Ice Storm History in Tennessee

[Curt]

I thought it might be cool to recall some of the state's ice storm history. Please add your story or recollection and dates if possible.

Of course, who can forget this one in Feb '94?

 http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C00490-PUB-A0001#FEBRUARY

And perhaps this might be the granddady of them all in 1951. Would be cool if someone on the board was around then, but I doubt it:

http://www.nwas.org/ej/pdf/2003-EJ2.pdf

http://kyclim.wku.edu/factSheets/greatIceStorm.htm

[Mr. William E. Brantley]

Yes ctbpharmd : I well remember the Ice Storm of 94. Just over 3.00" of precip. here in three days. half an inch of ice. Winds gusting to near 40 m.p.h. tree branches snapping all over the place. electricity was off at my home for 2 1/2 days. This was on 4th street in Bemis, Tn. The temp was averaging near 30 °. The wind did more damage to the trees than the amount of ice did.

And 1951 : I wasn`t around then but this is what my records show :
Jan. 28 th : Lo : 27 ° Hi : 62 ° : 0.98 "
29 th : Lo : 15 °  : Hi : 28 °  : 0.38 "
30 th : Lo : 12 °  : Hi : 19 °   : 0.12 "
31 st : Lo : 14 °   : Hi : 29 °  : 1.26 "  And
Feb. 1 st : Lo : - 2 °  : Hi : 15 °  : 0.34 "
Though No Precip. fell on Feb 2 nd the Lo was  - 12 °  : Hi : 21 °
I could only imagine what it was like trying to get around back then with these Super Cold temps with Precip. falling.
I also remember a Ice storm back in the 1970`s . But I need a more exact date to look that one up. I hope this helps your story some here. 

[tennessee storm09]

dont quote me on this, bit the ice storm ur talking about i think was in 1974. i was 11 then. remeber it pretty well. it stayed cold for a whole week. if my memory serves me corect. i think  we got some snow on top of that ice too.

[Thundersnow]

My family has referred to the the winter of 1951 my whole life.  My parents were each small children, but they remember it.  And, my grandmother still talks about it.

The ice storm apparently hit first.  And, after a heavy glaze, several inches of snow fell.  Then, they said that they had more ice on top of that, with even more snow on top of that.  They way they describe it, there was basically a frozen slab of layered snow and ice that made it nearly impossible to walk.  All the power was out for days, and temperatures dropped well below zero for several days straight.

[Thundersnow]

In addition to the ice storm of '94, I remember some back in the 80s.  Seems like there was a good ice storm amid all the snow in the infamous winter of 1985.  There was also significant ice in December 1989, which was a VERY cold month.  I believe Nashville was as cold as -10 then.  Of course, Nashville experienced an all-time record low of -17 in January 1985.

Some more recent ice storms I recollect occurred in December 1998 and December 2004.

February 1994 is probably still the worst ice storm I've experienced.  To this day, I can still see evidence of it on the big cedar trees on my parents' place.  They were permanently reshaped when big branches broke off.

[McKinley Fairbanks]

Hi! There.  I remember the ice storm of 85.  I was at my parents house in W. Tn.  We had no electricity for days but we had propane heters in the house and stayed warm.  We cooked on top of those heaters for the neighborhood and had a camp stove for pancakes.  We did fine but it sure was cold.  The roads were so bad you couldn't go anywhere. The 94' ice storm was pretty awesome too.  We watched transfomers blowing up from top of a hill in Franklin while it was happening. I live in the SW part of Williamson and we had no power for a month. Freezers are the first to go and people were cooking on top of gas grills pizza's. We hard wired a generator into our house that runs the house and shop and have propane for the rest.  When it gets bad here, it's a disaster. Ice stoms are no joke.