West Virginia weather station plummets to new record low temperature Saturday

(Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of Beyond The Forecast!

It’s no secret. It was cold over the weekend in Southwest and Central Virginia! In fact, Blacksburg, Roanoke and Lynchburg all dropped to temperatures not felt in three years.

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(Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

As we were grabbing our heavy winter coats, one weather station in West Virginia saw the temperature plummet even further!

It’s located at the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge and is managed by Virginia Tech. The temperature hit 31 degrees below zero on Saturday morning, a new record for Canaan Valley. The previous record was -27° from January 21, 1985. Records have been kept there since 1944.

This may be hard to believe, but this extremely cold reading is NOT the coldest ever recorded in West Virginia. That record belongs to Lewisburg, which dropped to -37° in December 1917.

Why is Canaan Valley able to get so cold? It has to do with its high elevation (3,150 feet) and the unique topography. It’s basically an elevated bowl, which is perfect for temperatures to drop to bone-chilling levels.

In addition to the extreme cold, Canaan Valley receives a heaping of snow every year. The official season-to-date total is 54.5 inches.

Switching gears to your forecast, we are starting the work week on a relatively mild note compared to recently. However, the next drop in temperature is rapidly approaching! Chris Michaels lets you know when it gets here in our daily forecast article.

You can always get specific forecast details for your zone, whether it’s the Roanoke Valley, Southside, the Highlands or elsewhere around Southwest and Central Virginia, anytime at WSLS.com/weather. Know your zone!

In case you missed it, we’re posting great weather and science content on WSLS.com. Here are a few links from the past week to check out:

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-- Justin McKee