Memphis tourist information

The Memphis area was first settled by the Mississippian Culture and then by the Chickasaw indian tribe. European exploration came years later, with Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto believed to have visited what is now the Memphis area as early as the 1540s. By the 1680s, French explorers led by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle built Fort Prudhomme in the vicinity, the first European settlement in what would become Memphis, predating English settlements in East Tennessee by more than 70 years.

Despite such early outposts, the land comprising present-day Memphis remained in a largely unorganized territory throughout most of the 18th century, while the boundaries of what would become Tennessee continued to evolve from its parent — the Carolina Colony, later North Carolina and South Carolina. By 1796, the community was the westernmost point of the newly admitted state of Tennessee.

Egyptian Influence
Memphis was founded in 1819 and incorporated as a city in 1826, taking its name from the ancient capital of Egypt. At the conclusion of the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862 during the American Civil War, Union forces captured Memphis from Confederate control. Yellow fever epidemics in the 1870s (1873,1878,1879) devastated the population for many years thereafter. As a result, in 1879, Memphis lost its city charter, and until 1893, was a Nashville taxing district. In 1897, Memphis' pyramid-shaped pavilion was a conspicuous part of the Tennessee Centennial exposition. From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a hotbed of machine politics under the direction of E. H. "Boss" Crump. The city was at the center of civil rights issues during the 1960's, notably as the location of a sanitation workers' strike. Memphis is also known as the place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel.

B.B. King, Muddy Waters
Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the American south, including musical and culinary offerings. Many notable blues musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern Mississippi, and performed there regularly from the early 1900's onward. These included such musical greats as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf. The first African American formatted radio station, WDIA, was founded in the city in 1947 by Bert Ferguson and John Pepper, and included a young B.B. King as disc jockey. B.B. King's moniker was derived from his WDIA nickname 'Beale Street Blues Boy', a reference to Memphis' Beale Street on which many nightclubs and blues venues were located.

Barbeque
In addition to a rich musical heritage, Memphis also boasts a long culinary legacy dominated by regional barbeque. Memphis barbeque is rendered distinct by its sole usage of pork (as opposed to beef), focus on rib and shoulder cuts of meat, and multiple locally-owned barbeque restaurants. Celebration of this local dish reaches its climax each year in May, when the Memphis in May Festival holds its annual international Memphis in May Barbeque Cookoff.

Weather

Memphis has a mid-latitude temperate climate, with four distinct seasons. The summer months (late May to late September) are persistently hot (between 68 °F [20 °C] and 95 °F [35 °C]) and humid due to moisture encroaching from the Gulf of Mexico. Afternoon thunderstorms are frequent during some summers, but usually brief, lasting no longer than an hour. Autumns are pleasantly drier and mild, with abrupt but short-lived cold snaps, which become increasingly frequent as the season progresses. Fall foliage becomes especially vibrant after the first frost, typically November, and lasts until early December.

Temperature - Yearly Average

Winters
Winters often begin abruptly and are characterized by periods of subfreezing (less than 32 °F [0 °C]) weather, interspersed with milder spells. Colder subfreezing periods are usually short-lived (2 to 3 days), but have lasted as long as several weeks during more severe winters, though temperatures typically remain above (10 °F [-12 °C]). The official all-time record low temperature was -13.0 °F (-25.0 °C), which occurred on December 24, 1963. Mild spells are sometimes warm with temperatures as high as 70 °F (21 °C) during January and February.

Snow is rare but does occur annually, with an annual average of 5.7 inches (14.4 cm) at the airport.

Spring
Spring often begins in late February or early March, following the onset of a sharp warmup. This season is also known as "severe weather season" due to the higher frequency of tornadoes, hail, and thunderstorms producing winds greater than 58 mph (93 km/h). Average rainfall is slightly higher during the spring months (except November) than the rest of the year, but not to any noticeable extent. Historically, April is the month with the highest frequency of tornadoes, though tornadoes have occurred every month of the year. Memphis is sunny approximately 64% of the time.