December 20-28, 1926 was one of the wettest periods in Nashville's history. During that stretch, 10.38 inches of rainfall were measured¹, making December, 1926 the rainiest December on record. The result, known as the "Great Flood of 1927," was the most severe to hit the city since 1793.

Shelby Park was transformed into a lake as the Cumberland River crested at Nashville on January 1, 1927 at 56.2 feet -- a remarkable 16.2 feet above flood stage. Before the water receded, the Cumberland River had at one point enlarged to three miles wide. Two persons were killed, 10,400 were left homeless, and business losses escalated into the millions of dollars. The Ryman Auditorium was pressed into use as a shelter, along with two National Guard armories and an American Legion post.

Mail for Old Hickory had to be delivered by airplane. One young man, whose Old Hickory girlfriend lived a half-mile across the river, had to drive 110 miles around the flooded area to get to her. Water reached as far inland as Third Avenue, so many stores had to be evacuated. Two steamboats along what is now Riverfront Park floated onto First Avenue, close to buildings and utility poles. With 60 square blocks under water, prostitutes in one house in the red light district fled to the attic. Grocery shopping in some cases was done Venetian style -- by rowboat.

Former Tennessean feature writer Max York recounted the disaster with these details and more in a May 16, 1971 article in the newspaper's magazine section. One photo published then showed the Cumberland within inches of the awning above the entry door for the C.B. Ragland & Co. building, a wholesale grocery on Second Avenue. Another depicted a pile of rubble from the collapsed American Steam Feed Co. building on the same street.

A series of dams built since those years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including Old Hickory Dam (1954) on the Cumberland and Percy Priest Dam (1966) on Stones River, provide river control to make such flooding almost completely preventable.

The Great Flood of 1927 ranks as Nashville's second greatest flood of record. Pioneer records detailing spots reached by the 1793 flood indicate it crested at what would have been a river stage of 58.5 feet.

Most of the information in this summary (including the introductory photograph) was taken from an article by George Zepp, which appeared in The Tennessean on September 25, 2002.

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¹ With 10.38 inches of precipitation, December 20-28, 1926 is the second-wettest nine-day period in Nashville's history. Between April 29 and May 7, 1984, 10.64 inches were recorded.

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¹ National Weather Service. Nashville Monthly Snowfall Table.
² National Weather Service. Monthly Climate Summary for Nashville, Tennessee for March, 1892.
³ The Beautiful Snow. Nashville Banner. March 17, 1892.
⁴ O'Donnell, Red. Nashvillians made light of 16-inch snow in '92. Nashville Banner. March 16, 1982.
⁵ National Weather Service. One-Day Snowfall Totals of at Least 6" at Nashville.

The Middle Tennessee Cold Front of January 23, 1963

Cold fronts are given that name because they usually introduce a colder air mass into areas through which they pass. But middle Tennesseans have never experienced a cold front quite like the one which plowed through the mid state on January 23, 1963.

Meteorological records from middle Tennessee's cooperative observer network show that temperatures were rather mild before the dramatic frontal passage, with the thermometer peaking in the 40's and 50's at most locations. Kingston Springs' was the cold spot, with a maximum temperature of 38 degrees, and Pulaski was the warmest at 63. Nashville registered a more typical 48 degrees.

The cold front brought snow to the region as temperatures went into a free-fall. Six-plus inches of snow were measured along a corridor which extended from Kingston Springs (southern Cheatham County) northeastward through the Nashville metropolitan area, and into Kentucky. Lafayette recorded the most snowfall -- 6½ inches. Nashville measured 6.2 inches. Lesser amounts occurred at other mid state locations, primarily north of Interstate 40, while stations near the Alabama border received no snowfall.

But the big story was not the snow, but the nasty drop in temperatures. By the next morning, the thermometer read several degrees below zero, with Kingston Springs establishing a middle Tennessee record of -30 degrees. Several other stations reported low temperatures on the morning of January 20 of -20 degrees or colder, and Nashville checked in at -15 degrees. Locations nearer the Alabama state line were mainly in the single digits below zero.

The overall temperature drop during the initial few hours following the cold frontal passage is amazing. Waverly, which had enjoyed a pleasant 54 degrees on January 23, saw it's temperature drop an astonishing 80 degrees before hitting bottom at -26 degrees on the morning of January 24. Other temperature drops are as follows: Cheatham Lock & Dam, 79 degrees; Centerville and Dover, 74; Linden, 73; Portland, 72; Celina and Springfield, 71; Dickson, 70. Nashville's 63 degree drop is a record for that city.

Strange cylinder of fire

(From Symon's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, 1869)

Out in Cheatham County about noon on Wednesday -- a remarkably hot day -- on the farm of Ed. Sharp, five miles from Ashland, a sort of whirlwind came along over the neighbouring woods, taking up small branches and leaves of trees and buring them in a sort of flaming cylinder that traveled at a rate of about five miles an hour, developing size as it traveled. It seemed to increase in heat as it went, and by the time it reached the house it immediately fired the shingles from end to end of the building, so that in ten minutes the whole dwelling was wrapped in flames.

The tall column of traveling caloric then continued its course over a wheat field that had been recently cradled, setting fire to all the stacks that happened to be in its course.

Passing from the field, its path lay over a stretch of woods which reached the river. The green leaves on the trees were crisped to a cinder for a breadth of 20 yards, in a straight line to the Cumberland.

When the "pillar of fire" reached the water, it suddenly changed its route down the river, raising a column of steam which went up to the clouds for about half-a-mile, when it finally died out.

Not less than 200 people witnessed this strangest of strange phenomena, and all of them tell substantially the same story about it.