East Tennessee Hit By Winter Storm

Most of East Tennessee was included in a Winter Storm Warning Monday. Temperatures dropped rapidly in the early morning hours changing rain to snow very quickly around 3:30am. Most areas getting anywhere from 2-4″, some locations have seen as much as 6″…the mountains seeing at least a foot in the higher elevations.

Many wrecks were reported on US 321 between Cosby and Gatlinburg, making travel on that highway very difficult. US 411 between Newport and Sevierville was mainly the same way with numerous wrecks making navigating that highway difficult. Some parts of the area, especially north of Newport reported power outages due to downed trees.

The snow event happened as most schools were still out for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. Newport Grammar School was supposed to be back in class today, but they cancelled classes due to the weather. Cocke County and Hamblen County schools are to resume classes on Tuesday…we will keep you up to date on their status. Jefferson, Greene and Sevier County schools will re-open later this week.