Nashville –or Tennessee in general– has some of the worst weather in the US, and very few people (outside of TN) ever talk about this.

First things first: This post may be uncontroversial to people who live in or near Tennessee. It may also seem trite if you dont know the reputation Nashville has in most of the US, as a "sunbelt" city.

Basically, Nashville has the worst of both worlds of the midwest and south, without the benefits (milder summers in the midwest, milder winters in the south) of either.

You get the summers of the south: suffocating, humid, hot. 90+ afternoons every day for weeks on end. nights that dont get cool enough for you to ever really cool off. big mosquitos. whole nine yards.

You get the winters of the southern midwest (STL, Indianapolis, southern Ohio). Bitter cold, snow, ice. And not just a little bit of snow or ice.. we're talking enough that you need to shovel your driveway to get out and scrape your cars. I've visited Nashville 6 times in the last 2 years (work), 3 of those times during the winter, and there was a substantial amount of snow on the ground every time. I've never seen that kind of thing in winters in Charlotte or Atlanta.

Most of the south gets spared from the "arctic blasts" that hit the midwest (and northeast) in the winters, but not Tennessee. There's one of them right now. for the next week, Nashville's temps are a full 10 degrees colder than Atlanta. Nashville has the same record low as St. Louis, at -18º. Charlotte's record low is -5. Both Atlanta and Richmond VA's record lows are -8. Even Washington, DC hasnt quite reached that record, despite getting close, at -15.

Conversely, most of the midwest gets spared from the Gulf of Mexico's weather systems, but not Tennessee. Hurricanes may not score direct hits (actually sometimes they do), but everything else about them, like the torrential rain and flooding, still affects Tennessee, with Hurricane Helene being a particularly bad example.

There may be only one or two major cities that have a similar worst-of-both-worlds situation. I think Dallas is one of them. But i cant think of many.