Historic Tennessee Valley Cold, Snow, and Ice Events

[John1122]

There's still creek ice here, but the last of the snow melted off today. 

Snow on the ground for 24 days in a row here. Coldest January since 1988 East of the Mississippi. 

Definitely historic for it's length of cold. No record cold, no record shows unfortunately. 

[chris21]

On 1/16/2025 at 3:57 PM, John1122 said:

This winter may need archived in this thread for all the wrong reasons. It's hard to be better than we have at 500mb for much of December and January if you want snow. Great Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific mostly cooperative. But we've managed some light ice, and one minor to moderate snow event. Historically these looks would have seen much of the forum area well into double digits snow totals and likely saw my area, SE KY, NE TN and SWVa pushing 20-30 inches. 

I have 31 inches so far about two miles from the Tennessee border in Avery County, NC but I’m at 3800 feet and over 70 percent of that was upslope.

[PowellVolz]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:11 PM, chris21 said:

I have 31 inches so far about two miles from the Tennessee border in Avery County, NC but I’m at 3800 feet and over 70 percent of that was upslope.

We have a lot of historical snows in the ETn valley but the majority of our history is watching other people get snow. Lol

[PowellVolz]

Not sure if severe thunderstorms can go in this thread but thought I’d share this from MRX of the 2020 Easter tornadoes in SE Tennessee. 
 

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/55cc7aa49acc47839e8fa7010983ff83

[Carvers Gap]

I would recommend creating a separate, historical thread for severe weather.  This thread was created for historic winter weather events.  I have no issues at all w/ Powell's post, but a separate thread would be pretty cool, and is probably needed. 

[Holston_River_Rambler]

On 2/23/2025 at 1:57 PM, Carvers Gap said:

I would recommend creating a separate, historical thread for severe weather.  This thread was created for historic winter weather events.  I have no issues at all w/ Powell's post, but a separate thread would be pretty cool, and is probably needed. 

I made one years ago. Not sure where it went. 

[Mr Bob]

It was archived....I found it but it was last posted in early 2018 so I cannot recover it. Fire away with a new one though! 

[Holston_River_Rambler]

I made a new historic severe wx thread. 

[John1122]

The event today is probably notable enough to go here. MRX claimed it was 2 days shy of the 2nd earliest snowfall ever in Knoxville. They claimed on Facebook that Tri didn't see measurable snow Halloween 1993. I am certain that isn't true. Records show 1.3 inches for Tri on October 31st 1993. I know there was close to 3 inches here, Oneida and Tazewell. I would guess the 1.3 is probably light for Tri. I know for sure Tri got more than a trace Halloween 1993.  

However, it's a rare early November day to see snow fall essentially all day long with highs that stay below 35 for most of us, and 20s for some of us. I'd say that 2+ inches of snow fell over most of the areas that got the bands, but it didn't quite manage to stick to any depth due to the nature of it. Either way, early November snow isn't common these days. 

[Shocker0]

14 hours ago, John1122 said:

The event today is probably notable enough to go here. MRX claimed it was 2 days shy of the 2nd earliest snowfall ever in Knoxville. They claimed on Facebook that Tri didn't see measurable snow Halloween 1993. I am certain that isn't true. Records show 1.3 inches for Tri on October 31st 1993. I know there was close to 3 inches here, Oneida and Tazewell. I would guess the 1.3 is probably light for Tri. I know for sure Tri got more than a trace Halloween 1993.  

However, it's a rare early November day to see snow fall essentially all day long with highs that stay below 35 for most of us, and 20s for some of us. I'd say that 2+ inches of snow fell over most of the areas that got the bands, but it didn't quite manage to stick to any depth due to the nature of it. Either way, early November snow isn't common these days. 

I was 5 years old in 1993 and remember trick-or-treating on Halloween in the snow in McCreary County, KY (just across the border from Oneida). I don't remember how much, but it's one of my earlier childhood memories for sure. 3 inches sounds about right

[John1122]

38 minutes ago, Shocker0 said:

I was 5 years old in 1993 and remember trick-or-treating on Halloween in the snow in McCreary County, KY (just across the border from Oneida). I don't remember how much, but it's one of my earlier childhood memories for sure. 3 inches sounds about right

I was out on a muzzleloader hunt when it started that afternoon. I didn't even know it was supposed to snow that I can recall. (no internet back then).  I can distinctly remember my grandpa stating it was his first white Halloween that evening when around 3 inches had fallen. In 1995 we got dusting in mid-October. The top of the mountains around here got more, I recall driving on top of Cross Mountain that night in moderate snow with around 1/2 inch on the ground. It was either October 18th or 19th.