By Nathan Ham
It was a bone-chilling start to the week on Monday morning with temperatures all across the High Country in single digits and most areas with temperatures below zero.
Sugar Mountain recorded the coldest temperature of the night, according to Ray’s Weather Center. The temperature at the mountain fell to -8 degrees.
At Grandfather Mountain, the weather station at the Mile High Swinging Bridge showed -7 degrees at 7 a.m. this morning. The wind chill dropped all the way to -39 degrees at 5 a.m. with the highest wind gust recorded at 77.6 MPH at 3 a.m.
Beech Mountain dropped to -6.4 degrees on Monday morning, Snake Mountain bottomed out at -6.3 degrees and Newland’s low dropped to 0.
Temperatures in downtown Boone, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk might not have dropped below zero, but it was certainly still a cold start to the day. Blowing Rock’s low temperature of the morning was 2.7 degrees, Boone’s low was 3.4 degrees and the low in Banner Elk was 3.5 degrees.
Some areas had a little additional snow this weekend as well. Beech Mountain received 5 inches of snow from Friday through Sunday, bringing their season total to 42.2 inches. Sugar Mountain also had three inches of snow on Saturday and Sunday, bringing their total to 55 inches.
Boone has not had a whole lot of snow since the big winter snowstorm in mid-December. Boone got a half-inch of snow this weekend. That puts the season-long total at 27.7 inches. Boone has received just 2.8 inches of snow so far in the month of January.
Snow totals in Asheville are even lower. They have not had any measurable snow yet this month and have had just 8.3 inches of snow so far this winter with all but three-tenths of an inch falling on December 8-9.
With the arctic blast of cold air pounding the High Country, Blue Ridge Energy released a statement asking people to “Beat the Peak” with the extreme cold temperatures.
Blue Ridge Energy asked its customers to lower thermostats to the lowest comfortable setting, delay using large appliances such as washing machines, dryers and dishwashers, postpone or reduce hot water usage and turn off unnecessary electronics on Monday morning.