Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Northwest Raleigh, West Virginia

2022-12-23 to 2022-12-24 · Northwest Raleigh, West Virginia

Event narrative

Local businesses and schools closed from the Christmas holiday remained closed through the end of the calendar year due to over 6,000 customers were without water, taking over a week for restoration. Residential homes and businesses within this section of Raleigh County observed water line and meter breaks that resulted in the loss of thousands to millions of gallons of water.

Wider weather episode

An arctic front on the morning of December 22nd quickly swept through the central Midwest into northeast Kentucky and southeast Ohio by that evening. Temperature drops in excess of 40 degrees over the course of six hours were recorded across portions of the region, leading to a flash freeze of roadways. These bitter cold temperatures and gusty winds resulted in dangerous wind chills by December 23rd into the morning of December 24th. The lowest observed reading was a bitterly cold -51 degrees Fahrenheit at Snowshoe on the morning of December 24th.

Residents across the state of West Virginia found themselves at the loss of water due to water line breaks due to the freezing temperatures. This predicament lasted only for a few hours for some counties, but in other cases persisted well beyond the time that the bitter cold hung around. Some counties found themselves without water into the new year. The hardest hit counties were Raleigh and Wayne Counties, where millions of gallons of water were lost to frozen pipes and resulting water main breaks.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1065589. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.