Tennessee weather in 2023 was defined by winter heat, destructive winds and drought

In 2023, the year started hot and it ended as Nashville’s hottest year on record.

January was more than 7 degrees warmer than normal, and February was nearly 8 degrees warmer. The months were part of Nashville’s third-warmest winter on record, despite an Arctic freeze in December 2022. This caused the city’s earliest spring bloom of lilac and honeysuckle on record. 

Nashville hit 85 degrees on Feb. 23, the earliest in the calendar year to reach that temperature and 17 days earlier than the previous record. 

“That’s a very high temperature for the dead of winter,” said state climatologist Andrew Joyner. 

Spring and summer had fairly average temperatures. September was 1.5 degrees warmer, October was 2.2 degrees warmer and November was 2.5 degrees warmer than the most recent 30-year climate normal, according to the National Weather Service.

In December, the average temperature was 3.3 degrees warmer than normal, and the average temperature for the year was 62.9 degrees, up from the previous record in 2016. 

Six of the past 10 years have been Nashville’s hottest on record, and eight have been in the top 12. 

Courtesy National Weather Service

Nashville had its hottest year on record in 2023, based on the annual average temperature.

Earth’s hottest year and Tennessee’s role in it

While cities and regions face varying extremes, Earth on the whole is getting hotter because of the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and agriculture.

Last year, world leaders gathered in the United Arab Emirates for a United Nations climate change conference that culminated with a vague promise to “transition away” from fossil fuels. There were 2,456 fossil fuel representatives in attendance.

In Tennessee, the federal utility that provides nearly all electricity in the state, the Tennessee Valley Authority, announced plans for more methane gas plants and about 150 miles of new pipeline last year — TVA has the largest fossil fuel expansion planned this decade out of all utilities in the nation. The state legislature passed a law to legally define fracked, methane gas as “clean energy,” even though the extraction, transport and burning of gas is one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis. Gas is the largest source of electricity in the U.S.

More: Tracking Tennessee’s fossil fuel expansion in 2023 — and a few climate wins | WPLN News

2023 was also the hottest year ever recorded for Earth. The average surface temperature of the world’s oceans was also the hottest ever recorded. The World Meteorological Organization estimates that the 2023-2027 period will almost certainly be the warmest five-year period ever recorded.

Nashville got 39 inches of rain 

Nashville was also very dry last year. The city got a total of 39 inches of rain in 2023, about 11 inches lower than average. NWS says this was the first time since 2007 that the city did not receive at least 40 inches of rain. The lowest annual rainfall recorded was 30 inches in 1987. 

The fall months were the third-driest on record and the driest since 1953. The August-December period was the driest since 1980 with only about 11 inches of rainfall. 

Nashville is going to finish 2023 with 39.06" of rainfall, which is 11.45" below normal. It's the first time since 2007 that we failed to reach 40". Since August 1, we have measured just 10.89" — the driest August-to-December period since 1980.

— NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) December 31, 2023

In Memphis, the Mississippi River hit a new record low water mark of -11.85 feet below the average river level on Oct. 16. That beat the 2022 record of -10.8 feet. 

“A huge part of the U.S. economy is dependent on the Mississippi River,” Joyner said. “I would say that’s one of the bigger concerns I would have for the next couple of decades.” 

Tennessee has a record number of billion-dollar disasters 

In August, the state had the highest amount of severe thunderstorm reports, at 164, on record. Tennessee was also affected by a record ten $1 billion disasters in 2023 — all 10 were “severe storms,” which includes straight-line winds, tornadoes and hail. 

“Straight-line winds can be as damaging as low-end tornadoes,” Sam Herron, a NWS meteorologist told WPLN earlier this year. 

The state ended the year with a deadly tornado outbreak. 2023 was Tennessee’s seventh-deadliest for tornadoes.