Charlotte wind advisory in effect amid what’s likely to be coldest Christmas in 30 years
A strong winter cold front has settled in the region and likely could result in the coldest Christmas Day in Charlotte in more than 30 years.
Mecklenburg County will be under a wind chill advisory until 1 p.m. Saturday, as wind chills could make what is expected to be a high of 31 degrees feel as low as minus-10.
Wind gusts are expected to remain strong but generally die down with wind speeds forecast to be around 11 miles per hour.
On Friday, windy conditions produced power outages due to the strain on the power grid, which resulted in more than 160,000 Duke Energy customers losing service, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Christmas weather records for Charlotte
The high for Christmas Eve is expected to be around 30 degrees, with wind chill values as low as minus-4, according to the National Weather Service. Saturday night the low is expected to be around 16 degrees.
The historical average low for December 24th in Charlotte is 33 degrees, according to weather.com. This year’s Christmas Eve is set to have the coldest low of the last decade.
The low temperature expected for Sunday night is 18 degrees, according to the National Weather Service forecast for Charlotte. The high is forecast to be around 30 on Christmas Day.
But if the temperature dips to 16 degrees, that would be the coldest Christmas in Charlotte since 1989, according to data from the NWS. A low of 15 degrees would match low points last seen in 1966 and 1985.
According to NWS records, the lowest temperature on record for a Christmas Day in Charlotte is 4 degrees, which occurred on Dec. 25, 1983.
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 11:34 AM.
