Winter Weather — Van Buren, Tennessee

2018-01-16 · Van Buren, Tennessee

Event narrative

COOP observer and social media reports indicated up to 1 inch of snow fell across Van Buren County. The COOP observer at Fall Creek Falls measured 1 inch of snow, and a Twitter report indicated 1 inch of snow fell in Spencer.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level trough combined with a powerful Arctic cold front to bring widespread snow to all of Middle Tennessee from Monday evening, January 15 through Tuesday afternoon, January 16. Snow slowly spread from northwest to southeast across the region during these two days, with the heaviest snowfall up to 7 inches affecting northwest Middle Tennessee, and the lightest amounts of 1 inch or less in southeast Middle Tennessee. In addition, much of northwest Middle Tennesee still had several inches of snow on the ground from the previous snow event just a few days early on January 12 into January 13, and the combined snow depth from the two snow event measured up to 10 inches in some areas. The Arctic cold airmass also caused temperatures to drop into the single digits and even below zero in some areas, leading to the snow as well as ice from melted snow lingering on roadways for many days. This resulted in widespread road and school closures throughout Middle Tennessee, with nearly all school districts cancelling classes for the entire week.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 736505. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.