Moderate to heavy snow fell across the higher terrain in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee as well as the Smoky Mountains from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon. The heavy snow event was the result of the passage of a deep upper level low pressure system.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS MRX wrote it up.
Moderate to heavy snow fell across the higher terrain in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee as well as the Smoky Mountains from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon. The heavy snow event was the result of the passage of a deep upper level low pressure system. Much of these higher terrain areas picked up three to six inches of snow while the highest peaks in the Smoky Mountains recorded snow totals as high as ten to fifteen inches.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Morristown, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 5, 8:38 PM EST, 2 hours 22 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
838 PM EST TUE MAR 5 2013
.DISCUSSION...
AN UPDATE WILL BE NEEDED TO ADJUST TEMPERATURES CLOSER TO
OBSERVATIONS...WHICH ARE DROPPING QUICKLY AS COLD ADVECTION BUILDS
IN BEHIND AN EXITING COLD FRONT. THE 00Z OHX SOUNDING SHOWS
SATURATION BELOW -10C WITH DRY AIR ABOVE...SO WE ARE NOT LIKELY TO
SEE MUCH ADDITIONAL PRECIP UNTIL THE STRONG VORT MAX AND 500 MB
TEMP MIN OVER MO/IL MOVES INTO THE AREA TO INCREASE MOISTURE DEPTH
AND LIFT. MODELS PROJECT THIS TO OCCUR AFTER 06Z. SOME POP/WX
ADJUSTMENTS WILL BE MADE TO REFLECT THIS.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
CHATTANOOGA AIRPORT, TN 62 32 45 31 56 / 100 40 20 10 0
KNOXVILLE MCGHEE TYSON AIRPORT, TN 57 31 40 31 51 / 100 60 50 10 0
OAK RIDGE, TN 55 32 40 31 51 / 100 60 50 10 0
TRI CITIES AIRPORT, TN 51 30 38 30 46 / 100 80 60 20 10
&&
.MRX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NC...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 4 PM EST WEDNESDAY FOR THE FOLLOWING ZONES:
CHEROKEE...CLAY.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY FOR THE
FOLLOWING ZONES: CHEROKEE...CLAY.
TN...WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 4 PM EST /3 PM CST/ WEDNESDAY FOR THE
FOLLOWING ZONES: ANDERSON...BLEDSOE...BLOUNT SMOKY
MOUNTAINS...BRADLEY...CAMPBELL...CLAIBORNE...COCKE SMOKY
MOUNTAINS...EAST POLK...GRAINGER...HAMBLEN...HAMILTON...
HANCOCK...HAWKINS...JEFFERSON...JOHNSON...KNOX...LOUDON...
MARION...MCMINN...MEIGS...MORGAN...NW BLOUNT...NORTH
SEVIER...NORTHWEST CARTER...NORTHWEST COCKE...NORTHWEST
GREENE...NORTHWEST MONROE...RHEA...ROANE...SCOTT TN...
SEQUATCHIE...SEVIER SMOKY MOUNTAINS...SOUTHEAST CARTER...
SOUTHEAST GREENE...SOUTHEAST MONROE...SULLIVAN...UNICOI...
UNION...WASHINGTON TN...WEST POLK.
WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 6 AM EST THURSDAY FOR THE FOLLOWING
ZONES: BLOUNT SMOKY MOUNTAINS...COCKE SMOKY MOUNTAINS...
JOHNSON...SEVIER SMOKY MOUNTAINS...SOUTHEAST CARTER...
SOUTHEAST GREENE...SOUTHEAST MONROE...UNICOI.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOR
THE FOLLOWING ZONES: CAMPBELL...CLAIBORNE...HANCOCK...
HAWKINS...MORGAN...NORTHWEST CARTER...NORTHWEST GREENE...
SCOTT TN...SULLIVAN...WASHINGTON TN.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 7 PM EST WEDNESDAY FOR THE
FOLLOWING ZONES: EAST POLK.
VA...WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 6 AM EST THURSDAY FOR THE FOLLOWING
ZONES: WISE.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOR
THE FOLLOWING ZONES: LEE...RUSSELL...SCOTT...WASHINGTON.
&&
DGSHAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN 338 PM EST TUE MAR 5 2013 NCZ060-061-TNZ012>018-035>047-067>074-081>087-098>102-VAZ001-002- 005-006-008-062045- CHEROKEE-CLAY-SCOTT TN-CAMPBELL-CLAIBORNE-HANCOCK-HAWKINS- SULLIVAN-JOHNSON-MORGAN-ANDERSON-UNION-GRAINGER-HAMBLEN- NORTHWEST COCKE-COCKE SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTHWEST GREENE- SOUTHEAST GREENE-WASHINGTON TN-UNICOI-NORTHWEST CARTER- SOUTHEAST CARTER-ROANE-LOUDON-KNOX-JEFFERSON-NW BLOUNT- BLOUNT SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTH SEVIER-SEVIER SMOKY MOUNTAINS- SEQUATCHIE-BLEDSOE-RHEA-MEIGS-MCMINN-NORTHWEST MONROE- SOUTHEAST MONROE-MARION-HAMILTON-BRADLEY-WEST POLK-EAST POLK-LEE- WISE-SCOTT-RUSSELL-WASHINGTON- 338 PM EST TUE MAR 5 2013 /238 PM CST TUE MAR 5 2013/ THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA...EAST TENNESSEE AND SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE EASTERN TENNESSEE VALLEY AND SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS LATE TODAY. MUCH COLDER AIR WILL PUSH IN BEHIND THE FRONT...AND AN UPPER LEVEL AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL TRACK ACROSS THE REGION BEHIND THIS SYSTEM TONIGHT. RAIN SHOWERS WILL QUICKLY CHANGE TO SNOW SHOWERS...AND SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE AREA INTO WEDNESDAY EVENING. THE SNOW MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES ESPECIALLY LATE TONIGHT INTO EARLY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. WINDY CONDITIONS WILL ACCOMPANY THE COLD AND THE SNOW. WINTER STORM WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT. FOR MORE DETAILS...PLEASE SEE THE LATEST STATEMENTS AND FORECASTS FROM YOUR NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY... ACCUMULATING SNOW CONTINUES INTO WEDNESDAY NIGHT OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN...FOLLOWED BY A FEW DAYS OF DRY WEATHER AND SEASONAL TEMPERATURES. THUS...NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED FROM THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED...BUT SNOWFALL REPORTS TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY WILL BE HELPFUL.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Around three inches of snow was reported in Big Stone Gap.
Two to three inches of snow was reported five miles northeast of Pennington Gap near the Lee and Wise county line.
Around one inch of snow was reported in Lebanon.
Around one inch of snow was reported in Abingdon.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Virginia in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Virginia, March 2013
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 433774, 433775, 433776, 433777.