MLK Day 2024 Snowstorm
The Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2024 snowstorm was a winter storm that paralyzed Scott County and most of Tennessee on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. As much as seven inches of snow fell across Scott County, with some isolated higher amounts reported.
Background
The 2023-2024 winter season started mild and snowless across Tennessee. In early January, an Independent Herald weather forecast noted that a pattern change would be needed later in the month before the northern Cumberland Plateau region saw a chance of snow.
That pattern change was realized on Jan. 12, as a powerful storm system pulled colder air into much of the continental United States. That set the stage for the Tennessee winter storm three days later.
After two cold and sunny days, snow began to fall during the evening hours of Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024.
A Winter Storm Watch was issued by the National Weather Service during the early morning hours of Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. It was upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning during the early morning hours of Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. Initial forecasts called for three to five inches of snow.
The Storm
After two cold but sunny days on Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, snow began to fall in Scott County between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 14. Road conditions quickly deteriorated across the county.
Light snow continued to fall through the night. By the morning of Monday, Jan. 15, three to four inches of snow had accumulated across much of the area.
Thanks to pretreatment with brine by the TN Dept. of Transportation, state routes were in relatively good shape initially. However, continuing snowfall caused even the state routes to deteriorate.
After a lull in the storm on the morning of Monday, Jan. 15, snowfall resumed in the afternoon hours and additional accumulations occurred. The final accumulation total was between five and seven inches in most locations. The National Weather Service officially reported 5.6 inches in Oneida.
The snowstorm was Scott County’s largest since 7.5 inches of snow fell on March 12, 2022.
Although it was not part of the same snowstorm, a separate storm system dropped freezing rain and up to two inches of snow on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, before the roads had cleared from the snow three days earlier. Travel conditions became extremely hazardous as the freezing rain fell during the early nighttime hours. The rain quickly converted to snow, and off-and-on snow showers continued into Friday night. The National Weather Service reported 1.5 inches of snow in Oneida. The grand total between the two systems, as measured by the NWS, was 7.1 inches.
Cold Temperatures
Brutally cold temperatures settled in behind the departing storm system. The high temperature in Oneida was only 16° on Tuesday, Jan. 16. A low of -9° was reported at the Scott County Airport on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 17. That was the coldest temperature recorded in Scott County since Feb. 22, 2015.
A second wave of cold air arrived on Friday, Jan. 19. A low of -6° was reported at the airport on the morning of Sunday Jan. 21.
The Tennessee Valley Authority reported record power usage throughout the region, and urged consumers to limit power usage in order to avoid rolling blackouts.
The Aftermath
Local schools were already closed on Monday, Jan. 15, for the federal holiday. School closures continued for the remainder of the week. The Oneida Special School District announced on Tuesday, Jan. 16, that it would be closed for the remainder of the week, through Friday, Jan. 19. The Scott County School System closed day by day.
Tuesday, Jan. 16, marked just the second “snow day” for local school systems, which had also been closed on Friday, Jan. 12, due to high winds.
TDOT crews were able to clear most state routes in Scott County on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Only Paint Rock Road (S.R. 456) remained partially snow-covered at sunset on Jan. 16. It was cleared during the day on Wednesday, Jan. 17. All secondary routes and back roads remained snow-covered and slick on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
Temperatures fell below freezing during the early evening hours of Saturday, Jan. 13, and did not return to above freezing until Thursday, Jan. 18. Even then, they were only above freezing for a few hours, as another wave of cold air approached with a second storm system that resulted in light additional snow accumulations and freezing rain.
Schools remained closed on Monday, Jan. 22, and all secondary streets and back roads were still snow-covered and slick that morning. However, temperatures were expected to rise into the mid 40s during the day — the warmest temperatures experienced in the region in more than 10 days.
News Coverage: First winter storm in almost two years shuts down much of Scott County