Memphis Snow Averages Since 1891

[Coach B]

It should be noted that as of the latest storm, Nashville has now achieved double digit snowfall in inches for a season for the first time since 2003.  We are sitting at 10.4" on the season so far. 

Good for this year, but shows how bad its been.  10" is what I consider about the historical average.  Anything over that is nice!

[mempho]

Good for this year, but shows how bad its been.  10" is what I consider about the historical average.  Anything over that is nice!

I have the all-time by year for BNA in a spreadsheet.  I'll have to check but I believe it's a little better than 8" per year.  This is about 150% of the Memphis average, just for the sake of comparison. 

[bigalpha]

I put the link for BNA monthly snow in the sticky, too.

[bigalpha]

Any other good data sets that should be added?

[jmundie]

I have the all-time by year for BNA in a spreadsheet.  I'll have to check but I believe it's a little better than 8" per year.  This is about 150% of the Memphis average, just for the sake of comparison. 

Most of that additional 50% is from nw flow events, I can almost guarantee. Since moving up here, I can attest, we don't have much more synoptic snow than Memphis does.

[mempho]

Most of that additional 50% is from nw flow events, I can almost guarantee. Since moving up here, I can attest, we don't have much more synoptic snow than Memphis does.

Just from looking at the records for "big events", Memphis seems to have more events in the 10+" category.  I guess it's because of its position on GOM lows. 

[Kevin]

So...with the new NCDC data opened...decided to go through some snow information on both the LCD worksheets as well as the official COOP forms. Just was curious...perhaps I'd find some discrepancies. Well...turns out I did...

First event: February 5-6, 2002.

Widely reported airport total: 3.0" (and the snow information is missing from the LCD worksheet). However...looking at the COOP report that's actually completed by the observer...you interestingly get 3 days of snowfall...that add up to a total of 4.6"...that's much closer to other reported sites.

Here's the PDF... http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS-E23A876F-9CBF-4A06-900D-5C2D7EA7AAE7.pdf

Next: December 22, 2004.

That was the sleet storm. Widely reported total: 2.0" even. COOP report: 3.1" http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS-C3304182-B81A-4759-A8EE-1154F31E9F02.pdf

Still looking through...but other events reported as thought official all along. More minor differences though in the COOP reports: the New Year's snow 2000/2001 has 1.6" instead of 2.0". March 2008 reports 5.7" instead of 5.4"

COOP reports aren't available for the 80s and 90s...so I'm unable to check there.

[jmundie]

I had forgotten about February of 2002. I met a St. Agnes girl from my neighborhood in that storm whilst out sledding, and then went on a disastrous date to a winter formal with her a few weeks later.

I'm loving the NARR link on the PSU ewall - going back and looking at the features for all these old storms. Really helping me learn all the possible setups we can have for snowstorms. What would be the best place to look to find dates of snowstorms in the 90s and 2000s for tennessee? I'd like to analyze all of them to see how many were traditional events and how many were more ULL type scenarios. Pre 2006 all I knew was what I saw on the surface forecast maps on the weather channel.

[Kevin]

I had forgotten about February of 2002. I met a St. Agnes girl from my neighborhood in that storm whilst out sledding, and then went on a disastrous date to a winter formal with her a few weeks later.

I'm loving the NARR link on the PSU ewall - going back and looking at the features for all these old storms. Really helping me learn all the possible setups we can have for snowstorms. What would be the best place to look to find dates of snowstorms in the 90s and 2000s for tennessee? I'd like to analyze all of them to see how many were traditional events and how many were more ULL type scenarios. Pre 2006 all I knew was what I saw on the surface forecast maps on the weather channel.

Unfortunately I don't know of a site that lists them all like that. I've always just gone through knowledge/memory and found the data as I come across them. The new NCDC data may help in picking out individual events (either through LCD data or "Storm Data") but you still have to go through on a month to month basis which will be time consuming.

[InMemphis]

The February 2002 storm was fairly decent. The snow did not stick on the roads for very long. Thursday morning featured a second minor round. It was also interesting that everything was managed with a winter weather advisory instead of a warning.

[Kevin]

The February 2002 storm was fairly decent. The snow did not stick on the roads for very long. Thursday morning featured a second minor round. It was also interesting that everything was managed with a winter weather advisory instead of a warning.

Back then...the WSW criteria was 5" and though some areas did hit that...the forecasts were for only about 3. It didn't change to 3" (where it is now) until the following winter.

[harlequin]

I remember the February 2002 event because we only got 1" in Tunica. I remember it was odd because my dad drove us to go sledding on the levee where the farm meets it SW of town. Once we got close to it (about 10 m south of town) there was no snow! Instead we drove up to Robinsonville, which had about 3".

First realization of gradients in snowfall...