Snowvember: Frosty morning offers early winter snapshot

DRIVING TIPS* Remove all snow and ice from vehicle before driving and don't forget to check lights and mirrors.* Drive with your headlights on low beam to make yourself more visible.* Use caution when driving over bridges and overpasses since they freeze more quickly than other road surfaces.* If your tires lose traction, avoid sudden braking and steer into the direction you want to go.* Four-wheel drive vehicles provide extra traction to get going, but do not allow for quicker stops.Source: Dalton Police Department

BE PREPAREDDrivers should keep these items in their vehicles when traveling in bad weather:* Flashlight with extra batteries* Blanket* Extra cap and gloves, rain gear* Small tool kit and jumper cables* Small bag of kitty litter to dry out moisture* Bottled water and snack foods* Brightly colored clothSource: Dalton Police Department

The feathery coat of snow lacing trees across the mountains in the tri-state region Tuesday morning was enough to kindle students' hopes for a snow day, but not nearly enough to hamper any bus routes.

photo Bennett Shults, 6, has batting practice with snowballs before heading to school as frozen precipitation falls atop Signal Mountain early Tuesday morning.

The region's first snowfall of the season amounted to half an inch on Signal Mountain, 2 inches in the Sewanee, Tenn., area and nearly 4 inches atop Sand Mountain in Alabama.

If any flurries fell in Chattanooga, nothing stuck, said WRCB-TV Channel 3 Chief Meteorologist Paul Barys.

"Ground temperatures are way too warm for it to stick at this point," Barys said.

After a wintry mix of rain and snow Tuesday night, the flurries will begin to taper off this morning, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn. Wintry temperatures will be left behind today, with lows in the upper 20s tonight, said Barys, but those will give way to temperatures in the upper 50s and into the 60s through the weekend.

"[The snow] will all be a memory then," Barys said.

Clear skies also will begin to dry out the soggy valleys, drenched by more than 4 inches of rain at the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

Several roads throughout Bledsoe and McMinn counties were still under floodwaters Tuesday.

The rain also loosened earth on Sand Mountain, which turned into a landslide in Jackson County, Ala., early Tuesday morning, officials say. Large boulders, trees, and soil slid into state Highway 35, blocking a key route between the towns of Section and Scottsboro.

"There is so much debris that the entire highway had to be closed," one Jackson County dispatcher said.

Traffic is being rerouted through state Highway 40, Jackson County officials said. There is no estimate yet on how long it will take to clear Highway 35.

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