MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A year ago, Memphis and the entire Mid-South were starting a 4-day deep freeze that would set records leading up to Christmas.
Going into the week of Christmas in 2022, a strong arctic cold front was pushing through the United States. This would lead to record-breaking cold widespread across the country, including in the Mid-South.
On December 22nd, the cold front moved through West Tennessee. This would set the stage for the 4th largest temperature swing recorded ever in December for Memphis. While a high of 46° is not unheard of for this time of the year, temperatures plummeted by 41 to 5° by midnight.
There was some rain and even some wintry weather associated with this cold front, bringing light accumulations to the area.
A big part of this cold snap was the duration. Starting on that evening, Memphis would drop below freezing and remained below this mark for 86 hours straight.
On December 23rd, many woke up to wind chill values in the negative teens and actual temperatures near 0. Some communities in the northern Mid-South even saw negative-degree temperatures to start the day, this included some areas in the Memphis metro like Germantown that got down to -3°.
Highs would struggle to reach the teens with Memphis breaking a daily record by only reaching 14° in the afternoon.
Temperatures would very slowly warm over the next few days with Christmas Eve being the 3rd coldest on record with a high of 27°.
Christmas Day would finally see Memphis get above freezing after over 3 days with a high of 33° in the afternoon.
During this event, local infrastructure was pushed to its limit. TVA pushed rolling blackouts due to power demand. This left people in the dark and cold during this period. At its peak, MLGW said that about 226,000 customers were left without power. On top of that water pipes burst across the Mid-South. MLGW ended up issuing a 5-day-long boil water advisory due to issues with the system.
This year, things look quite different during this period. Highs look to be above average this time of the year ranging around 50 degrees above what we saw in 2022.
With it being winter, we can’t hold off cold weather forever though. Models have begun to trend toward a colder start to 2024 and this will be something we will watch going into the new year.
