Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Davidson, Tennessee

2018-01-01 to 2018-01-04 · Davidson, Tennessee

Event narrative

Davidson County Emergency Management reported a middle-aged homeless woman on Charlotte Avenue in Nashville died due to hypothermia from the extremely cold temperatures in the first few days of January 2018. In addition, numerous homes and businesses reported water damage from broken water pipes across Davidson County, and several water mains underneath city streets also ruptured, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

Wider weather episode

An Arctic blast of extreme cold temperatures affected Middle Tennessee from the end of December 2017 through the first week of January 2018, with the coldest temperatures occurring from January 1 through January 4. Temperatures across much of the region remained below freezing from the evening of December 30 through the afternoon of January 3, when temperatures rose above freezing for a few hours. Temperatures then fell below freezing again from the evening of January 3 through the afternoon of January 7. Low temperatures throughout this 9 day period ranged from the teens above zero to the single digits below zero. This prolonged period of sub-freezing temperatures resulted in numerous frozen and busted water pipes in homes and business throughout Middle Tennessee as well as broken water mains. In addition, at least one homeless women died in early January in Nashville due to exposure from the cold.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 733015. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.