Middle Tennessee Weather Forecast: Storms Tonight, Snow Saturday

NASHVILLE, TN — With Thursday's temperatures in the very springlike 70s under glorious sunny skies, no one would blame Middle Tennesseans for thinking winter, such as it was this year, was in the rear view, but the weather is ready to snap the midstate back into reality.

First, a round of potentially strong and severe storms will roll in Thursday night, with the chance for large hail and damaging winds. Those storms are scheduled to reach the Nashville area between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Skies should be clear Friday but temperatures won't warm up much from the overnight lows, topping out in the low 50s, normal for this time of year but 20 degrees cooler than Thursday. Then, Saturday, the big change comes in. For more updates on this weekend's wild weather and other local news, find your local Middle Tennessee Patch here.

Day will break Saturday with cold temperatures — in the upper 20s or low 30s — and will struggle to creep past the mid-30s as the day wears on. Precipitation will start to roll in from the west, beginning as rain before changing to a rain/snow mix in the afternoon and all snow by sundown in the Nashville area. The National Weather Service expects an inch of snow for areas along and north of Interstate 40, with lesser amounts south and up to two inches on the Cumberland Plateau.

The NWS says that with the recent warm weather, ground temperatures are relatively high, but with lows Saturday back in the 20s, slick spots may develop on roads. The snow won't stick around long, however, as Sunday's high is forecast in the mid-40s. The somewhat cool air sticks around for the early part of next week, with temperatures in the mid- to upper-40s and low 50s.

Images via Wikimedia user Griffinstorm and Pixabay user BittiBu, both used under Creative Commons