Historic Tennessee Valley Cold, Snow, and Ice Events

[weathertree4u]

Honestly, one would think that forum members do not go through this every year! Even some of the historically awesome winters that Nashville has had have had warm spell. I do not know if these are analogs for our current winter but they re-affirm my point that sometimes, it is warm during the winter but sometimes, as in 1951 and 1963, you are within a week or two of some pretty awesome winter weather.

From 01/17/1951 - 01/20/1951 Nashville was well into the mid and upper 60's I am sure people were thinking winter was over. Here are a couple of entries from the weather records for the end of the month...

     01/29/1951 -  The worst ice storm in Nashville's history begins, causing a complete stalemate of transportation in Nashville for two days. Frozen precipitation starts during the evening, with 1.6" of snow and ice accumulating by midnight

      01/30/1951 -  Five inches of snow and ice fall, much of it during the evening, producing a water equivalent of 3.83". This is the greatest one-day precipitation event for January in Nashville's history.

      02/01/1951 -  Precipitation continues at Nashville through the morning, most of it as snow, and finally ends around noon. An additional 5.2" are measured, leaving the city buried under 8" of ice and snow.

      02/02/1951 - Temperature at Nashville drops to -13, tying the record low for the month.

Consider January 1963. From 01/09/1963 - 01/11/1963 Nashville was well into the 60's and very mild until 01/23/1963.

     01/10/1963 - An F3 tornado touches down at Spring Hill (Maury County) just before midnight. The twister cuts a 4 mile path, lifting at Bethesda (Williamson County), after causing 4 injuries.

     01/23/1963 - The strongest cold front in mid state history brings heavy snow and an unprecedented drop in temperature. Nashville receives 6.2" of snow. In addition, the high temperature reaches 48 degrees, but plummets to -13 degrees by midnight, for a range of 61 degrees. This is the greatest daily range of temperatures in Nashville's history.

     01/24/1963 - Temperature at Kingston Springs drops to -30 degrees, which is the lowest temperature ever recorded in Middle Tennessee, and comes within 2 degrees of tying the all-time record low for Tennessee (Mountain City, 12/30/1917). Other record lows include Clarksville (-17), Dover (-24), Lafayette (-20), Linden (-18), Portland (-19), Springfield (-18), and Waverly (-26). In fact, Waverly sees its temperature drop by 80 degrees with the passage of the strongest cold front in mid state history. Five inches of snow accompany the dramatic change in temperature. The Duck River freezes solid from bank to bank for the first time since 1898. Harbors along the Tennessee River also freeze. It is considered the worst winter weather since the 1951 ice storm.

http://www.weather.gov/ohx/calendar

I have also attached some pix from the January 1951 storm in Nashville

[Mr Bob]

The February 1994 ice storm in N MS, W TN and NW AL belongs in here for sure. Up to 6" of ice accumulation in northern MS from this one....can't even imagine! 

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/special/iwais96.pdf

[weathertree4u]

32 minutes ago, Mr Bob said:

The February 1994 ice storm in N MS, W TN and NW AL belongs in here for sure. Up to 6" of ice accumulation in northern MS from this one....can't even imagine! 

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/special/iwais96.pdf

I remember that one well. Allot of places on the Highland Rim were without power for two weeks or more. Even today, when driving through the area, it looks like all the trees in the woods were pruned back, now about 15' down. The real problem with that storm was that after the front pushed through early that morning, the wind picked up out of the northwest which was the final blow for allot of the trees. It was a nightmare for sure.

[Vol Man]

I happened across a couple of photos I had stored away from the winter of 1996...we had lots of snow that year in NE Tennessee...one picture was taken on January 8th, which was about 11"-12". The other picture was taken on February 3rd...this was in the 14" range. If I remember right, a few days after the January 8th snow, we had another decent storm, around 6"-8" on top of the accumulation from the 8th. There had been some melting, but it really piled up. My son was born in 2000, so he hasn't seen this kind of accumulation...he just hears about "the good ole days"!

 

[whamby]

I still remember Feb 2-3 '96 down here in Chattanooga... while not as deep, it was just so cold with a solid 4-5 inches of ice and snow and like 8 degrees at midday, sledding like I've never seen before or since here. Outside of March '93, my best weather memory. With winter of '10-11 making a distant third. The christmas 4 inch snow then a few weeks later the 8 inch finale.

[Carvers Gap]

Some great posts...somehow missed the recent ones.  198mm of ice in Shelbyville!?

[Daniel Boone]

Winter 95-96 Wise, Virginia set state seasonal snow record , 123.4 inches!

recorded 52 inches at my local. That feb. storm was followed by record cold. Pennington gap recorded low of -21 the 4th with a high of -4 !

[Carvers Gap]

Coming up on the 25th anniversary of the Blizzard of '93....Link to WATE anniversary coverage from yesterday.  Hard to believe it has been that long ago.   

http://www.wate.com/the-blizzard-of-93

[Holston_River_Rambler]

15 minutes ago, Carvers Gap said:

Coming up on the 25th anniversary of the Blizzard of '93....Link to WATE anniversary coverage from yesterday.  Hard to believe it has been that long ago.   

http://www.wate.com/the-blizzard-of-93

One of my most distinct memories from that time and my entire youth (I was 10) was watching Johnny Wood on WCYB stand in front of a radar map, gesturing too a blob of precip in Texas and saying something like: "I know a lot of these seems to have missed us this year, but it doesn't look like this one is going to". Good times and thundersnow! 

[Carvers Gap]

1 minute ago, Holston_River_Rambler said:

One of my most distinct memories from that time and my entire youth (I was 10) was watching Johnny Wood on WCYB stand in front of a radar map, gesturing too a blob of precip in Texas and saying something like: "I know a lot of these seems to have missed us this year, but it doesn't look like this one is going to". Good times and thundersnow! 

Great memory.

I was at UT.  You know, the WATE guys sort of insinuate that they missed on snow totals....but they nailed that forecast from almost a week out.  IMO, it was a real success of computer modeling.  They may have missed on totals, but I remember waking up on Saturday knowing there was going to be a blizzard.  They did really well.  

I grew up watching Johnny.  Always enjoyed his work.  Some great old-school anchors from both Knoxville and TRI that I remember.  He is one of them.  I always enjoyed Bill Williams of WBIR as well...He did not do the weather, but just delivered the news very well.

[John1122]

The WATE guys did miss big time on snow totals. Thursday night, the day before the blizzard started, Hinkin said "you're hearing these wild snow totals thrown around, but folks, it's March and that's not happening.' He forecast 6 inches for the Valley areas and 12 inches for the mountains at that time.  I actually had a bet with my uncle, who'd watched Hinkin and didn't believe we'd get more than 10 inches.

This is one of my 3 or 4 most clear weather memories. I can still remember being outside around 2 pm Friday and it started snowing here. It was probably in the mid 30s at the time. I drove to town around 4 and it was snowing hard but the road and ground were still fairly warm so it wasn't sticking. I had ordered a pizza and they messed it up so I had to wait for another one. It was really coming down as I drove back home. The ground was starting to get white in town at around 1100-1200 feet. As I climbed towards the house, as is often the case the accumulation got thicker and thicker. I had 2 inches on the ground already when I arrived home. It was still raining over a good portion of the central valley through that evening per the Knoxville TV stations, there wasn't a drop of rain for the entire event here. It had snowed 5 inches by midnight at my house. But it wasn't snowing particularly hard at that point and I kept being worried that the forecast wasn't going to come to pass. 

I woke up at 8 am the next morning to howling winds and it looked like we were in a thick fog. It was 21 degrees, winds were around 35 mph with higher gusts. I found a wind sheltered area and took 3 measurements. There was as closely as I could figure, 11 inches of snow on the ground. It had snowed 6 more inches basically in the 8 hours since midnight. Between 8 and 11 am it snowed 11 more inches. The heaviest sustained snow I've ever seen. It snowed and blowed the rest of the afternoon but not as heavily as that 3 hour span. Oddly, later that night around 1 am after the snow had seemingly ended, we had a burst of heavy snow that just absolutely poured down for about 30 minutes and added 1 inch or so to my total. I assume it was flow related. I was well over 2 feet by the time it was over and my cousins 1000 feet above me were close to 3 feet. I had a 1977 F-150 with 33 inch tires. It snowed the bed of the truck completely full, which is 21 inches deep, and then it just blew the snow off that would have piled up over the bed. I drove it the next day and the front bumper of my truck was plowing snow. 

I am forever pissed at the local paper who reported that the area only received 12 inches of snow. They were never known for having the best reporters. They did mention that the higher mountain areas received 36 inches of snow. I still have that paper as well as one from Lake City who more accurately reported 18-24+ inch totals in the valley areas. The drifts were amazing, some were 15 feet deep and 6 foot drifts were common.  There's a letter to the editor in one of them from a person who moved here from Ohio and talked about never seeing anything like this up there. Their power went out and they mentioned crossing HWY 63 in Eastern Campbell County in neck deep drifts because their neighbor came to check on them and then invited them to stay in their wood heated home until power was restored. Also a gesture she wasn't used to per her letter.

[ShawnEastTN]

4 hours ago, John1122 said:

The WATE guys did miss big time on snow totals. Thursday night, the day before the blizzard started, Hinkin said "you're hearing these wild snow totals thrown around, but folks, it's March and that's not happening.' He forecast 6 inches for the Valley areas and 12 inches for the mountains at that time.  I actually had a bet with my uncle, who'd watched Hinkin and didn't believe we'd get more than 10 inches.

This is one of my 3 or 4 most clear weather memories. I can still remember being outside around 2 pm Friday and it started snowing here. It was probably in the mid 30s at the time. I drove to town around 4 and it was snowing hard but the road and ground were still fairly warm so it wasn't sticking. I had ordered a pizza and they messed it up so I had to wait for another one. It was really coming down as I drove back home. The ground was starting to get white in town at around 1100-1200 feet. As I climbed towards the house, as is often the case the accumulation got thicker and thicker. I had 2 inches on the ground already when I arrived home. It was still raining over a good portion of the central valley through that evening per the Knoxville TV stations, there wasn't a drop of rain for the entire event here. It had snowed 5 inches by midnight at my house. But it wasn't snowing particularly hard at that point and I kept being worried that the forecast wasn't going to come to pass. 

I woke up at 8 am the next morning to howling winds and it looked like we were in a thick fog. It was 21 degrees, winds were around 35 mph with higher gusts. I found a wind sheltered area and took 3 measurements. There was as closely as I could figure, 11 inches of snow on the ground. It had snowed 6 more inches basically in the 8 hours since midnight. Between 8 and 11 am it snowed 11 more inches. The heaviest sustained snow I've ever seen. It snowed and blowed the rest of the afternoon but not as heavily as that 3 hour span. Oddly, later that night around 1 am after the snow had seemingly ended, we had a burst of heavy snow that just absolutely poured down for about 30 minutes and added 1 inch or so to my total. I assume it was flow related. I was well over 2 feet by the time it was over and my cousins 1000 feet above me were close to 3 feet. I had a 1977 F-150 with 33 inch tires. It snowed the bed of the truck completely full, which is 21 inches deep, and then it just blew the snow off that would have piled up over the bed. I drove it the next day and the front bumper of my truck was plowing snow. 

I am forever pissed at the local paper who reported that the area only received 12 inches of snow. They were never known for having the best reporters. They did mention that the higher mountain areas received 36 inches of snow. I still have that paper as well as one from Lake City who more accurately reported 18-24+ inch totals in the valley areas. The drifts were amazing, some were 15 feet deep and 6 foot drifts were common.  There's a letter to the editor in one of them from a person who moved here from Ohio and talked about never seeing anything like this up there. Their power went out and they mentioned crossing HWY 63 in Eastern Campbell County in neck deep drifts because their neighbor came to check on them and then invited them to stay in their wood heated home until power was restored. Also a gesture she wasn't used to per her letter.

93 has seared my brain forever.  Almost everything you mention even for the valley is spot on, 2 days before watching WRCB in Chattanooga Paul Barys coming right out and saying very frankly we are in for a potential blizzard and used the word blizzard.  I remember people saying he was crazy all the way up till the storm, then couldn't believe he was right.  I do remember it raining at my house until about midnight that night, then giant wet flakes and the wind was literally howling outside.  I remember waking up at about 4AM because the wind literally was loud, peaked out the door only for the wind to blow a crazy amount of snow in so I slammed it shut, then went to the window and could barely see the street light just outside the house by about 100 feet, it was snowing so hard it was blurred that much.  Then to my complete shock I witnessed then and still the only time in the eastern US, thundersnow.  Everything ourside went purple, I say everything but really it was just snowing so hard you could only see just this bright purple flash then the thunder which was muffled but definitely thunder after it was pretty incredible.  Then of course having no power for a week afterward, and the morning after all you could smell was pine from all the fallen trees.  So much damage, it was incredible.  My yard averaged 20" of snow with drifts up to 5', I was 13 and 5' snow drifts were up to my armpits.  Will never forget that storm!

[Windspeed]

Did it not snow fairly significantly in the eastern Valley following weekend after the March 12-13th event as well? I believe we were around 14" officially at KTRI for the Blizzard of '93 event, though closer to 18" on average at our house. But later that next week I seem to recall an additional 3-6" off a seperate clipper.

 

Edit: Nope, I'm getting the '96 blizzard mixed up with the '93 blizzard. Also, looking at the intervals of time between major blizzards during my childhood and teenage years is depressing.

 

[Holston_River_Rambler]

Kind of an other side of the same coin question here, but there is an epic fail storm that I've always wanted to ask y'all about.  I can't remember the actual date, so I was wondering if any of you did. It must have been between 94 and 99 since I had begun to watch the Weather Channel after 93 and got out of that after 2000. (I used to leave it on, volume down, while I slept and would love to wake up at 2-3 am sometimes and hear some of the crazier shenanigans late night on air.)  Anyway I would watch the 5 day business planner and sometimes you'd see snow at day 5 and I'd then track it (just by watching the snow icon each day) until it was on the local on the 8s or whatever that was called when there was just music and no voice.  I had no knowledge of models or anything like that then, I just thought they updated the forecast around or after 2 AM and 2 PM every day.  Well if those snows made it to the first night on the local on the 8s (12 hours off) I thought I could pretty much bet on what they were forecasting.  There was one night I went to sleep and the forecast was something like "Snow. Heavy at times. Accumulations of 8-12 inches possible".   I figured if I didn't 8-12, well 6 would probably be ok. Woke up to nothing. I turned on the Weather Channel and remember their meteorologist Bruce Edwards saying something like "Well we were expecting this moisture to come north and it just didn't happen". {**Please note I'm not blaming him here or grumping, just rehearsing my experiences. This happened nearly 20 years ago and that would be crazy**}.  Knowing what I do now, it sounds to me like Gulf convection cut off the moisture or something, but it always stuck with me how that one busted, but I can't remember what or when that happened. I was living in Kingsport at the time. 

[Holston_River_Rambler]

3 hours ago, Windspeed said:

Did it not snow fairly significantly in the eastern Valley following weekend after the March 12-13th event as well? I believe we were around 14" officially at KTRI for the Blizzard of '93 event, though closer to 18" on average at our house. But later that next week I seem to recall an additional 3-6" off a seperate clipper.

 

Edit: Nope, I'm getting the '96 blizzard mixed up with the '93 blizzard. Also, looking at the intervals of time between major blizzards during my childhood and teenage years is depressing.

 

In regards the the winter of 95-96, I think most people remember January and after, but in Kingsport I remember a clipper type of system around Dec. 9, 1995?  (not sure I could tell you the difference between types of systems then, but the track seems to have been out of the N. plains and across TN).  Greatest, most epic clipper in history for me!  I think I got 6-9" at my house in Kingsport and for my lifetime, at least within my memory, that was the best December snow.  

[ShawnEastTN]

One of my favorite busts in a winter forecast in recent memory was February of 2015, its actually interesting to go back and look at the forecast thread and then the obs thread here on the forum for the event because it was such a serious bust for many.  Initially the morning of the storm WWAs were issued for most of the great valley for 2-4".  Then the event started in the late afternoon for southern areas around chatt, and was way over performing, MRX bumped to WSW for 3-6", then kept updating their snowfall graphic upward.  Couple of those clips from the old thread below, by the time all was said and done many got between 7-12".

 

[Mr Bob]

1 hour ago, Holston_River_Rambler said:

Kind of an other side of the same coin question here, but there is an epic fail storm that I've always wanted to ask y'all about.  I can't remember the actual date, so I was wondering if any of you did. It must have been between 94 and 99 since I had begun to watch the Weather Channel after 93 and got out of that after 2000. (I used to leave it on, volume down, while I slept and would love to wake up at 2-3 am sometimes and hear some of the crazier shenanigans late night on air.)  Anyway I would watch the 5 day business planner and sometimes you'd see snow at day 5 and I'd then track it (just by watching the snow icon each day) until it was on the local on the 8s or whatever that was called when there was just music and no voice.  I had no knowledge of models or anything like that then, I just thought they updated the forecast around or after 2 AM and 2 PM every day.  Well if those snows made it to the first night on the local on the 8s (12 hours off) I thought I could pretty much bet on what they were forecasting.  There was one night I went to sleep and the forecast was something like "Snow. Heavy at times. Accumulations of 8-12 inches possible".   I figured if I didn't 8-12, well 6 would probably be ok. Woke up to nothing. I turned on the Weather Channel and remember their meteorologist Bruce Edwards saying something like "Well we were expecting this moisture to come north and it just didn't happen". {**Please note I'm not blaming him here or grumping, just rehearsing my experiences. This happened nearly 20 years ago and that would be crazy**}.  Knowing what I do now, it sounds to me like Gulf convection cut off the moisture or something, but it always stuck with me how that one busted, but I can't remember what or when that happened. I was living in Kingsport at the time. 

I don't recall that one...but busts are a part of the biz especially with the modelling back then....the March 2001 disaster was the worst one I remember but that was north of the TN Valley. 

Stark memories for me on '93, though,  I was actually working the extended desk as we called it at TWC back then and remember the debate among us about putting snow and mix all the way down to ATL 5 days out....we went for it. The storm was about as well forecast as anything we had ever seen back in the dark ages of meteorology (compared to today).  I also remember coming in that Saturday about 4:30a and the rain was just changing over to snow...there was vivid lightning...When I got inside I heard one of my coworkers saying....its not going to happen here....I let him know it was changing over and by 7am we were buried in snow. It was also the only time in the 12 years I was there, that we were ever off the air....the power failed at 7:30 then the backup generator failed and took them about 15 mins to get it up and running. In all, we ended up with 10" of snow in NW Atlanta...it was closer to a foot up in Marietta where I lived. Fun times!

[tnweathernut]

41 minutes ago, Mr Bob said:

I don't recall that one...but busts are a part of the biz especially with the modelling back then....the March 2001 disaster was the worst one I remember but that was north of the TN Valley. 

Stark memories for me on '93, though,  I was actually working the extended desk as we called it at TWC back then and remember the debate among us about putting snow and mix all the way down to ATL 5 days out....we went for it. The storm was about as well forecast as anything we had ever seen back in the dark ages of meteorology (compared to today).  I also remember coming in that Saturday about 4:30a and the rain was just changing over to snow...there was vivid lightning...When I got inside I heard one of my coworkers saying....its not going to happen here....I let him know it was changing over and by 7am we were buried in snow. It was also the only time in the 12 years I was there, that we were ever off the air....the power failed at 7:30 then the backup generator failed and took them about 15 mins to get it up and running. In all, we ended up with 10" of snow in NW Atlanta...it was closer to a foot up in Marietta where I lived. Fun times!

That's part of what made 1993 so special.  Just think of the technology we had back then and to know this system was fairly well forecast from 5 days out while the southeast baked in above normal temps leading up to the event is pretty remarkable.  I can't imagine what this board would be like if a system like that started showing up on modeling almost a week out and came to fruition.  Pretty sure the servers wouldn't be able to handle it.

I was in college at ETSU.  I remember the forecast for a heavy snow, but being from Nashville I took a chance and left for spring break to be with family and friends.  I left that Friday, the 12th at the same time a buddy of mine at ETSU left to head to Danville, VA.  I only saw light snow showers and flurries till late that night when backbuilding FINALLY edged into middle TN (we ended up with 2-3", but I remember drifts over 8').  A couple of weeks later I learned my buddy, who left at the same time, encountered heavy snows heading through SW VA and got stuck between here and home.  He said the snow got heavy quick and he ended up spending a good chunk of spring break at a run down motel...

[Holston_River_Rambler]

I went ahead and looked through the KU book and have a list if storms that look to have impacted the TN Valley. I will add to it as I get more dates from y’all or other research. The KU maps typically show the whole Eastern CONUS, so I was able to see which of their storms impacted us.  Some caveats though:

1.       This is not intended to be a full list of everything just yet. Their book is aimed at Northeast urban corridor storms so southern sliders aren’t in it. I have also added a few extra already. I mainly want to get some of these dates out there so people with more knowledge of local climates can add to it or tell me “Hey, that one didn’t do much here”.  I will go back through this thread later today and add the storms all of you have put into it already.

2.       The KU larger maps are at low resolution so our microclimates in the high and low elevations may have had dramatic impacts not reflected in the book

3.       I know we had talked about just doing March, but I just put them all in here for future reference. I see people talking about “changing wavelengths” in Spring and am not sure exactly what that means, but I suspect it means many of these storms may not be helpful as analogues.

4.       I tried to look for uncomplicated Miller As that affected parts of the area.  Some Miller Bs were included if they looked like they may have produced snow for some of the area (example, January 1965). I also live in the Great Eastern Valley so I may have excluded some storms just because I naturally  key in on that area. If you have one that affected you and you want me to add it, let me know.

5.       I tried to go by the start date listed in the KU book, but if we are going to plug these into the analogue generator I’m not sure what dates are best since we’re looking for 500mb patterns, not sensible weather.

 

November events:

22 November 1950

 

December events:

24 December 1966

25 December 1969

23 December 1963

31 December 1970

16 December 1973

 

 

January Events:

5 January 1988

22 January 1966

21 January 1987

27 January 1922

23 January 1935

23 January 1940

11 January 1964

29 January 1966

18 January 1978

21 January 1987

25 January 1987? Mixing issues

5 January 1988

22 January 1966

21 January 1987

27 January 1922

23 January 1935

23 January 1940

11 January 1964

29 January 1966

18 January 1978

21 January 1987

25 January 1987? Mixing issues

16 Jan 1965

14 January 1982

7 January 1988

13 January 1978

 

February events

13 February 1960

11 February 1899

15 February 1900

7 February 1907

20 February 1921

21 February 1929

7 February 1936

20 February 1947 (western areas)

15 February 1958

13 February 1960

19 February 1979

2 February 1996

15 February 1996

 

March events

March 3 1980

March 7 1996

March 13 1993

6 March 1932

18 March 1958 (close miss to east)

2 March 1960

2 March 1994 (Interesting track, but looked to be cone of those rare rain to snow storms that worked)

14 March 1999 (looked dynamic but rainy)

 

April events

April 1987

[tnweathernut]

2 hours ago, Holston_River_Rambler said:

March events

March 3 1980

March 7 1996

March 13 1993

6 March 1932

18 March 1958 (close miss to east)

2 March 1960

2 March 1994 (Interesting track, but looked to be cone of those rare rain to snow storms that worked)

14 March 1999 (looked dynamic but rainy)

 

April events

April 1987

1960 is the gold standard for mid-south/southeast/carolina's March snow.  It gets talked about a lot and I remember first studying it back when easternwx was around.  Here is a 500mb map from the first 1/2 of 1960 as well as the surface temp anomaly for the same period.   There are some 500 similarities, but I don't think the cold would have the potential to be as strong.

I have also included the snow map I could find. I am sure it doesn't do John's snowfall justice (lol), but it was accurate for "recorded snow in and around the Tri-Cities (snowiest March on record just shy of 28")

[tnweathernut]

This is also a great site if you have a few hours to kill.  Not all stations reported, but several did.  You can find one close to you and search daily data.

http://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=mrx

[John1122]

I'm going to count large snow events for March as more than 3 inches and keep in mind that early reports are at 2500 feet or so in elevation.

March 15, 1916 4 inches

March 17 1917 5 inches

March 14 1924 4 inches

March 6 1926 7.5 inches

March 1 1927 12 inches

March 17 1928 4 inches

March 10 1934 3 inches

March 12 1935 3.5 inches

March 17 1935 9 inches

March 24 1940 8 inches

March 2 1942 14.5 inches

March 21 1943 7.5 inches

March 1 1954 4 inches - 10 inches on the ground, it snowed 6 inches the previous day.

Housefire caused loss of data from 1955-1958

March of 1960 is well known. It snowed every day except 2 of the first 20 days of the month. 

March 20 1965 3.5 inches

March 6 1969 3 inches

March 9 1969 5.5 inches

March 15 1970 3 inches

March 25 1971 3.5 inches

March 10 1975 4 inches

March 17 1978 3 inches

March 1-2 1980 5.5 inches w subzero cold.

March snows of 3+ became less common in the 1980s into 1992. There were 1 to 2.5 inch events in 1981-85 and of course the 12 inch event in April of 1987, there was also a 2.5 inch snow in April of 1997, going off memory here as I've not been looking at April.

March 12-13 1993, Well know as any event ever.

March 8 1995 4.5 inches

March 19-20 1996 5.5 inches

March 9-12 1998 it snowed an inch each day but never accumulated to more than 3 inches. 

March 16-17 2006 4 inches

The 2000s didn't produce much in March. Most years nearly nothing. The 2010s have rebounded with some big winter events though. 2014 and 2015 had major snow events for the western areas that were ice storms imby. It even snowed mid March last year in the Southern Valley after that blow torch winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tnweathernut]

6 minutes ago, John1122 said:

I'm going to count large snow events for March as more than 3 inches and keep in mind that early reports are at 2500 feet or so in elevation.

March 15, 1916 4 inches

March 17 1917 5 inches

March 14 1924 4 inches

March 6 1926 7.5 inches

March 1 1927 12 inches

March 17 1928 4 inches

March 10 1934 3 inches

March 12 1935 3.5 inches

March 17 1935 9 inches

March 24 1940 8 inches

March 2 1942 14.5 inches

March 21 1943 7.5 inches

March 1 1954 4 inches - 10 inches on the ground, it snowed 6 inches the previous day.

Housefire caused loss of data from 1955-1958

March of 1960 is well known. It snowed every day except 2 of the first 20 days of the month. 

March 20 1965 3.5 inches

March 6 1969 3 inches

March 9 1969 5.5 inches

March 15 1970 3 inches

March 25 1971 3.5 inches

March 10 1975 4 inches

March 17 1978 3 inches

March 1-2 1980 5.5 inches w subzero cold.

March snows of 3+ became less common in the 1980s into 1992. There were 1 to 2.5 inch events in 1981-85 and of course the 12 inch event in April of 1987, there was also a 2.5 inch snow in April of 1997, going off memory here as I've not been looking at April.

March 12-13 1993, Well know as any event ever.

March 8 1995 4.5 inches

March 19-20 1996 5.5 inches

March 9-12 1998 it snowed an inch each day but never accumulated to more than 3 inches. 

March 16-17 2006 4 inches

The 2000s didn't produce much in March. Most years nearly nothing. The 2010s have rebounded with some big winter events though. 2014 and 2015 had major snow events for the western areas that were ice storms imby. It even snowed mid March last year in the Southern Valley after that blow torch winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That map I posted for 1960 doesn't really have any reports from your area, but if you guessed based on nearby reports that would have put you in the 30-35" range.  I am guessing you were probably higher than that though.....?

[John1122]

27 minutes ago, tnweathernut said:

That map I posted for 1960 doesn't really have any reports from your area, but if you guessed based on nearby reports that would have put you in the 30-35" range.  I am guessing you were probably higher than that though.....?

That's close, 39 inches in March of 1960. February was huge too, with 25 inches. 

[John1122]

It was 10-15 degrees below normal in Febuary/March 1960 and this happened. It was gasoline on a fire.

 

[Holston_River_Rambler]

1 hour ago, John1122 said:

It was 10-15 degrees below normal in Febuary/March 1960 and this happened. It was gasoline on a fire.

 

Thanks for all the amazing information John!  I was just thinking how much my early life was shaped by 93 and 96 (I wasn't old enough to care or remember much before that). I remember thinking, welp, we get one of these things every three years, so 99 should be gold. Then 99 happened and so did weeping and gnashing of teeth!  I couldn't imagine being alive and young in 1960 when all that happened. No winter could ever live up to it! 

 

[Holston_River_Rambler]

So that analogue website has a limited number of data entry points, so I have to pick a few from John's list.  I thought maybe try Miller A and B events first, since they would have the potential to impact more of us than NW flows, but thought I'd see what y'all thought. 

[Carvers Gap]

1 hour ago, Holston_River_Rambler said:

So that analogue website has a limited number of data entry points, so I have to pick a few from John's list.  I thought maybe try Miller A and B events first, since they would have the potential to impact more of us than NW flows, but thought I'd see what y'all thought. 

Use the big storms IMHO.  Looking good.  

[Carvers Gap]

John that is an awesome list, man.  I just wanted to add that.  That is just one of the many things that makes our forum awesome.

[Holston_River_Rambler]

1 minute ago, Carvers Gap said:

Use the big storms IMHO.  Looking good.  

Sounds good. We can always start with that and see what happens.  Then I can try to dig into newspapers in the area I mentioned yesterday. Found a good online source for Knox News going back to the 1800s, but still digging for others places. To be fair I didn't have as much time as I thought I would today, but its a process and every bit helps.