Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Western Greenbrier, West Virginia

2015-02-15 · Western Greenbrier, West Virginia

Event narrative

A mesonet station near Rainelle recorded a wind chill readings of -21F.

Wider weather episode

A massive Arctic air mass spread across much of the eastern U.S. behind a strong cold front on February 14th. This front brought high winds, bitterly cold Arctic air, and upslope accumulating snow showers to the mountains of eastern West Virginia, southwest and west central Virginia, and northwest North Carolina. The combination of the bitterly cold temperatures in the single digits to near -10F at the higher elevations of the mountains combined with northwest winds of 20 to 40 mph produced dangerously low wind chills during the early morning hours of the 15th. Here is a sample of some of the lowest wind chill readings reported from the southeast West Virginia counties within the forecast area:

Western Greenbrier county - Mesonet station near Rainelle recorded a wind chill of -21F at 747 am EST,

Summers county - Mesonet station within the Pipestem Resort State Park recorded wind chills of -20F or lower within the time frame of 326 am EST to 615 am EST.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 563073. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.