My family and I moved to Spring Hill in October 2021 from the Northeast, so we’ve had a full year to better understand the seasonal weather patterns that exist here in the South.
In this post, I’ll break down the different seasons in Spring Hill, TN and give you a better understanding of what you can expect if you move here. The purpose of this post is to show the seasonal differences vs. talking about the forecast for the next week to ten days. I want to give you a high-level understanding.
I will lean on objective data sources as much as possible, but will share a few anecdotal stories to help you get up to speed.
The weather in Spring Hill, TN (the quick overview)
Here’s the long story short of what you need to know about the seasonal weather in Spring Hill.
- Winters are mild, with very little snowfall
- Spring is epic
- Summer is hot and humid, keep the AC turned on (end of May – mid-September)
- The weather can change quickly
- When it rains, it pours
- Fall is awesome
- Occasional tornado warnings
- Great sunsets on a regular basis
What’s Spring like in Spring Hill?
Let’s start off with Spring, my favorite season. Compared to the Northeast, Spring arrives at least one month earlier, which is great. Everything starts to bloom right around the third week of March. I’m a huge fan of Spring in Tennessee. I can’t think of a better place to be.
You can see in the image below that the average temperature rises pretty nicely in March (approximately 10 degrees, which is pretty massive). While it’s not Summer yet, the weather can be described as crisp and cool.
You can also see the probability of rain grows in March, but not by too much. It’s pretty typical to experience rain showers. Historically, the months with the highest amount of accumulation are May – July.
Summer. How hot does it get?
I spent my first Summer in TN this year and I was surprised as how tolerable it was. As someone who spent most of my life in the Northeast I was dreading the heat. In general, I strongly dislike heat. I would always complain about hot days in the Northeast.
1. Your house should be an escape
It turns out, what I disliked about heat was not having a place to escape to. For example, in the Northeast very few people have central cooling (AC) in their house. Instead, we put in window AC units, which don’t really work that well. As a result, the house is always hot and you have no escape. As someone who worked from home, it was no fun to sit in a hot room in my house trying to get work done in the middle of the Summer.
Here in Tennessee, central air is a game-changer. I never fall asleep uncomfortable. It’s easy to work from home. I’m always able to focus. Having a place to escape is a big deal. To be honest, Summer is easy when you have central AC!
2. Lots of people have pools, use them!
In addition, many neighborhoods have pools, which makes it easy to cool off in the middle of the Summer. Just watch out for the traffic in town. It’s not a lake in Maine, but it works!
3. You will still sweat
When you get outside, you will also sweat, so prepare yourself accordingly. My wife and I have two children under the age of 3. The heat impacts the activities you want to do with them. For example, you won’t want to be outside for long periods of time between 11am-3pm. It gets hot! Naturally, I get ice cream on the regular.
With that being said, it’s tolerable. Everywhere you visit has air conditioning, so that’s nice!
4. Consider getting away for a bit in July/August
A lot of locals will leave during the Summer and visit the beach (oddly, a lot of people go to Florida). This is another coping strategy when it gets hot. My family and I went to Maine for a couple weeks in August to visit family. This strategy is another useful strategy for long, hot Summers in the South 🙂
What is Fall like in Spring Hill?
September is still pretty warm. October things start to cool down, but you won’t need to wear a coat until Halloween or so. For example, I found this photo of my son from the middle of November. Here’s wearing a raincoat and you can see the leaves falling behind him.
Compared to the Northeast, Fall happens at least a month later. In Maine (where I used to live), the leaves changed in the middle of September. Here in Spring Hill, everything happens around Halloween.
Overall, the shoulder seasons end up going much longer than other parts of the county, which I love.
Winter in Spring Hill. How cold does it get?
Compared to the Northeast, Winters in TN are a piece of cake. Things start getting cold in January and run until early March. You can see the highs and lows for temperature in Spring Hill below:
I would take my dogs for a walk every morning for almost an hour. I rarely had to deal with snow on the sidewalks. I would wear a Winter coat, gloves, and a hat to stay warm.
I found the colder weather (sometimes in the low 20s) to be refreshing. Make no mistake, it can be cold in the morning, but I really enjoyed it compared to the 6″+ snowstorms in the Northeast 😉
Does it snow a lot?
You should expect 2-3 snowstorms, with accumulation anywhere from 1-4″. The snow melts pretty quickly though.
Unlike the Northeast, everything shuts down when it snows in Spring Hill. This is because the city doesn’t have plow/sanding trucks and other infrastructure to clean things up. The roads get sketchy. You may as well wait for it to melt. The local schools will almost always shut down when it snows.
Additionally, the windy/skinny roads can be REALLY sketchy to drive on. I have a lot of experience driving in the snow, but I don’t mess around down here, even with my all-wheel drive Subaru. Roads can also ice over quickly. In conclusion, you may as well wait it out. Buy your milk and bread and feast as you wait for civilization to re-open.
In conclusion
I’m really enjoying the weather down here. It’s much more tolerable compared to the Northeast, especially when I don’t sweat in my own house.
Sure, I’d love if the Summers were less hot, but I’ll take the extended shoulder seasons any day of the week. My favorite seasons here are Spring and Fall. Come visit! You will see what I’m talking about.
In a future post, I’ll share how the weather impacts your utility bill and what you can expect here when it comes to heating/cooling costs.