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TOP PHOTO: This is the view from Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck’s truck two weeks ago on Christmas morning in Elk Valley.
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF) – “We’ve got a good snow falling out here on Long Hollow,” said Tony Malone over the Campbell County Highway Department radio. Malone, the assistant to Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck, shared his report just after 2 am on Friday.
By 3 am, Dilbeck and Malone were splitting up phone calls to crew members with each calling a few alerting them to come on out. “It’s starting to get slushy on some of the roads, and we’re hitting those areas that we know from experience tend to get bad first,” said Dilbeck around 3 am.
By 4 am, Malone said it was pouring the snow at Cedar Creek. At that time, he was headed over to work the roads in the Bethlehem community. Another crew member was driving to Victory.
At 6 am, Dilbeck said that the main challenges were with the higher elevations and the mountain snow. “It’s mostly slushy on many of the back roads. The main roads are primarily clear; just wet. We’ve had a couple of trees down, and we’ll likely have more from this wet, heavy snow,” said Dilbeck. If you see a tree down, he asks that you call it in to 423.562.3404.
Rain changed over to wet snow late Thursday night into Friday morning as temperatures hovered around the freezing mark in west La Follette. The WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY continues until 7 pm Friday night here in Campbell County.
Expect snow, rain and fog today along with cold breezes as temperatures hold steady in the 30s. Light snow accumulations are expected with higher snow totals in the upper elevations of Campbell County. By Friday night, colder air chases away the moisture leaving us with a mostly cloudy night, black ice concerns, and lows in the mid-20s.
A cold, dry weekend of weather is ahead. More clouds than sun on Saturday with a high of 37 ahead of a low of 21. Sunday features a mostly sunny day and a high of 43 with the low dipping to 24. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 01/08/2021-6AM)