New Years Storm of 1963/1964

[Thundersnow]

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ohx&storyid=45342&source=0

New Year's Eve/New Year's Day 1963/1964 Snowstorm
 

Bobby Boyd

Meteorologist

National Weather Service

Nashville, Tennessee

 

It's been 46 years since Nashville has accumulated 10 inches of snow from a single storm. The last time It happened was on New Year's Eve in 1963 and continued into New Year's Day 1964. Nashville measured 10.2 inches of snowfall while areas across southern Middle Tennessee measured upwards of 16 inches. This was the largest snowfall in Nashville since 15.0 inches fell on February 21st 1929.


 

A cold airmass was already in place when a wave developed on a surface front in the central Gulf Of Mexico on December 30th 1963. The surface wave quickly developed into a low pressure area and moved northeast across Florida spreading a wide area of precip northward. Snow fell in Middle Tennessee in the overnight hours of New Year's Eve and into New Year's Day 1963/1964.  Some areas of northwest Alabama received 20 inches of snow.

[Curt]

Well had I been alive I would have been mortified by this storm since it was so close yet so far away!

[Thundersnow]

I was thinking that Memphis was hit by that storm also.  But, I would have to check the records.

[Curt]

From the Utah state website, not a flake. However, 14 inches fell a week earlier, and several were still on the ground after 13 below zero on Christmas eve, an all time record cold temp. That system was about 100 miles too far east for Memphis to receive anything. Talk about a sharp cutoff.

[Thundersnow]

So, there were screw zones even in these legendary storms of old?

Not necessarily everyone was buried from sea to shining sea.  That puts it into perspective for our modern times, I guess.

[Clay]

I didn't realize 10" snowstorms were that far spread apart.

[Coach B]

I didn't realize 10" snowstorms were that far spread apart.

I thought for sure there was at least 10" from one of the 85 events.  Been close several other times as well.