Cold/Wind Chill — Shelby, Tennessee

2021-02-13 to 2021-02-20 · Shelby, Tennessee

Event narrative

Record cold settled over Shelby County in mid-February. Thin ice formed on area ponds. A boy was killed and a girl was injured when they fell through the ice on a pond near Millington during the morning of February 14th. There were several deaths due to exposure to the cold. Temperatures dropped to around zero degrees during the morning of February 16th. Wind chills dropped as low as 15 degrees below zero.

Wider weather episode

An arctic airmass settled over the region in the wake of a departing winter storm. Snow cover combined with clear skies and diminishing winds to produce the coldest night across much of the Mid-South since 1989. Several locations dropped below zero with wind chills reaching fifteen below on Tuesday morning, February 16th. High temperatures only reached the teens for the third day in a row across much of the Mid-South. The last time that happened in Memphis was January 1928.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 944215. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.