Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Southeast Raleigh, West Virginia

2022-12-23 to 2022-12-25 · Southeast Raleigh, West Virginia

Event narrative

Over 75% of the county was without water for a prolonged period of time. Most of the water tanks in Beckley were drained over the Christmas holiday due to customer water line breaks and fire suppression systems freezing and busting from the extreme cold. Several businesses reported losing over 2 million gallons of water and residential lines leaked over 300,000 gallons of water in the Beckley area.

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 1065591. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.