For many deer hunters, the Thanksgiving holiday is the equivalent of professional football's Super Bowl. With an extended four-day weekend and the peak of the rut at hand or near, the dedicated hunter who might otherwise be at work can hunt four days and be interrupted only by the Thanksgiving dinner bell Thursday afternoon.

But while Tennessee typically sees good weather over the Thanksgiving holiday, this year might be a little different, TnHunting.Com contributor and weather enthusiast Corey Andrews says.

"We're about to enter a really complicated weather pattern," Andrews said. "It's not easy to predict exactly what will happen, but the general idea here is that the weather isn't going to be good."

The official forecast from the National Weather Service's bureaus in Morristown, Nashville and Memphis calls for temperatures to rise to near 70 degrees in East Tennessee by Tuesday, and into the mid 70s in West Tennessee. That will set the stage for a cold front on Thanksgiving Day, which will bring inclement weather to the region.

"Hunters will start to notice a turn for the worse on Wednesday," Andrews said. "Winds will be kicking up Wednesday afternoon and clouds will build, and there may even be some showers break out, especially in West Tennessee. By Wednesday evening, rain is almost a certainty in West Tennessee."

But while the weather might not be exactly perfect, Andrews said that the hunting might be best then.

"If you subscribe to the notion that deer get out and feed ahead of a low pressure system or frontal system, or when the barometer is dropping, then Wednesday is the day to be in the woods," he said.

Thursday's weather will be even less ideal than Wednesday's,, despite the fact that most of the rain and thunderstorms that will pass across the state Wednesday night should be gone.

"The wind will be howling, the temperature will be dropping, and it's just flat out going to be a raw kinda day," Andrews said.

Temperatures by Thursday evening could be in the 30s across much of the state, and snow flurries are possible in some areas, especially in East Tennessee.

If you don't like hunting in the wind, Thursday might be a good day to stay inside and engage in gluttony and football watching," Andrews said.

While the weather will clear out by Friday, Andrews said that another system may impact the end of the holiday period.

"There are some indications that a Gulf system is going to push up across Alabama and into Tennessee by Sunday," Andrews said. "If that's the case, look for more rain by Sunday afternoon in much of the state."

If the predictions hold true, this would mark the second consecutive year of less than ideal weather conditions on Thanksgiving weekend. Last year, a heat wave brought temperatures well into the 70s in much of the state by the day after Thanksgiving, resulting in fewer deer killed.

"In some ways, I'd rather sit through a little wind than heat, and I know I'd rather sit through some rain than heat," Andrews said.