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Icing problems, outages predicted overnight Saturday before Sunday warm up, rain

Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Matt Wilcox, an employee for Chattanooga's Public Works Department, manipulates a hose to fill a truck with brine. The city of Chattanooga was prepping its roads with a brine solution to mitigate icing from the incoming winter storm forecasters say could leave a half-inch or more of ice at higher elevations. Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Matt Wilcox, an employee for Chattanooga's Public Works Department, manipulates a hose to fill a truck with brine. The city of Chattanooga was prepping its roads with a brine solution to mitigate icing from the incoming winter storm forecasters say could leave a half-inch or more of ice at higher elevations.

By Ben Benton January 23, 2026 7 min read

An ice storm warning has been issued for the western Tennessee Valley and the Chattanooga region from 1 p.m. Saturday through 7 p.m. Sunday as forecasters call for potentially crippling icing problems until heavy rains and higher temperatures bring brief relief Sunday and temperatures take a bone-chilling plunge into the teens by Monday morning.

Uncertainty remains, but forecasters believe ice accumulation combined with high winds coming in from the east could add to problems with travel, downed trees and power outages across the region.

In the Chattanooga region, Lookout, Signal and Monteagle mountains could see some of the worst impacts, National Weather Service meteorologist Sam Roberts said Friday.

“I would expect those higher elevations to be in worse shape, and it extends all the way down to the city itself in Chattanooga,” Roberts said. “If you do see the freezing rain, you’re still talking about amounts from a quarter of an inch up to half of an inch of ice possible, and if that occurs, it’s going to cause some major problems.”

Northwest Georgia should get a taste of the storm as well.