snow is even even less common. Then like I said, you should be fine all across Tennessee and extreme SW Virginia, but again, up toward Marion and northeast, it could get bad, but even there, that time of year is normally OK. You are in Texas and as a guide, I would say we get less snow than the northern panhandle of Texas overall.

[Tennesseestorm]

Originally Posted by BuzzCam

Bristol Virginia I-81 Traffic Cameras (You will have to scroll down the page)
Buzz's Tri-Cities Weather Radar and Webcams Page

COOL, that is a neat website! I live in Bristol and never knew it existed! I normally visit all of those weather pages and camera links, but all were seperate on my computers favorites and now here they all are on one site! Very neat! Thanks for posting it! Done put it on my favorites!

[BuzzCam]

I appreciate your complements. I am originally from that area. My parents, a sister and brother still live there, so I created the web page to keep an eye on the weather up that way. I have no web site building experience. I taught myself HTML code and created the site using Microsoft's Notepad Application.

The "Google" Search engine has logged all the the pages I have built and they get a total of 10,000-12,000 hits a month.

I try to check on each page, from time to time, to make sure all the cameras are active. Sometimes, one will quit working, so I will search for another to put in its place.

Glad you like the page, and hope you get allot of use out of it.

Thanks again!

Buzz aka BuzzCam from Nashville

[rb4browns]

Originally Posted by rb4browns

Hi

I will be driving up to Washington DC from Dallas for Thanksgiving. I believe I-40/81 takes me up over some mountains. Should I expect possible snow?

Thanks!

Thank you everyone for your replies!

[BuzzCam]

You have a safe and happy drive! Happy Early Thanksgiving to you as well!

[Tennesseestorm]

No problem, you are welcome! Well I wondered why you were in Nashville and had this site dedicated to the Tri-Cities, but since you are from here/have family here that explains it. I also have family thats originally from here that now live in Richmond Virginia, Raleigh North Carolina and Anderson South Carolina and I sent the link to them to and they love it. My uncle already had some of those cams on his favorites, but like I said, this way they are all together and very convenient.

Yeah, webcams tend to go out from time to time. For awhile I was having trouble keeping up with the webcam in downtown Bristol... seems like the web address kept changing or something.

Well, we really enjoy it - thanks again for sharing it.

Originally Posted by BuzzCam

I appreciate your complements. I am originally from that area. My parents, a sister and brother still live there, so I created the web page to keep an eye on the weather up that way. I have no web site building experience. I taught myself HTML code and created the site using Microsoft's Notepad Application.

The "Google" Search engine has logged all the the pages I have built and they get a total of 10,000-12,000 hits a month.

I try to check on each page, from time to time, to make sure all the cameras are active. Sometimes, one will quit working, so I will search for another to put in its place.

Glad you like the page, and hope you get allot of use out of it.

Thanks again!

Buzz aka BuzzCam from Nashville

[BuzzCam]

Thanks again!

Sometimes a camera will go down, but the last image it uploaded remains online. When I look at the Tri-Cities Page and see rain on all cameras, but one, which is showing a balmy, sunny day I suspect something is up.

You have a great rest of the weekend!
Buzz