Winter 2011-2012 trend/forecast discussion.

[jmundie]

I went through and watched all of Curt's old videos last night. Just what I needed in the midst of the most boring weather of the year.

Can't wait until October, when the first 384 hour fantasy storms start showing up.  :

[bugalou]

HAHAHAH! 

Nothing like the Blizzard of 93'  --I grew up in WNC and we got pounded by that one! The snow on the backdeck was waiste deep!  No JOKE! and snow was about  14" inches on the roads. That was the one and only time I experienced thunder and lightning in a snow storms-  It was crazy!

pfft... Around here, the storm of 93 wasn't weather porn for us.  It was more like weather Cinemax on a Friday night.   

[Eric]

pfft... Around here, the storm of 93 wasn't weather porn for us.  It was more like weather Cinemax on a Friday night.   

   +1.

[Cyclonicjunkie]

pfft... Around here, the storm of 93 wasn't weather porn for us.  It was more like weather Cinemax on a Friday night.   

lol

So, is the 85 storm the benchmark for west TN?

[Bigm33]

pfft... Around here, the storm of 93 wasn't weather porn for us.  It was more like weather Cinemax on a Friday night.   

A Zalman King winter storm? 

[Kevin]

I honestly don't know if this area has a real benchmark storm...at least not recently. I guess maybe January 1988 or maybe the first one from 85 (the specific video linked earlier was from a later storm that year)...otherwise you're probably going back to the 60s or even earlier.

[Bigm33]

All I know is that we haven't had a bad enough storm to keep me from driving wherever in it ( and that's since '94 when I got my license  ). I would hate to see what would happen here if we were to have an epic 3-4ft snowfall in this area.

[Kevin]

All I know is that we haven't had a bad enough storm to keep me from driving wherever in it ( and that's since '94 when I got my license  ). I would hate to see what would happen here if we were to have an epic 3-4ft snowfall in this area.

LOL...I doubt we'll ever have to worry about that. We'll be lucky if we get a 1ft storm (on a widespread...synoptic scale basis ~88) anytime soon...

[Curt]

Even with the lack of the superstorm of '93 here, '85 was epic due the fact that there were 6 separate snow events in the Memphis area during a 6 week period. KMEM reported almost 21 inches in this period, while other places nearby were near 30 inches. No offense to a good blockbuster, I would rather have '85 vs one major event at the end of the winter season.

And Kevin is correct about '88. It was the last major synoptic event that affected all of the state. Jan '85 was localized to West Tennessee and Kentucky. The 70's had numerous lighter events around here and were not bad winters at all for the most part. However the 60's of which I was not a part of, had numerous widespread synoptic events.

[StormNine]

 One of the impressive events locally for me was as soon as this past February.  The area along the KY/TN border particularly Stewart, Montgomery, Trigg, Christian, Todd KY had two 4-6 inch snowfalls in a span of the 2 days this past February. I had total snowdepth of 8-9 inches in some areas from these two events.  The last event what I call the "finger event" featured a very heavy snow band along the KY/TN border along with temps in the upper 10's which created some of the worst road conditions I've ever seen.  I'm a pretty inexperienced driver without a car so my Sister in Law had to pick me up from Clarksville to Hopkinsville and thanks to her New England driving skills we made it out alive.  Even the activity from West TN spread and produced a very hazardous 1-3 inches across Middle and Eastern TN.

 My favorite event was the Christmas 2004 event that really slammed Western KY and parts of Western TN.  I received 3-4 inches of snow on top of 2 inches of sleet with widespread 12-24 inches amounts across a good portion of Western KY. Many West TN locations received significant sleet or snow/sleet accumulations from that storm.

[StormNine]

Also remember models do not handle ULL events well at all.  Models are designed for the large scale and cannot predict the locally heavier bands that will be present in an ULL situation.  ULL events also seem to almost always take strange tracks and are either early or late arrivals.

[harlequin]

I'm glad '93 happened before my memory kicked in.  Did MEG's CWA even get snow? I'm assuming the eastern sections (esp. NE MS) did.

I've been completely satisfied with the last few winters. Until 2008 the only real 3"+ snow I can remember was January 2000 down in Tunica when we got 5-6". The 7" in March 2008 was amazing. Since then the winters have been snowy compared to what the 90s/most of the 00s for me.

This winter was great. The only downside was seeing fairly close areas get a lot more during the two main events.

[bugalou]

I'm glad '93 happened before my memory kicked in.  Did MEG's CWA even get snow? I'm assuming the eastern sections (esp. NE MS) did.

I've been completely satisfied with the last few winters. Until 2008 the only real 3"+ snow I can remember was January 2000 down in Tunica when we got 5-6". The 7" in March 2008 was amazing. Since then the winters have been snowy compared to what the 90s/most of the 00s for me.

This winter was great. The only downside was seeing fairly close areas get a lot more during the two main events.

Dusting to 1/2" if I remember correctly. Even eastern MS got the shaft with relatively minor amounts compared to Alabama/East TN.

[StormNine]

I believe the 0.5 inch line went from NE MS into Clarksville TN/Hopkinsville area with areas west of that getting a flurry to dusting at best.  Nashville only got 2-3 inches the real event was from roughly a line from Lafayette to Lawrenceburg eastward, but was classic in the Plateau and into Eastern TN.

[Crockett]

'93 was great here on the northern Plateau, with nearly 20 in. of snow and drifts that were 5-6 ft.

It was a storm of a lifetime in some respects, but in other respects it was topped by the monster that came the next year. Freezing rain followed by more than a foot of snow and a couple of days with temps that failed to climb out of the single digits. Neither storm could hold a candle to the dynamic cooling storm of '98 that dumped an unexpected 18-21 in. of wet, heavy snow and knocked out power for many days. If we could get the snow without the unfortunate damage that accompanied it, I'd like to experience another '98.

We made up for those blockbuster storms of the '90s by going from '99 to '10 with only one 6+ in. snowfall. Hopefully last winter's three 6+ in. snowfalls were a sign of things to come.