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Record Low Temps in High Country for Nov. 18; Power Outages, Dusting of Snow & Subzero Wind Chill

National Weather Service posted this image, which tabulates the wind chill in the Blacksburg, Va., NWS office region, at about 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
National Weather Service posted this image, which tallies the wind chill in the Blacksburg, Va., NWS office region, at about 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

By Jesse Wood

Nov. 18, 2014. As it continues to snow outside in the High Country, the National Weather Service has extended its winter-weather advisory to noon on Tuesday for elevations above 3,000 feet.

RaysWeather.com noted that most of the region received between a dusting and one inch and mountaintops accumulated one to two inches as of Tuesday morning.

RaysWeather.com also noted on its Twitter feed: “Several spots in Western North Carolina broke or tied record lows for the date this morning: Beech Mountain (3), Boone (12), Spruce Pine (15), Asheville (17). Temperatures at our Snake Mountain station dropped 42 degrees in 18 hours.”

And this doesn’t take into account the gusty winds that brought a wind chill featuring subzero temperatures.

Early this morning, lineman with the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation working to restore power to 513 members in Ashe County. A BREMCO release noted that reports of power outages began at about 5 a.m. and were primarily in the Buffalo Road area. Several Watauga County households lost power in the middle of the night because of limbs on power lines, but their power was restored by 3:40 a.m.

As of about 8:30 a.m., BREMCO announced that all power had been restored in Ashe County. It’s online “Outage Map” isn’t reporting any outages as of 10 a.m.

Watauga County Schools and Avery County Schools closed on Tuesday because of the winter weather, and Appalachian State University operated on a delay with classes starting at 9:30 a.m. For more closures or delays, click here.