What is with all this snow??!! (Knoxville, Kingsport: house, neighborhood, elementary school)

[mbmouse]

Am I crazy or is this the most snow in a winter we have gotten in at least the last 13 winters? I have been here that long and I believe this is the most days of snow on the ground that I have seen since I moved out of CT! hahahaha
Had to go to the store this morning. It is about 4 miles away. I never got out of 3rd gear, mostly stayed in 2nd. The roads are pretty slick. I made it to the store and back close to the house just fine. But I could not make it the last 200 ft to and into the driveway. Slide backwards into the neighbors driveway and that is where it sits. The plow has come by twice, covered back up within an hour. This is just so bazaar for here in East TN. They are calling for more and on Sunday as well. This is February right? I have daffodils popping up in the yard covered with snow, and Robins flying around. That is a New England sight.
Anyone who has been here/from here longer than myself recall a winter with as many snow on the ground and road days in a winter?
The good news is that with all this precipitation the last several months, farmers should have great crops and plenty of hay this spring and summer. The ground has been saturated for at least the past what.....45 days or so?
Staying home and breaking out the Hot Russian tea and coco.

[Jim37680]

I have lived here or Knoxville my entire life and I have seen a few winters that were "worse", at least for me. Winter of 1996 was quite memorable when I counted total of nearly 50" on my ridge north of I-81 and I-26 crossing. We had 18" of wet snow on about Jan 6 and AEP was out here for 72 hours. Some folks we knew in Rye Cove were off the grid for 10 days then so we were lucky in that round. Blame it on El Nino and the persisitent track of these southwestern storm sytems. There was another bad snow event in 1998 that caused a lot of problems for travel and power in Washington, Carter and Johnson counties but I don't recall that winter being too bad overall. My next door neighbor on another provider (JCPB) was off grid for a week then. My parents were off grid (Mountain Electric Coop) for two weeks and some of there neighbors for about three weeks.

We have been below average in temps but we haven't had anything really extreme in low temps (or highs) compared to the usual winter. I was looking through the archived weather data for the last 10 years on NWS site. February is a really strange month. The two preceding years (2008 and 2009) look almost spring-like with many 50 and 60 days. Look at 2007 or 2001 and February looks nastier and colder than January those years (not that January were all theat great either). I would like to blame it on the folks in California that are hogging that big high pressure center off the coast and keeping the eastern part of the county in a deep freeze with this big dip in the northern jet.

I don't remember which years (some in 60s and 70's for sure) when Sullivan County schools were out virtually all of January and some of February due to recurring snows. That never stopped Kingsport schools however back in the Dana Swick (Superintendent) days- "it's never too slick for Swick". Kingsport didn't run buses back then so everyone had to walk three miles to school through three feet of snow (not an urban legend in Kingsport).

[rccrain]

I was thinking it might mean a longer "Lake Season", especially if the precip continues.

[jabogitlu]

I remember especially 1993 and 1996, and also 1998 being bad winters, like Jim said. This is a bad winter but it seems to be more in line with winters we experienced before the mid 1990s.

All I know is I've watched it snow sideways for over nine hours now. The roads weren't too bad this afternoon but this morning's trek was treacherous. I intended to turn left out of my neighborhood road, but my car went right, so I changed course! hahaha

[rccrain]

TriCities.com is reporting Sullivan County is running low on salt with more snow in the forecast. Doh.

[2mares]

This winter is typical of the winters I remember on the Cumberland plataeu when I when visiting my grandparents as a child and after I moved here permantely around 1974. I have been wondering what has happened in the last 10-15 yrs.

[mbmouse]

Was talking with my husband (native to Tri-Cities) and he was saying that this is like the winters they used to get when he was in elementary school (70's) every year. He said they would have a solid month of snow days a year. This was in Carter Co.
Adding that to the above posts, wondering if this is what we can expect for the next several years if history repeats itself then?

[2mares]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

Was talking with my husband (native to Tri-Cities) and he was saying that this is like the winters they used to get when he was in elementary school (70's) every year. He said they would have a solid month of snow days a year. This was in Carter Co.
Adding that to the above posts, wondering if this is what we can expect for the next several years if history repeats itself then?

I hope so.

[Tennesseestorm]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

Am I crazy or is this the most snow in a winter we have gotten in at least the last 13 winters?

You are not crazy... it has been a very snowy winter... more snow than I remember in a number of years. Seems to be the story across much of the country.... even the deep south will be in on this Friday-Saturday.

[RS-1080]

This past winter in Middle TN has been almost the same as the winters I remember as a kid growing up here. Glad to see it gettin' back to normal here.


Ya'll heard this song yet? I wonder if Al Gore digs it



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u03QcymdCtg