by Cameron Boros ’25
March 2024
The author is a leader of the Sunrise USN club.
On Monday January 15, many Nashvillians braced for colder weather and snowfall, what many were not expecting however was the amount of snow the city received. In a single day, the city received 6.3 inches of snow, compared to the 4.7 inches the city sees annually. Roads were iced, people were snowed in and schools were canceled. By Wednesday Metro Nashville Public Schools had canceled classes for the entire week, and USN began sending out phone calls canceling school on each day of the week.
Although many students report enjoying the snow days such as Henry Gatto ‘25 who reported, “I enjoyed the snow days, I feel like school could’ve definitely started back up again and I was a little bummed about Homecoming being moved.”
Others expressed frustration at the city and schools responses to the weather.
“I didn’t like how the communication was bad” reported Ophelia Cherry-Pulay ‘25. “I know the teachers found out the same time we did but I didn’t know what work I was expected to do. I also did not like how we still had to do the Civil Rights project.”
Other students stated outright contempt with the extended cancellation. “It’s completely unacceptable,” begins Stewart Hall (‘25). “Like, six inches of snow come down and we miss an entire week of school? We’ve got to do better.”
While many were enjoying the break from school, other Tennesseans were experiencing more adverse effects of the storm. By January 19, the Tennessee Department of Health reported that 19 people died due to these winter storms. This came shortly after six deaths due to the December tornado outbreak, at least two of which happened in Davidson County. Although Nashville is a landlocked city and far from the very worst effects of climate change, the overwhelming consensus among students interviewed was that they felt the weather becoming more and more unpredictable.
“It gets worse every year” said Binyam Dunne ‘26. “Seeing the way that current trends are going without a solution coming, this is something that we should be much more prepared for going forward.
It has been estimated that climate change has made “hundred year storms,” storms that have a one percent chance of occurring in any given year, four times more likely in Tennessee. It has changed the weather in ways that many people would not expect, like making the average hour with rainfall 12.5% wetter. This means the risk of flooding increases which, combined with hotter summers and snowstorms, create a plethora of issues for Nashvillians and the economy of the city.
“I do think it will come to a point soon where we’re going to have to figure some things out because otherwise we’re going to be missing too much school because of snow,” said Gidgie Bass ‘24. Bass’ comments, and those of many others, express a frustrating reality: Nashville will have to adapt to harsh weather extremes. 2023 was the hottest year on record for the city and the following winter brought deadly winter storms that altered the lives of most of its residents, even if only for a few days. The uncomfortable truth is that climate change is not something that only exists in news headlines and social media feeds but something that alters the course of our lives and changes the world we live in. The question we must ask ourselves is how we plan on adapting to this world before it’s too late.
