What are the winters like in Tennessee as experienced by people who live there now or who have lived there?

Not sure where you are coming from, but in Tennessee we have a saying - if you don't like the weather, just wait a couple of hours and it will change. It happens pretty quickly here. For example, this past Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30 to a torrential downpour. The rain (along with heavy wind) lasted for a few hours - then the sun popped out and the temp climbed to 68 degrees. I was on the golf course at 1:30 - 9 holes later the temp is back in the 40's.

Overall though, winter in TN is pretty mild - it just depends on where in TN. In West TN, the temp rarely drops below freezing. Snow happens occassionally (as in so rare that when we have flurries they cancel school). East and Middle TN are very different though because of the higher altitudes. There is a very noticable difference in climate once you hit the Cumberland plateau headed towards the mountains. It's still mild though compared to the rest of the US.

It really depends on where in TN.
But it can be cold below Freezing at night, and snow, ice storms. etc. Not usually large quantities of snow anymore just enough to make driving a pain (2-5 inches)
Tornados occasionally all year round.
Summers 70-105 usually Humidity 110%
Spring and Fall are nice in 50-60s.
Sometimes the schools close due to snow or ice.

The winters here are not that bad. This year we didnt get any snow. Its very cold though. I hope that we dont have another drout like we did this year. Everyone suffered from that.

I'm in Nashville. It's 4:15, the sun is setting, and it's getting really cold. It's 40 right now and dropping. We had a little snow last week. About a month ago we had several days in the single digits. Sometimes some freezing rain, but that's about the worst of it.