Nashville weather is a mood. Honestly, if you've lived here for more than a week, you know the drill: parkas in the morning, t-shirts by noon, and maybe a flash flood warning just to keep things spicy. But looking at the latest news channel 5 nashville 7 day forecast, we aren't just looking at typical Tennessee fluctuations. We are looking at a brutal temperature roller coaster that’s going to catch a lot of people off guard.
It’s January 15, 2026. Right now, it’s 23°F outside in Davidson County, and the wind chill is making it feel like 15°F. You’re probably staring at your phone wondering if that "warmer" weekend everyone was promising is actually happening. Well, it is, but it’s coming with a catch.
The Mid-January Roller Coaster
Let's break down what the StormTrack 5 team is seeing for the next week. It’s not a pretty line on a graph; it’s more like a EKG.
Today, Thursday, stayed stubbornly cold with a high of only 32°F. Most of the day was overcast, grey, and frankly, a bit depressing. But Friday is where things get weird. We are jumping from a low of 23°F tonight all the way up to a high of 52°F by tomorrow afternoon. That’s a 30-degree swing in less than 24 hours.
But don't go planning a picnic at Centennial Park just yet.
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The news channel 5 nashville 7 day forecast shows that Friday’s warmth is fueled by a system bringing in moderate drizzle and rain. It’s that gross, humid-but-cold kind of rain that Nashville specializes in during the winter months. By Saturday, the "warmth" evaporates. We drop back down to a high of 38°F.
The rest of the week looks like this:
- Sunday: Overcast with a high of 33°F and a low of 21°F. It’s going to be a "stay inside and watch football" kind of day.
- Monday: Still freezing. 35°F high, 21°F low.
- Tuesday: We stay in the 30s.
- Wednesday: Finally, a bit of a thaw. We should hit the mid-40s, maybe even 46°F if the sun actually decides to show up.
Why the Forecast Feels Different This Year
There’s been some drama behind the scenes at WTVF that has nothing to do with the jet stream. If you’ve noticed the weather team looks a little different, you aren't imagining it. Bree Smith, a staple of the Nashville weather scene for nearly a decade, recently made headlines by filing a lawsuit against the station and jumping over to WSMV.
This leaves people like Katie Melvin and the rest of the StormTrack 5 crew to handle the heavy lifting during these winter volatility spikes. Melvin has been pretty vocal about the "Safe Places" program, which is huge for our area. When the news channel 5 nashville 7 day forecast mentions severe systems, that program connects folks with local county EMA shelters. It’s a literal lifesaver when the sirens start going off in the middle of the night.
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The Science of the "Nashville Squeeze"
Why does it jump from 20 to 50 degrees so fast? Basically, Nashville sits in a literal basin. We get warm, moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico hitting the cold, dry air pushed down from the Great Plains.
When those two meet over Middle Tennessee, you get the "Squeeze."
It creates that low-hanging cloud cover we’ve seen all day Thursday. It also means that our rain chances are almost always tied to these massive temperature swings. If you see the thermometer climbing in January, start looking for your umbrella.
What You Actually Need to Do
Seeing a forecast is one thing. Living it is another. With the lows hitting 19°F to 21°F over the next few nights, you’ve got to be smart about the basics.
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- Drip the faucets. I know, everyone says it, but people still forget. When we stay below freezing for 48+ hours, those pipes in the crawlspace don't care how new your house is.
- Check the "Storm Shield" App. Since News Channel 5 is a Scripps station, they use the Storm Shield technology. It’s better than the default weather app on your iPhone because it uses your exact GPS location for alerts rather than just the whole county. If a tornado warning is for the north side of the county and you're in the south, it won't scream at you unnecessarily.
- The "Good Drying" Days. If you’re like some of the local weather enthusiasts who track "drying days" for laundry or outdoor work, Wednesday is your only real shot this week. Everything else is either too cold for moisture to evaporate or just plain wet.
The news channel 5 nashville 7 day forecast is a reminder that winter in Tennessee isn't about snow—it’s about endurance. We aren't getting a blizzard; we’re getting a week of grey skies and bone-chilling dampness.
Keep your layers handy. Friday might feel like a "break" because of the 50-degree mark, but with the rain and the wind, it’s going to feel significantly colder. By Sunday, we are back in the deep freeze.
The best way to stay ahead is to keep the radar open on your phone. Those rain bands coming in Friday afternoon look like they’ll hit right around the evening commute, so expect I-24 and I-65 to be even more of a nightmare than usual.
Check your tire pressure tonight. These 30-degree drops cause the air in your tires to contract, and there is nothing more annoying than a "low pressure" light on a Friday morning when you're already running late. Stay warm, Nashville. It’s going to be a long week.
Keep your emergency kit in the car, including a real ice scraper and a blanket, because if Friday’s rain lingers into Saturday morning's 29°F drop, the bridges will be absolute glass.
Next Steps:
- Download the News Channel 5 weather app and enable "Location-Based Alerts" to avoid the "County-Wide" alarm fatigue.
- Check your home’s external vent covers tonight before the temperature drops back into the low 20s.
- Plan your commute for Friday afternoon to be at least 20 minutes earlier to avoid the rain-slicked rush hour on the loop.