When will East Tennessee see some rain? What weather forecasters say

Anchorage is on pace to see its snowiest November ever, while a significant storm is set to blast the Northeast and Midwest just before Thanksgiving.

East Tennessee, however, likely will see just a few sprinklers, not nearly enough to dampen drought and wildfire concerns after a string of almost daily fires around East Tennessee that have continued to spread despite burn bans in multiple areas including Knox and Sevier counties.

“We're in a very precarious place right now,” Knoxville Fire Department spokesperson Mark Wilbanks told Knox News Nov. 16. “It's dangerous in our region and if a fire gets started, it's going to spread fast and threaten structures and threaten property.”

Wilbanks added, “It would have to rain a lot for several days for us really to get the ground saturated enough to where it was not dangerous."

What does the forecast predict?

Most areas will see a few showers Friday night, but rainfall amounts will be light, the National Weather Service's Morristown office said.

It will be mostly cloudy Friday night, along with showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms, and lows in the lower 50s, the weather service said. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch are predicted.

Saturday will be partly sunny in the morning, then clearing, with highs around 60 and lows in the mid 30s that night. It will be sunny for most of Sunday, becoming mostly cloudy that night.

There is a slight chance of showers Monday afternoon and evening, with showers likely after midnight. Showers will continue Tuesday, but the sun will return Wednesday and on Thanksgiving.

Rainfall totals predicted to be light, drought conditions worsen

Although there will be scattered rain showers, the rainfall will be light and won't improve our current drought, the weather service said in a tweet. The rainfall totals through Saturday aren't expected to top 0.25 inches through most of the region, with just a tenth of an inch predicted for Knoxville..

There is better news ahead, though.

"Next week we have a much stronger system coming in late Monday, with some rain lingering into Wednesday morning," said National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Doyle. "Knoxville should get about one inch. "We are expecting some high winds though, possibly Monday night into Tuesday, ahead of the rain."

Rainfall totals for East Tennessee at a historic low

Doyle said East Tennessee typically gets a dry season every five to 10 years. But he added this has been the driest 10-week period on record for the area, with just 1.07 inches of rain recorded from Sept 1 through Nov. 15.

"The second driest year was 2016, with 1.6 inches," he said, noting that was the year of the Chimney Tops and Gatlinburg fire, which occurred over Thanksgiving weekend and left 14 dead, as well as multiple other fires around East Tennessee. "This year is very similar to that."

The only other year that was that dry was 1939, with 1.73 inches of rain, Doyle said.

Liz Kellar is a Tennessee Connect reporter. Email liz.kellar@knoxnews.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: When will East Tennessee see rain amid drought, fires?