Charlotte prepares for one of the coldest Christmases the area has seen in decades
A strong winter cold front has settled in the region and likely could result in one of the coldest Christmas Days in Charlotte in decades.
Mecklenburg County will be under a wind chill advisory until 1 p.m. Saturday, as windy conditions make the temperature feel as low as 0 to 10 degrees. Wind gusts are expected to remain strong but generally die down with wind speeds forecast to be around 11 mph.
By late Saturday morning, the strain on the power grid, combined with controlled blackouts by Duke Energy, had left more than 100,000 of the company’s customers in the Charlotte area without power. That number was down to 41,000 by mid-afternoon.
But the Charlotte Fire Department said it was dealing with a high volume of calls due to frozen pipes and water issues. It asked people to call 911 for emergencies only.
The temperature in Charlotte hovered in the mid teens Saturday morning.
The high for Christmas Eve is expected to be around 30 degrees, with wind chill values as low as 0 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Saturday night the low is expected to be in the low 20s.
The historical average low for Dec. 24 in Charlotte is 33 degrees, according to weather.com.
The low temperature expected for early Christmas morning on Sunday will be in the high teens, according to weather.com. Temperatures are expected to climb to about 38 degrees by Sunday afternoon — a bit warmer than had previously been forecast.
But if the temperature dips to 16 degrees, that would be the coldest Christmas in Charlotte since 1989, according to data from the National Weather Service. 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.
On Saturday morning, a new record low temperature of 7 degrees was set at Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina. That breaks the old record of 8 degrees set in 1983.
The weather service warned that the wind chills could result in hypothermia for those who don’t take precautions. The service advised that people wear several layers of lightweight clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Letting faucets drip will also help prevent pipes from freezing.
This story was originally published December 24, 2022 at 11:47 AM.
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