Tennessee snow forecast for Sunday: Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga brace for a high-impact winter storm

Sunday in Tennessee (January 25, 2026) is trending toward a high-impact winter-weather day, with snow and ice expected to create dangerous travel from Middle Tennessee into parts of East Tennessee. In the Nashville area, the snow side of the storm has a realistic path to exceed 6 inches—especially north of Interstate 40—while areas south of I-40 face a greater risk of damaging ice. East Tennessee around Knoxville sits near a sharp snow-to-ice transition zone, where totals could range from heavy snow north of the city to significant icing south of it.

The bigger story isn’t just “how many inches.” It’s the timing and the temperature. Cold air is locked in, so whatever falls tends to stick and refreeze, extending impacts beyond Sunday and into early next week.

Tennessee winter storm Sunday: what’s expected and why it’s different

Sunday’s setup combines two ingredients that rarely cooperate this cleanly across Tennessee: deep cold at the surface and a steady feed of Gulf moisture. That overlap supports multiple precipitation types—snow, sleet, and freezing rain—with the exact mix changing by location and even by hour.

• A Winter Storm Watch is posted for Middle Tennessee from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, with snow and ice both on the table.

• Nashville’s higher snow odds are north of I-40; the higher ice odds are south of I-40.

• Knoxville’s forecast window features a high spread: heavy snow north of the city and potentially significant ice south of it.

• Chattanooga leans toward a wintry mix, with periods of sleet/freezing rain and a late shift toward rain, then a colder finish that raises refreeze risk.

• A national TV meteorologist, Jim Cantore, has publicly flagged Nashville as a potential “high-end” snow city this weekend—an extra signal that the storm has captured attention as more than a routine Southern system.

Nashville weather: how much snow is expected on Sunday?

In Middle Tennessee, Sunday is the day most likely to feature the most disruptive conditions—either heavy snow, a snow/ice mix, or a dangerous changeover that leaves a glaze on top of compacted snow. For the Nashville area:

• Snow: Total accumulations over 6 inches are possible, with higher probabilities north of I-40.

• Ice: Over half an inch of ice is possible in parts of the region, with the greatest risk south of I-40.

That north–south split matters for real-life planning. A 10–15 mile difference can mean “plowable snow” versus “tree-damaging ice,” and the worst travel often happens when sleet compacts into a hard base before snow piles on top.

Knoxville weather: snow north of town, ice south of town

Knoxville is sitting near a classic Tennessee battleground: cold air at the ground, warmer air aloft trying to nose in. The Sunday expectation is less about one clean snow total and more about where the rain/sleet/freezing-rain line stalls.

• North of Knoxville: 4–10 inches of snow is possible, with the higher end closer to the Kentucky border and far western Virginia.

• South of Knoxville: Up to one-half inch of ice is possible, with the greatest icing risk generally south of a Crossville-to-Tellico Plains line.

For drivers, that means a Sunday trip that starts as snow can end in ice—or vice versa—depending on which side of the metro you’re on and how temperatures evolve through the day.

Chattanooga weather: wintry mix risk, then a hard freeze behind it

Chattanooga’s Sunday forecast leans toward a mixed-precipitation story rather than a pure snowstorm. The more concerning period looks like late Friday night into Saturday night, when sleet and freezing rain can become a bigger problem than snow depth. By Sunday, precipitation may tilt more toward rain at times, with a chance of rain/snow later—then a sharp temperature drop Sunday night.

That final plunge is critical: even if roads improve briefly during a rain phase, temperatures dropping into the teens overnight can turn leftover moisture into widespread black ice early Monday.

Why Jim Cantore in Tennessee has people paying closer attention

Tennessee storms routinely go viral when a high-profile meteorologist highlights them, and this weekend is following that script. Jim Cantore’s public focus on Nashville has amplified the sense that the storm has a credible “rare event” ceiling—especially for a city where a few inches can already strain travel and road treatment capacity.

It’s not hype to say the ingredients support a serious outcome. The uncertainty is where the storm draws its sharp lines: heavy snow bands versus icing corridors.

A short historical context: Middle Tennessee’s most disruptive winter events tend to be the ones that mix sleet and freezing rain with snowfall, because compaction and glazing can make even moderate totals behave like a much bigger storm—especially on hills, bridges, and untreated secondary roads.

What happens next and what to watch Sunday morning

Sunday’s forecast will tighten as the storm arrives, but the key signals to watch are simple: where the snow/ice boundary sets up, and whether temperatures stay locked below freezing during the heaviest precipitation. If the colder air holds firm longer, snow totals rise and roads stay snow-packed. If warmer air aloft pushes in, ice becomes the dominant hazard.

For Tennessee residents, the most practical expectation is this: Sunday brings hazardous travel in multiple corridors, and Monday morning could be worse than it looks on paper because refreeze turns slush and runoff into ice. Keeping plans flexible—and treating the I-40 split and the Knoxville north–south split as real forecast boundaries—will matter more than chasing a single “final inches” number.