This Easter morning to be among coldest ever

“We’re going to be in record territory, for sure,” said Jim Moser, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville.

Morning lows are expected to be in the low 20s for much of the state, including most of West Tennessee, Middle Tennessee and the lower elevations of East Tennessee.

Lows in the state?s mountainous areas and the Cumberland Plateau could dip into the teens and Memphis? low temperature was expected to hover around 30.

The coldest Easter in Nashville, which had a forecast Easter low of 22 degrees, came on March 24, 1940, when the morning temperature was 24 degrees.

This year, high temperatures in March were an average of 10 degrees above the month?s median of 61 degrees. Highs over the weekend were expected to be as much as 25 degrees lower than the average April high temperatures, Moser said.

The sudden shift in temperatures can be lethal for plants.

?At the stage we?re in, a temperature of 25-26 degrees will kill 90 percent of this year’s crop,? said Chuck McSpadden of Apple Valley Orchard in Bradley County in East Tennessee.