Frigid temps coming for Christmas

It won’t be a white Christmas in Randolph County, but it will feel a lot like the North Pole in the days leading up to Christmas.

According to the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Randolph County temperatures will remain below freezing for at least 60 straight hours, from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. Lows are expected to be in the teens Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Wind chills Thursday night into Friday morning are expected fall below zero.

No precipitation is expected during the freeze, but some spotty lingering ice could remain on roads from rain that may fall Thursday before the cold air arrives.

While the temperatures will be cold on Christmas it won’t be all that close to the record-setting cold that swept the state at Christmastime in 1983. Lows throughout the state were in the single digits that year. This year’s Christmas Day low in Randolph County is expected to be in the high teens.

If you or anyone you know needs shelter from the cold during this time the Roanoke Justice Center (the police department building) on West Point Street will be open to the public. Anyone needing to stay at the justice center during this time is asked to bring their own blankets.

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