Mountain City Weather Center Weblog

StormTracker, Brandon Massey, was in western TN last week and took some photos of the horrific severe weather outbreak that slammed western TN in early February.  The damage is still evident, as you can see.  A bit later, we’ll post photos of the MS River flooding. 

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As is typical with spring winter weather events, the wintry mix of precipitation that falls with unseasonbly cold storms that rotate through the southern Appalachians (such as like the one the impacted our region this Monday) can produce much more than just snow.

A mix of snow, ice pellets, and a chilly drizzle fell across Johnson County Monday. Some higher elevations, above 4k feet, accumulated a couple inches of wet snow, however, communities where “most folks” live (in between 2k and 3k feet), only some a brief dusting from time to time.

Below, I want to go over the different types of wintry precipitation that you can come to expect here in southern Appalachia, if not again this year, well….October isn’t too far away you know- HA! Thanks to dictionary.com for presenting the “textbook” definition.

Snow: Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure.

Sleet: precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls

Graupel: A small, white ice particle that falls as precipitation and breaks apart easily when it lands on a surface

Freezing Rain: rain that falls as a liquid but freezes into glaze upon contact with the ground

Freezing Drizzle: drizzle that falls as a liquid but freezes into glaze or rime upon contact with the ground

This date 15 years ago marked a remarkable storm that blew out of the central Gulf of Mexico and on up the East Coast. Today that storm has many names, “The Storm Of The Century,” “The Blizzard of 1993,” “The Superstorm,” all come to mind.

This storm was particularly special to me in that it really sparked my love of weather, and the wild/ severe side of Mother Nature. At the time, I was a 9 year old boy living in Auburn, Alabama. I remember it like it was yesterday, actually…

School was just finishing up for our spring break and my family was set to leave out of Auburn that night, heading north to Birmingham (about a 2 hour drive) before leaving out the next morning from the Birmingham International Airport en route to Dallas, TX for spring break. People at school had talked about snow arriving in Auburn later that night, but to be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to it. It’s MIGHTY hard to get it to snow in Auburn during the middle of the winter, but in the middle of March, well it’s almost unheard of.

I remember packing up the car that evening with a cold rain falling. Temperatures were in the middle 40s at that time, which is quite chilly for Auburn during the middle of March. We loaded the car up and were on our way. The drive was a wet one, however, about an hour into the trip, sleet began to mix in with the rain. This was so cool to me! Shortly thereafter, snow began to fall, and by the time we got into Birmingham, there was already 2 to 3 inches of snow on the ground, and falling heavily. I remember stepping out of the car at my grandparents condo, and feeling snow on the pavement. This was the first time I ever witnessed snow on a paved service…ha!

We went on into my grandparents house for a nice meal (one that only grandmother can cook), along with some snowcream. Mmmm….the snowcream was delicious! After dinner, we loaded back up into the car to stay the night with one of our friends, who was going to go to Dallas with us. An additional 4 inches of snow fell just while we were inside eating dinner (which is well above what Birmingham would see in an entire season on average). We finally made it through the snowpacked roads back to our friend’s house. Then something remarkable happened…I witnessed thunder and lightning with the heavy snow. This was so cool to me, and the snow rates increased to well over one inch per hour.

The next morning I awoke to a scene that I thought I would never be able to see in Alabama…16 inches of snow. It was a heavy, wet snow that covered everything. Needless to say, the power was off at our friend’s house, and the temperature inside the house was in the 40s! We were able to get the house warm, eventually, but ended up at a hotel with power down the street for the remainder of the week!

Needless to say, having always lived in Alabama, I didn’t necessarily have the proper snow clothes. That said, it didn’t stop me from getting out there and making snow forts, having snowball fights, and building a snowman. (I think I only had frost bite 10 or 11 times that week)!

The Blizzard of ‘93 is special to me for many reasons, however, after that storm, my love for weather (especially severe weather) was born! I immediately began doing weather research, and making my own forecasts in numerous notebooks (that I still have today)! It’s hard to imagine us ever seeing a storm like the Blizzard of ‘93 again in my lifetime, but I sure would enjoy the opportunity. This thing was like a winter hurricane. It brought a storm surge into the FL panhandle greater than some hurricanes; it spread accumulating snow from the western FL panhandle to Canada; it produced some wild tornadoes along the FL peninsula. Simply put, it was “the storm of the century…”