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Hi All,

The main weather and climate story for May 2026 across Tennessee was the weather whiplash that many experienced with severe and extreme drought conditions giving way to flash flooding later in the month. Additionally, many saw large and rapid temperature swings with two strong blasts of cold air sending temperatures into the 30’s or low 40’s for many early in the month and again on May 14-15. Followed by a heat wave that brought an early taste of summer to the state from May 16-21. The Bristol/Tri-Cities airport experienced a 2-day span between freezing temperatures and 90-degree heat - the shortest time between the last freeze and the first 90-degree day in the station’s history, smashing the previous record of 12-days from 2002.

Coming into May, over 80% of Tennessee was in Severe Drought (D2) or Extreme Drought (D3). Heavy rainfall along the southern border of the state in the first week of May helped to reduce the coverage of D2 and D3 to around 45% on the map for May 26. However, this rainfall also set the stage for flash flooding issues across the state as scattered, slow moving or training storms produced very heavy localized rainfall over short periods of time.

A persistent storm hit northern Cocke County and parts of Greene County in East Tennessee in the early morning hours of May 28 and led to a narrow band of 3-4-inches of precipitation and some localized reports of up to 5+ inches of rainfall over a few hours. This created flash flooding on smaller streams in the area and stranded several people, leading to multiple swift water rescues. More localized flash floods occurred on May 30 as slow moving storms produced 3-6 inches of rain in some spots in just a few hours. Areas in Anderson, Cocke, Greene, and Loudon counties were most impacted by this round of flash floods.

Check out the attached report and snapshots for more info!

Andrew & Wil

Tennessee Climate Office

East Tennessee State University

Department of Geosciences

310 Ross Hall Johnson City, TN 37614

www.etsu.edu/tn-climate

tnclimate@etsu.edu

facebook.com/TN.Climate

instagram: @tn_climate

Publication Date

5-2026

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