What Would It Take for TN to Get a MAJOR Snowstorm???

[Tom23]

OMG I found it!!! http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwNexrad~SelectedImage~20030116~1500

Very, very interesting!!!!! I also like to see past radar loops to actually visualize with an unbiased, know-the-results approach at what happened in the past. Thanks for finding that!!!

[Crockett]

Well, if Al Gore is correct, the historic snowstorms that have slammed the East Coast this year are due to global warming. So let's just wait our turn, and I'm sure we'll have a Memphis-to-Bristol two-foot'er in a couple more years.

Seriously, though, forget the 2-ft. snow...what's it going to take for Tennessee to have another widespread 8-12" snow? I always took the big ones for granted when I was a kid, because they seemed to happen so frequently in the '80s and even the '90s. It wasn't until I started delving into weather as a hobby that I realized how you truly have to thread the needle to get a big snow in this part of the country. It's amazing how everything has to line up just right.

[Clay]

I wish I could have seen some of the winters from the 70s and early 80s. I've never seen more than 8" of snow fall in Nashville at one time.

[Thundersnow]

I wish I could have seen some of the winters from the 70s and early 80s. I've never seen more than 8" of snow fall in Nashville at one time.

Actually, there wasn't anything over 8" during those decades, believe it or not, other than the 8.1" snow in January 1988.  There were just more frequent minor and moderate events that added up.

Snowstorms producing 6" or more in Nashville

One freak March snowstorm in 1996 produced 8.7", while the January 1988 storm produced 8.1".

Before that, you have to go all the way back to 1968 to get an 8" storm.  There have only been 11 storms in Nashville's history that have produced 8" or more.  And, another interesting fact... there were no storms that officially produced 6" or more in Nashville during the "snowy" 1970s... just lots of little snows that added up during those snowy winters.  Notice that no storms from the 1970s even make the list.

I think our perceptions get skewed sometimes, while the records really do bare out that snows of 8" or more really are rare... at least on the books.  It seems more common that the heaviest snowfall in TN is rather localized (like parts of the area have seen from some of the ULLs over the last couple of years).

[Crockett]

Once again, I wish MRX had the same records availability online as BNA. It would be interesting to compare and contrast Knoxville's biggest snows with Nashville's.

We had 8"+ snows in Oneida in 1998, 1997, 1995, 1994 and 1993. The '80s and '70s are a little more fuzzy (okay, the '70s I don't remember at all) and I would have to look them up.

[Clay]

I was referring to the snowy winters of the late 70s mainly.

[Extremewxlover]

Was the Januaery 16, 2003 storm a southern storm

[Tom23]

Was the Januaery 16, 2003 storm a southern storm

Was the steak I ate tonight juicy and tender??? LOL just kidding, I do believe it was a Southern storm. You can see that at http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwNexrad~SelectedImage~20030116~1500

[Tom23]

Does that help you any ExtremeWx??

[Extremewxlover]

I meant, was it a gulf low storm?
i don't remember much about it, but i thought they only forecasted like 2-4 inches,

[Tom23]

I meant, was it a gulf low storm?
i don't remember much about it, but i thought they only forecasted like 2-4 inches,

It came out of Canada around Washington State (Northern Pacific Ocean), and started blowing up around West Kentucky and finally started moving toward us from SE, then started moving East toward North Carolina.

The reason forecasters predicted so little snow was 1) because it hadn't blown up yet around the Kentucky area, 2) They didn't know exact path it would travel, so much like the Southern stream snows we get

[Thundersnow]

Was the Januaery 16, 2003 storm a southern storm

It wasn't a Gulf Low in the traditional sense.