Afton Pratt said the Old Farmer's Almanac Thanksgiving weather forecast calls for a sunny Thanksgiving Day in East Tennessee. The forecast appears in the Almanac's 2026 forecast map, giving people in East Tennessee a first look at holiday conditions for Nov. 26.
Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Nov. 26 this year. In Knoxville, the average Nov. 26 temperature is 46 degrees, and it has been as low as 36 degrees or as high as 56 degrees.
Old Farmer's Almanac 2026 map
The Old Farmer's Almanac puts Tennessee in its Deep South region, while the eastern part of Tennessee borders states in the Appalachian region. The Almanac says parts of East Tennessee far enough east may see sunny skies and possibly warmer conditions, which makes the forecast more specific than a broad statewide outlook.
That detail gives people in East Tennessee a practical starting point for Thanksgiving plans. Outdoor meals, Turkey Trot events, and touch football games all depend on whether the day stays dry and bright enough to move ahead as planned.
National Weather Service outlook
The National Weather Service is also pointing to above-average temperatures around Thanksgiving in East Tennessee, along with above-average chances of precipitation. Its Thanksgiving Day averages, based on the NWS period of record, show an average temperature of 44.8 degrees and an average rainfall of 0.08 inches.
That puts the Almanac's sunny call alongside a wetter forecast from the National Weather Service. The two outlooks do not point in the same direction, so people in East Tennessee planning around Thanksgiving Day should watch which pattern holds as Nov. 26 gets closer.
Thanksgiving before Nov. 26
Thanksgiving has been recognized on the fourth Thursday in November every year since 1941. George Washington declared Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, a Day of Public Thanksgiving, and Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday in November in 1939 before the House of Representatives passed a resolution in 1941 setting the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.
For East Tennessee, the practical question is whether the Almanac's sunny call lines up with the NWS outlook when Thanksgiving arrives. If the sunny forecast holds, holiday travel and outdoor plans in Knoxville and across the region get a cleaner weather window than the wetter NWS trend suggests.
