weathertree4u

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.

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