Description

Hi All,

The main weather and climate stories of September 2025 for Tennessee were the hot and dry conditions in West Tennessee that led to rapid drought expansion. While the month started out cool, warmer than normal conditions built back into the state from west to east in the second and third weeks of September. Daytime temperatures were especially high, with many locations in the western half of the state seeing high temperatures that were 5-15°F warmer than normal for this time of the year. This combined with a lack of rainfall over the summer season led to rapid drought onset and expansion in western parts of the state.

For many weather stations in West Tennessee, northern Middle Tennessee, and the northern Cumberland Plateau rains cut off in late June and for the 3-month period from June 21 to September 21 they recorded one of the top driest summers on record. This 3-month time period in 2025 was the driest on record compared to the same dates in other years for the Jackson and Clarksville airport stations and 2nd driest for the Memphis airport weather station.

A combination of drought and localized areas of heavy rainfall led to deteriorating crop conditions. For example, cotton conditions worsened over the month of September with 37% of the crop reported in poor or very poor condition compared to only 12% at the end of August. 31% of the cotton crop was reported in good or excellent condition, which was much less than the 48% of the crop in good or excellent condition at the end of August. This is likely due to the heavy rains that were reported in western and southern portions of the state after bolls had opened.

Many parts of the state are starting to see fall colors arrive, with the highest elevations in East Tennessee already at or past their peak color times. Dry conditions in some parts of the state have resulted in dull leaf colors and early leaf drop, but vibrant colors are starting to be seen in many locations above 2000 feet.

We hope you are all enjoying the arrival of fall!

Andrew & Wil

Tennessee Climate Office
East Tennessee State University
Department of Geosciences
310 Ross Hall
Johnson City, TN 37614

Publication Date

9-2025

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