Arctic air has blanketed Middle Tennessee and will stick around for the rest of the week with a reinforcing punch on Wednesday. Today reached 23° in Nashville this afternoon after dropping to 6° this morning. Crossville reached a new record low maximum at 18° this afternoon.
Frozen pond, Crofton, KY by Jerry Wicks
There were a few flurries this morning in some spots, like Big Sandy. Cookeville also reported a dusting.
Tonight the big concern is the combination of low temperatures and wind. A Wind Chill Advisory is in effect from 9pm until Noon Tuesday. Tonight will be the coldest night this season dipping down to 4 with bitterly cold wind chills well below zero.
Tomorrow the sun returns but it will only warm to the mid 20s. The winds do die down during the afternoon that will keep it from feeling so bitterly cold.
Plan on cold and dry weather the rest of the week. Again tomorrow night the low will fall to the single digits. The high Wednesday should creep above freezing, but another front will sweep through leaving Thursday even colder again in the mid 20s. Friday will be the same.
The weekend will be slightly warmer with some rain returning late Sunday.
By the way tonight is the first full moon of the year. It is also the supermoon. It will appear as the brightest and largest supermoon of the year. The supermoon is a full moon occurring near or at the time when the Moon is at its closest point in its orbit around Earth. So as Holly Spann said on my Facebook page, It’s the Happy “Super Full Moon” New Year”.
Come join me at 10pm on News 4 for an update.
Lisa Spencer
We had the third coldest New Year’s Day in Nashville and the coldest since 1977. The all-time record occurred 90 years ago, when the high temperature was only 8 degrees.
Coldest January 1 in Nashville:
Daily maximum Daily minimum Daily mean
1. 8 1928 0 1977 5 1928
2. 22 1977 2 1928 11 1977
3. 23 2018 & 1968 6 2018 14.5 2018
A trace of snow fell for the first time since 2008. Oddly, snowfall for the New Year’s is even more elusive than on Christmas, in Nashville. Measurable precipitation was recorded only six times, the last time in 2001, when 0.7 inches fell, second-most for the date. The heaviest snowfall occurred back in 1964, when 4.4″ was recorded. Cold Christmas and downright frigid New Year’s of 2017-18 are in stark contrast to the previous season when the high temperatures were 76 (highest ever) and 55, respectively.