Hottest Weather Ever?
This heat wave has been oppressive and impressive, to say the least. Is this the hottest it’s ever been in Nashville?
Today should be our 32nd consecutive afternoon at or above 90 degrees. According to my forecast, Thursday will be our 36th consecutive day at or above 90 degrees. The old record was 31 days set in 1952. In my opinion, 90 degrees is plenty hot, so one could argue that it’s never been this hot for this long in Nashville’s weather history (records go back to 1871).
We’ve registered 15 days at or above 100 degrees this summer (this month, actually). If my forecast verifies, we’ll have another triple digit day on Tuesday. This much heat is unusual: in the last 15 years, Nashville has only seen 6 days at or above 100 degrees. During the heat waves of 1952 and 1954, there were actually more triple digit days (20 and 19 of them, respectively).
The case could be made that the heat wave of 2007 has been the longest on record, but the heat waves of ‘52 and ‘54 were actually a little more intense. Hot stuff, no matter how you slice it!
Nashville Hits 100, Again!
Nashville hit 100 degrees for the fourth consecutive day. Ughhh.
This qualifies as our longest stretch of triple digit heat in 19 years, since June of 1988.
I’ll project upper 90s this weekend, although I won’t be surprised if we flirt with 100 degrees on Saturday or Sunday.
I feel like a forecaster in Phoenix!
Putting the Heat in Perspective
Today should be our 3rd consecutive afternoon at 100 degrees. It’s not uncommon to go the entire summer without reaching the triple digits, so it’s safe to so the heat is unusual. We haven’t broken any high temperature records and don’t expect to, but the duration of this heat wave is very impressive.
We’ve already had 2 days at 100 degrees; the last time that happened was 8 years ago in July of 1999.
If we reach 100 degrees today that will be 3 days in a row; the last time that happened was 17 years ago in August of 1990.
19 years ago, Nashville recorded 6 consecutive days in the triple digits.
The Nashville record for consecutive triple digit heat is 8 days, set back in June of 1952.
I’d Take It. Would You?
On this date (June 3) in 1956…Crossville’s low temperature of 33 establishes a new record for the month.
April 16th, 1998
On April 16, 1998…Lawrence County experiences the first F5 tornado in Tennessee’s history. Nashville is hit by 3 tornadoes, including an F3, which strikes downtown for the first time in more than 65 years. A total of 10 tornadoes are confirmed across Middle Tennessee. Surprisingly, there are only 4 fatalities across the mid state, with 105 injuries. Baseball-size hail is reported northwest of Ashland City (Cheatham County), damaging 35 to 50 homes. This is the 10th largest tornado outbreak in mid-state history.
Thanks to the Nashville NWS for this report.
Record Low in Nashville
At 6:00 am the temperature fell to 23 degrees at Nashville International Airport - a new record low for April 8th.
The old record was 27 degrees, set in 1990.
Low temperatures are happening right now (the 6:00 am hour) across Middle Tennessee. I’ll post a roundup a bit later this morning.
April 7, 2006 Tornado Outbreak
One year ago today, we endured one of the worst severe weather outbreaks in Middle Tennessee’s memory.
View our post and pictures from yesterday looking back at April 7, 2006.
View Davis Nolan’s excellent video account of the day.
The Storm Prediction Center had issued a “moderate risk” of severe weather for all of Tennessee and a very rare “high risk” for southern parts of Middle Tennessee. By early afternoon we were on the air with tornado warnings in the western part of the viewing area. Our coverage wrapped up more than 8 hours later. We were on the air the next morning for 3 hours to cover the extensive damage and unfortunate loss of life.
April 7, 2006 Tornado Outbreak Video
Davis Nolan spent many hours gathering clips from our archived footage of the April 7, 2006 storm coverage.
Thanks to his hard work and meteorological expertise, and a little help from editor Matt Crane, the result is a very compelling look back.
Head to WKRN.com to view the video.
April 7, 2006 Middle Tennessee Tornado Outbreak
Nearly one year to the day, we look back at the April 7, 2006 tornado outbreak. This was the worst severe weather damage in Middle Tennessee since the downtown Nashville tornado on April 16, 1998. There were 12 fatalities, making this the deadliest severe weather outbreak in the mid-state since the “Super Outbreak” of April 3, 1974.
Full-size image of April 7, 2006 tornado tracks.
StormTracker radar image of hook echo, just west of Gallatin (full post).
Many tornado images were sent in by our viewers (full post).
The supercell thunderstorms also brought widespread large hail, some up to 3″ in diameter (full post).
The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Nashville received a Bronze Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce for providing timely and accurate warnings to thousands of people, saving countless lives. Read the Nashville NWS account of the April 7, 2006 tornado outbreak.
April 2nd, 2006
A massive tornado outbreak occured in West Tennessee one year ago today. There were 24 fatalities in West Tennessee; the towns of Newbern and Bradford were hardest hit. In all, there were 66 tornadoes in 7 states, yielding 29 weather-related fatalities. Total damage was $193 million, and this was the largest outbreak since May 2003.
In the News 2 viewing area, there was plenty of damage but thankfully no deaths. Several buildings were damaged in Benton County around Camden; 292 homes were damaged/destroyed in Hopkinsville and 32 people were injured.
I’ll have some video and personal accounts of April 2nd, 2006 on News 2 This Morning.
