Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Eastern Greenbrier, West Virginia

2015-02-19 · Eastern Greenbrier, West Virginia

Event narrative

A mesonet station in Lewisburg recorded a wind chill of -22F at 430 am EST.

Wider weather episode

The second major Arctic blast to affect the region within the same 7-day period surged through the region on the 18th sending temperatures to their lowest levels in over a year and by the morning of the 20th setting record low temperatures. Maximum temperatures on the 19th failed to rise above 20F across the Piedmont and failed to even reach 10F across the western mountains. All of the climate stations within the Blacksburg National Weather Service Forecast Office County Warning Area (CWA) tied record low maximum temperatures on the 18th and all but Bluefield did the same on the 20th. All of the climate stations set record low temperatures the morning of February 20th, with Lynchburg recording a new all time record low temperature of 11F early in the morning on the 20th. The first morning after the Arctic frontal passage brought bitterly cold temperatures and gusty northwest winds leading to dangerously low wind chills. Below are the highlights of the dangerously low -20F or lower wind chills from the West Virginia counties within the Blacksburg National Weather Service Forecast area as well as the plethora of record low and record low maximum temperatures set as a result of this Arctic outbreak:

Wind Chills:

Greenbrier County - mesonet station records -22F wind chill in Lewisburg at 430 am EST,

Mercer County - wind chill of -22F recorded at the Mercer County Airport ASOS (KBLF) at 652 am EST.

Record Low Maximum Temperatures on the 19th:

Bluefield - maximum temperature of 5F tied for 12th coldest on record and coldest since 1/15/1994. Coldest on record is -1F on 1/21/1985.

Lewisburg - maximum temperature of 9F tied for 10th coldest on record and coldest since 1/8/2014. Coldest on record is 2F on 12/22/1989.

Record Low Maximum Temperatures on the 20th:

Lewisburg - maximum temperature of 15F broke the previous record of 27F set in 2013.

Record Low Temperatures on the 20th:

Bluefield - minimum of -7F broke previous record of 8F set in 1960,

Lewisburg - minimum of -4F broke previous record of 6F set in 1979.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 564307. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.