snow~

[livnluv]

Originally Posted by rossc

Dear Yankee friend,

I realize the news has been occupying all our minds recently, so perhaps it has escaped your attention that your weather is out of your back yard. While you were watching the news, your weather sneaked out and has found its way down South. While we appreciate the bracing air and fluffy fat snowflakes visiting, we are unaccustomed to cold weather and don’t really own coats. Since Tennessee shares a snow plow with the State of Alabama and the Alabama people are hogging it so they can clear their streets in time to get people to bowl game parties, we are left to fend for ourselves here in Nashville and it is kind of sucking. If it would be OK, would you mind coming down and getting your weather? We would really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

The South

I think they came to get it. Heard this morning that Boston is under a blizzard warning...

[Kevin south of Nashville]

Um, remember when we were the mildest climate with four seasons? Sheeesh. It's been a funny 9/10 months of weather, yeah?

[aaronmidnight]

I love living in Nashville and Middle TN, but from what I can tell so far (~13 months here), this area has some of the most extreme weather in the country.

Last winter was really cold, the spring was really wet, the summer we had a drought, fall took a breather with some nice warm weather and then this winter has been extremely cold with ice and snow.

I honestly think you could say the mid-South has some of the most extreme weather of any part of the country. Think about it, the Gulf Coast, Florida and the SW all have hot summers (like us) but they miss out on winter.

The North has cold winters (like us, but with heavier snowfalls) but their summers are typically much milder.

The Pacific NW and California have the mildest weather in both winter and summer, at least along the coastal areas.

I do think that true Midwest cities like KC and St Louis have even more extreme weather than we do - much colder in the winter months, frequently slightly hotter in the winter months, despite being further north.

I realize that the last year may have been atypical, but I do feel that weather 'averages' in TN are rarely seen. Typically the weather seems to be about 10-20 degrees on one side of the average. So our mid-winter averages are for highs of the mid-40s. Both last winter and this one, highs are frequently in the high 20s or low-mid 30s. Last summer, we were about 10-15 degrees above our average highs for weeks at a time.

I'm guessing it does all balance out over time (thus the averages), but when I looked at historic data on weatherunderground.com, it seemed like the warm winters people remember were really warm - highs in the 60s in January (again about 20 degrees above average).

Maybe the lack of any large body of water (lakes, oceans) along with the shape of the jetstream subjects makes it more likely that we will experience extreme weather?

[Antioch]

Originally Posted by aaronmidnight

I love living in Nashville and Middle TN, but from what I can tell so far (~13 months here), this area has some of the most extreme weather in the country.

Last winter was really cold, the spring was really wet, the summer we had a drought, fall took a breather with some nice warm weather and then this winter has been extremely cold with ice and snow.

I honestly think you could say the mid-South has some of the most extreme weather of any part of the country. Think about it, the Gulf Coast, Florida and the SW all have hot summers (like us) but they miss out on winter.

The North has cold winters (like us, but with heavier snowfalls) but their summers are typically much milder.

The Pacific NW and California have the mildest weather in both winter and summer, at least along the coastal areas.

I do think that true Midwest cities like KC and St Louis have even more extreme weather than we do - much colder in the winter months, frequently slightly hotter in the winter months, despite being further north.

I realize that the last year may have been atypical, but I do feel that weather 'averages' in TN are rarely seen. Typically the weather seems to be about 10-20 degrees on one side of the average. So our mid-winter averages are for highs of the mid-40s. Both last winter and this one, highs are frequently in the high 20s or low-mid 30s. Last summer, we were about 10-15 degrees above our average highs for weeks at a time.

I'm guessing it does all balance out over time (thus the averages), but when I looked at historic data on weatherunderground.com, it seemed like the warm winters people remember were really warm - highs in the 60s in January (again about 20 degrees above average).

Maybe the lack of any large body of water (lakes, oceans) along with the shape of the jetstream subjects makes it more likely that we will experience extreme weather?

Explanation of the extreems we have in Mid-TN is our geographic location. I've stated in other forums regarding the weather that we get a bit of everybodys weather, North or South. But as far as winter this is not really extreem what we have experienced so far, it is more of a typical Mid-TN pattern that had been irregular from around 1998-2008, a good 10 year span where we had hudge jolts in our weather patters. I always reference April 16, 1998 as the time when our weather pattern drastically began to change, the day 2 F-4 tornados ripped through Nashville and other areas east and west. From that time our Springs became much more tornadic and winters milder with less snow. It seems the past 2 1/2 years at least the winter pattern has begun to shift. I may be wrong but that is what I have noticed...