Recap of the March 4-5, 2015 #MemSnow Winter Storm

A major late season winter storm, the last in a long string of winter weather events that started in mid-February, dropped significant amounts of sleet Wednesday evening before changing to snow Wednesday night. By the time most folks woke up Thursday morning, the Mid-South had become a winter wonderland with 2-6" of snow on top of about 1/2"-1" of sleet.

In it's wake, #StupidCold Arctic air pushed in once again. Temps remained in the 20s to near 30 Thursday, though afternoon sun started to help interstates improve. However, temperatures plummeted this morning, setting daily low temperature records and threatening all-time March cold weather readings. Primary roads should improve this afternoon as the mercury climbs above freezing with abundant sun. Secondary roads and side streets, as well as shaded roads, will take another couple days to fully melt. Spring is just around the corner though, as temperatures recover into the 40s Saturday, 50s Sunday, and 60s next week with no hints of any frozen precipitation in the forecast! Hallelujah!

A few graphics that sum up the event:

Coldest temps ever recorded in Memphis in March.  This morning's official low of 15 will tie for #4.

Top 10 single day snowfalls in March. Memphis officially recorded 3.1" on Thursday, putting it at #8.

Preliminary graphic from NWS Memphis with snow/sleet totals across the Mid-South. Memphis Int'l ended up at 3.6" total, the Agricenter had 4.1", and MWN in Bartlett received 4.0".

With the widespread heavy snow, the snow counter, which counts days since last 1" snow reading, it officially retired!

Snow cover can be easily seen in this morning's visible satellite image. The only clouds are in the bottom right of the image, while the rest of the "white" is snow. It's neat to be able to pick out rivers/tributaries in the midst of the snow!

U.S. snow cover as of this morning. A huge swath of snow blankets many southern states as meteorological spring begins!

WMC-TV put together a nice recap of pics and social media posts on the storm shown below. Check out some of the cool snowmen! You can also scroll our timeline on Facebook and Twitter for lots of pics and facts.

Here's to the REAL start of spring!

Erik Proseus
MWN Meteorologist

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