Winter Weather — Union, Tennessee

2026-01-24 to 2026-01-26 · Union, Tennessee

Event narrative

Two bouts of frozen precipitation occurred, with graupel, sleet, freezing rain yielding a glaze of ice in the first bout with some snow and a second bout of light snow to end. Total snow and sleet accumulations of 1.5 inches in Maynardville.

Wider weather episode

Broad scale upper lift led to a complex winter storm across East Tennessee, with onset precipitation of snow transitioning to freezing rain before ending as rain as the temperatures rose through the evening, night, and following morning. This storm led to 7 fatalities in East Tennessee. On the morning of the 25th the strengthening low level jet that was advancing warm air northwards led to a high end mountain wave wind event in portions of the East Tennessee mountains.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1315035. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.