What were the biggest snowstorms in Memphis? See how many inches
For the third January in a row, Mother Nature is getting ready to throw a huge snowball in Memphis’ face.
More than 3 inches of snow is expected to fall in Memphis, along with sleet and freezing rain, between Friday, Jan. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 25, according to forecasters.
Such snowfall represents not only a repeat of winter, but also a trend: It marks January, the month of worsening winter weather for the third consecutive year following storms. January 15, 2024And January 10, 2025.
3.4 inches of snow was measured at Memphis International Airport in 2024, while up to 6 inches of snow were reported in some areas.
Meanwhile, the 2025 storm dropped 7.5 inches of snow, according to the airport.
These events were devastating and cold, but they don’t even make the Memphis Snow Top 10.
The largest “snow event” of the modern era occurred on March 21-23, 1968, when unexpected early spring snowfall dropped 17.3 inches on the Bluff City. In the middle of some of the most active days of the city’s sanitation workers’ strike, the cold weather set in and Dr. It caused the cancellation of the March 22 march that Martin Luther King Jr. organized in support of the strikers.
WINTER WEATHER IN MEMPHIS: A winter storm watch has begun in Memphis. Will we see snow this weekend?
But even 17.3 inches wasn’t a record, according to the National Weather Service (which traces its origins to 1870, when the first U.S. weather bureau was established by President Ulysses S. Grant).
So put on your boots or snowshoes and get ready to wade through some history and data. Here is the official list of the Top 10 Memphis Snowfalls:
Record snowfall in Memphis
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18 inches, 17 March 1892
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17.3 inches, 21-23 March 1968
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14.3 inches, December 22, 1963
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11.8 inches, January 16, 1948
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8.5 inches, 7-8 December 1917
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8.1 inches, January 3, 1985.
This article was first published in the Memphis Business Appeal: How many record inches of snow are there in Memphis? take a look
