Favorite and Least (Favorite)Winter Storm

[Crockett]

My favorite is a tie. I've mentioned both on numerous occasions, but they're fun to talk about anyway. 

Feb. 3, 1998: The classic dynamic cooling event here on the Cumberland Plateau. We were forecast to receive the classic Tennessee winter weather: Rain changing over to snow briefly before ending. Instead, dynamic cooling aloft dropped the temps just enough for the rain to unexpectedly change over to wet, heavy snow soon after it began. I was leaving class and noticed a few snow flakes mixing in. By the time I got home, it was snowing the biggest flakes I have ever seen--big as silver dollars. Within minutes, the ground was white. And it snowed. And snowed. By the time it ended the next morning, we had more than 18" on the ground, and every power line in sight was down. It was by far the most impressive and devastating winter storm I have ever experienced. Every road was closed for at least a short period of time due to fallen trees, even the state highways. Dad and I got out the next morning with chainsaws and went to help folks. It was simply amazing how many trees were down. My grandparents live 1/8 mile or so off the main road and we couldn't get ahold of them because the phones were out. By the time we got to their house, they had hiked out to a neighbor's because they didn't have heat at their house. They talked about having to crawl through the downed trees to get out. When the snow melted, we went to help them clean up. There were several dozen trees down across their driveway from the main road to their house. The ambulance service told of getting calls in some areas that would take them as much as 6-8 hours to get to. Power was out well over a week in some areas. It really was unbelievable. It isn't something I would wish on us again; our forests are changed still today because of it. But it was simply amazing to behold.

January 1994: I don't remember the exact date. This may or may not be the same storm that created a major ice storm for West and Middle Tennessee (I'm going off of memory here). I remember that this one was forecast to be a major winter storm. It started off as rain, changed over briefly to freezing rain, then changed to snow, with a little over a foot total. Then it turned off cold. There were 2-3 days where we didn't get out of single digits during the day. Mom tried to drag us inside because she was afraid we would get frostbite, but of course we didn't listen. We dragged out old truck tire innertubes and turned a cow pasture hillside into an amazing slide. We had a ball on that, especially when the sun would melt the top of the snowpack slightly then it would freeze back after the sun had set, creating a glaze of ice on top of the packed snow. We would hit it by the light of a nearly full moon and sled down the hill on our innertubes at breakneck speeds.  I don't remember how long our power was out during this storm, but I do remember it was several days. I remember sleeping on the couch in the living room (where the kerosene heater was) in my coveralls.

I can't remember the busts from when I was a kid, so I don't really have a least favorite.

[Snowmachine]

I've went back thru all my records which I started keeping in 1984 and wrote do lots of memorable events hope yall dont mind its rather long so here goes.

Dec 6th 1984 hi 32 and 4" of snow.
Jan 19th 1985 hi 38 and 5" of snow
Jan 20th hi -7 lo -25.
Jan 27th hi 33 and 3" of snow.
Jan 28th hi 31 and 2" of snow.
Feb 1st 1985 hi 20 and 7" of snow.
Feb 6th hi 34 and 2" of snow.
Feb12th hi 29 and 6" of snow.
Jan 6th 1988 hi 23 lo 17 and 4" of snow.
Jan 7th hi 27 lo 17 and 4" of snow.
Dec 25th 1992 hi 38 lo 18 and 2" of snow.
March 12th 1993 hi 34 lo 21 and 11" of snow
March 13th hi 25 lo 2 and 2" of snow.
Jan 17th 1994 hi 35 lo -2 and 2" of snow.
Jan 18th hi 9 lo -7 and 1" of snow.
Jan 6th 1996 hi 35 lo 17 anf 6" of snow.
Jan 7th hi 21 lo 10 and 2" of snow.
Feb 1st 1996 hi 29 lo 18 and 5" of snow.
Feb 2nd hi 19 lo 3 and 2" of snow.
Nov 9th 1996 hi 48 lo 29 and 3" of snow.
Jan 10th 1997 hi 33 lo -5 and 3" of snow.
Feb 3rd 1998 hi 45 lo 32 and 5" of snow with 12" on Short MTN.
Dec 23rd 1998 hi 28 lo 23 with 2" of sleet and freezing rain.
Jan 22nd 2000 hi 34 lo 33 with 5" of snow.
Dec 2nd 2000 hi 43 lo 29 with 3" of snow.
Dec 16th 2000 hi 61 lo 16 with 3" of snow.
Jan 16th 2003 hi 35 lo 11 with 4" of snow.
Feb 9th 2003 hi 39 lo 30 with 5" of snow.
Feb 22nd 2003 hi 73 lo 31 and 3" of snow that actually stuck!
Feb 15th 2004 hi 34 lo 18 with 4" of snow and 8" in Woodbury.
Feb 25th 2004 hi 50 lo 31 with 3" of snow and it stuck.
Feb 17th 2007 hi 35 lo 9 with 4" of snow.
Feb 28th 2009 hi 42 lo 28 with 5" of snow and other areas LOTS MORE!

Sorry its so sloppy but its the best I could do, hope some of you remember some of the events.

[Thundersnow]

Snowmachine,

I hope you don't mind, but I modified your post, putting in returns to show each event one per line.  Certainly makes it a whole lot easier to read rather than running it all together in one sprawling paragraph.  It only took a minute to do. 

This is a great record though.  Thanks for sharing!

[Snowmachine]

Thanks for fixing my post that looks alot better.

[Curt]

Thanks snowmachine for the info. It helped me with a couple of honorable mentions:

Jan 6, 1997: After sitting at 33 and rain for 2 days watching NE Arkansas (J'boro) pick up 4 inches of snow (it kills me when its that close), the rain moved out and the sun came up. All hope for anything frozen seemed gone and nothing but flurries was in the forecast. BUT- thanks to a fiesty little clipper system from the NW which really intensified just to the west of Memphis, 3-5 inches of snow came down in a 4 hour period of time. Roads accums occurred immediately and all was saved! Temps went into the single digits that night and the snow was on the ground for several days. (Had some great sledding in this snow!)

Feb 28th, 2009: Yes that steroid laced ULL from last March that dumped a foot here would be top of my list if it werent so late in the season. This is what I want sometime in January!

[Thundersnow]

Thanks snowmachine for the info. It helped me with a couple of honorable mentions:

Jan 6, 1997:

Thanks.  I do believe that is the event I was trying to remember from January 1997:

I remember another nice semi-surprise event... I think it was in January 1997.  I recall an icy mix being in the forecast, even an ice storm event.  But, that busted.  WWA took over and changed the precip to rain, which was just as well.

But, there were flurries forecasted on the backside.

Well, the front passed, and the morning after, it was apparent that some signicant snow activity was moving in from the west.

It turned out we received about five inches from that one.

The date is about right.  I was still in college at the time, and I recall it happening on one of the first days back to class after the holidays.  My parents' house is on a hill with a gravel driveway.  I recall my sister's car was stuck on the driveway, and we had to put cardboard or newspaper under the wheels to try to get traction.

[Curt]

Curt,do you remember the midjan 2003 event that busted.There was 6-7 inches of snow in the forecast with a strong low tracking to our south.Everything was fine until the day before and i remember todd demers saying the 12zgfs shifted the low further north,and i knew then we were done.Thats the storm that hit nashville area with whiteout conditions and we stayed hi and dry with some rain. Seems our winters have became more drier overtime.

I remember this well, and was none too happy.

[Curt]

Thanks.  I do believe that is the event I was trying to remember from January 1997:

The date is about right.  I was still in college at the time, and I recall it happening on one of the first days back to class after the holidays.  My parents house is on a hill with a gravel driveway.  I recall my sister's car was stuck on the driveway, and we had to put cardboard or newspaper under the wheels to try to get traction.

Yup we are def talking about the same event. Where are these pesky nw flow events these days?

[Thundersnow]

Yup we are def talking about the same event. Where are these pesky nw flow events these days?

I remember thinking it was funny... there was a radio station I was listening to that was playing a recorded forecast that was probably made early that morning.  The forecaster was still saying flurries with "maybe a dusting in some isolated areas."  I was listening to that while seeing the snow pour down accumlating to a couple of inches already, while the advisories were going up.

That made the forecaster on the radio station sound a little silly. 

[Curt]

One surprise event that sticks out to me was in I believe January of 1998. We had a cold rain...I believe under an intense ULL...and by evening it changed over to freezing rain and we started getting significant ice accumulations...the power began trying to go out late that evening. But just in time it seemed...it all changed over to sleet and snow...and we got a couple of inches on top of the ice. Completely unexpected from what I recall...

Totally remember this one, too. This had to be the weirdest system ever. It seemed to come out of nowhere, missing most of Arkansas altogether and getting stuck over West Tenessee. Actually, some places in north MS got a whpooing 8 inches from this one, while places like Jackson TN had some weird WAA and got mostly freezing rain.

[Coach B]

Jan-Feb 1985  Was too young to remember the specifics, however, I remember the better part of three weeks off of school.  Back to back to back storms with plenty of cold.  Highs below 0 and down to -20 on night.

Jan 88 Very cold, all of the snow stuck and it was a long duration event.  

Maybe the dry upcoming cold is setting us up for a good dump that sticks well and hangs around awhile.

[Curt]

I remember thinking it was funny... there was a radio station I was listening to that was playing a recorded forecast that was probably made early that morning.  The forecaster was still saying flurries with "maybe a dusting in some isolated areas."  I was listening to that while seeing the snow pour down accumlating to a couple of inches already, while the advisories were going up.

That made the forecaster on the radio station sound a little silly. 

Funny, I think we ended up with just a snow advisory. If that had been in the forecast for days we would have had a winter storm watch followed by warnings.

[bonzomemphis]

I lived in a suburb of Birmingham, Ala. as a kid, and the Blizzard of 93 is one I'll never forget. I was 10 years old, and the snow came up to near my waist in the drifts.

I may never see another event like that in the South again for the rest of my life. I remember how intense the snow was during the overnight. There was thunder and lightning. The sky seemed to have a green tint to it. It was very eerie. Winds howled, but we only lost our power for a few hours. I remember my mom making a fire in the fireplace and me and my parents all sleeping in the den near the fire to keep warm.

Even though it happened in March - not a month conducive for snow sticking around as we've all learned in the last couple of years in the MidSouth - it seems like we had so much of it that it lasted for a while. We were out of school for days. It was amazing. Drifts near my house on the backside of our deck got up to around 3 feet in places.


My least favorite would probably be the Nashville bust of Jan. 2006. I was at a friends place downtown and was swearing up and down we'd get snow that night. Nothing. Nada. Just a cold steady rain. I left to go back to my house in Bellevue and we wound up with about an inch of slush the next morning. Which was better than nothing. But it was all gone soon anyways. The mets were hyping it and saying we'd get 4-6 on the conservative end. I remember watching the 10pm news showing snow coming down in buckets as close as Jackson/Dickson, but that WAA creeped up 65 and spoiled it all.

[beth]

I hope I have posted this right and you can see the pics. These are pics of the really good snow that we had close to us.  It was Jan.16th, 2003 or maybe the week later. It stuck around for awhile as it got extremely cold after it snowed.  We lived on a hill in Kingston Springs and our house sat down off the road.  We had 2 trucks stuck in our front yard.  They just slid right off the road as it was so slick.
 http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4228768292_c42642194d_b.jpg
It snowed so hard most of that day.  Started in at midmorning. Every one left downtown Nash and the interstates were in gridlock.  People just left their cars there and started walking. School buses didn't get kids home till 8 or later in the night. My kids had to walk up the hill to get home, but had a good time doing it.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4228768340_32727222ba_b.jpg
This is the next day after the snow.  We had a pond in our back woods and my daughter and I walked down to it.  It was beautiful.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2544/4228768408_bb554bda6f_b.jpg
It was a complete surprise. I think they were calling for rain and snow mixed but it started out all snow. I wish we would get another like this one.

[Thundersnow]

Nice pics, Beth!

Just wish scenes like that weren't so rare now.