OLD HICKORY, Tenn. (WKRN) – Snow is back in the forecast this weekend. This will make Middle Tennessee’s third round so far in January. So, will that be changing the average for yearly snowfall in Nashville?

We have already had 7.9″ of snow so far this season, and that’s 3.2″ above the yearly average of 4.7″ – and we have a whole winter to go! The National Weather Service’s Krissy Hurley explained how they measure the average, and whether this year may or may not affect those averages.

“The way we measure average yearly snowfall totals is we take the last thirty years and we average out each winter season,” Hurley said. “Now, we update this thirty-year average every decade. So the last time we updated this number was in 2021.”

The interesting thing is that when they subtracted out the “snowy” 1980s, the average went down from 6.3″ to 4.7″. But this year will not necessarily make that average go back up again.

“Now, just because we’ve had a few winter weather events this year, does not mean that our yearly snowfall average will significantly increase,” Hurley explained. “Now, in this decade if we get several years that we get big-time snow systems moving in, then our average yearly snowfall average will increase.”

So, only time will tell. But the trend has been going down for the last two thirty-year averages, from 6.3″ (1981-2010) to 4.7″ (1991-2020). The average since 1871 (when records began in Nashville) is 8.1″, so we have definitely seen a decrease since then.