Description

Hi All,

The main weather stories in Tennessee for August 2026 included a strong heat wave that impacted the state in the middle of the month, and severe storms that caused a major power outage in the Memphis area, as well as a derecho event that impacted the northeast corner of the state.

The first event to impact Tennessee this month was the derecho on August 11, which moved through the northeast corner of Tennessee and produced some tree and powerline damage. The following week a heat wave impacted the state bringing high temperatures across the state, with 11 weather stations reaching triple-digit heat, and many others climbing into the upper 90’s. Then on Saturday, August 22 a severe thunderstorm with a bow echo (curved line of storms capable of producing damaging straight-line winds) moved through the Memphis area with winds of 60-80mph. This produced widespread tree and powerline damage across the region, with over 120,000 customers without power in Shelby County alone. Memphis Light Gas & Water said that this was the 7th most damaging storm in the company’s history.

August brought above normal temperatures across almost all of Tennessee, with most areas of the state recording temperatures that were 1-4°F above the 1991-2020 climate normals for the month. There was a mix of above and below normal precipitation, with most areas of West and Middle Tennessee recording below normal rainfall while most of East Tennessee had above normal rainfall.   September has started off hot and dry with many parts of the state moving back into abnormally dry or drought conditions. Hopefully we'll see some cooler weather soon as we move towards fall and leaf-peeping season.

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

[email protected]

facebook.com/TN.

Climate instagram: @tn_climate

Publication Date

8-2026

Download

Share

COinS