Winter whiplash: snow this week in the North Carolina, Tennessee mountains

The first taste of winter arrives Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning with snow possible for the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

It's much cooler for parts of the eastern United States this evening behind a cold front, and a second, stronger push of chilly air will move into the region—moving farther south than the initial cool push—arrives Tuesday. Associated with this second surge of cool air will be enough lift and moisture to support rain showers in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina Tuesday evening. As cold air continues to move in and deepen, enough moisture remains in place for the rain to change to snow by nighttime on Tuesday with snow levels falling to 5,000 feet by sunset Tuesday, eventually falling as low as 3,000 feet Wednesday morning for whatever moisture remains.

Locations at 3,000 feet near the Tennessee/North Carolina state line won't see accumulations but above 4,000 feet could see 1-2 inches of snow with 5,000 feet and higher seeing 2-4 inches of snow with possibly the highest peaks seeing slightly higher amounts.

Modeled snow accumulation forecast

NWS snow forecast

Travel is not expected to be impacted by the light snow.