St. Patrick's Day Snowstorm


The St. Patrick's Day Snowstorm was a powerful winter storm that hit the Southeastern United States in mid-March 1892, with the heaviest snowfalls occurring in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Mid-State region. The event was atypical for this humid subtropical climate. Some portions of Middle Tennessee received record accumulation of up to of snow.

Average climate

The average high temperature in Nashville during the month of March is. The average snowfall is only in the latter half of the month. On St. Patrick's Day, the average temperature in Nashville is with negligible average snowfall.

Winter of 1891–92

The winter of 1891–92 featured very little snowfall in Tennessee, only recorded in Nashville through March 14. The temperature reached into the 60s during several days that March, and even into the 70s on March 4. But a powerful cold front swept into Middle Tennessee in mid-March, dropping the temperature from on March 13 to only on March 14.
Much of the Southeastern United States plummeted into the teens from Arkansas to Alabama. On March 15, 1892, Nashville received of snow, most of which melted by the following day.

Storm details

On March 16 around 6:00 pm, snow began falling in Nashville with little accumulating by midnight. By the afternoon of March 17, St. Patrick's Day, the city had been inundated with of snow. Northeast of Nashville, Riddleton, Tennessee, was besieged by over the two-day period.
In Nashville, morning trains were delayed while streetcars were unable to function. A freight train traveling from Chattanooga to Nashville partially derailed when it collided with a train engine near Murfreesboro. Temperatures hovered between and that day.

Outside of Middle Tennessee

received of snow while Mount Carmel, Illinois, received. Even Atlanta, Georgia, received of snow with accumulation measured as far south as Mobile, Alabama, and as far west as San Antonio, Texas. The surface storm moved along the Gulf Coast before dying out, only to regain power as it traveled up the Eastern Seaboard, dropping of snow over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States.

Records established

The St. Patrick's Day Snowstorm also ranks as the second-deepest snow in Nashville history, only topped by the 22.8-inch snow that fell over a 48-hour period in February 1886. Only two other snowfalls in Nashville have ever exceeded ; a 15-inch snow in February 1929 and a 10.2-inch snow that concluded on New Year's Day of 1964.