CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Arctic blast has officially made it to the Carolinas and the bone-chilling cold temperatures could be historic in terms of Christmas Eve and Christmas in Charlotte.
The cold front sweeping over the Carolinas Friday is bringing the coldest air we've felt since early 2018, meaning it's been nearly five years since it was this cold in Charlotte. And those are actual temperatures. The wind chill will make it feel closer to zero degrees in Charlotte Friday night into Saturday. The mountains will be an unbelievable 30 below zero with wind chill.
Chief meteorologist Brad Panovich said Charlotte could be below freezing for 54 consecutive hours before we finally hit 33 degrees Sunday afternoon.
The forecast low temperature on Christmas Eve is just 10 degrees. This would mark the second-coldest Christmas Eve in history. The record low of 6 was set in 1983. If you're younger than 40 years old, you have no memory of a colder Christmas Eve in Charlotte than we'll have this year.
We're also on track to see the coldest home game in Carolina Panthers history. The Panthers will host the Detroit Lions Saturday at Bank of America Stadium. Saturday's forecast high is 31 degrees, which would break the record set back in January 2010.
"The coldest Panthers game on record is going to be tomorrow, there's little doubt of that," Panovich said Friday. "The high temperature may not make it above 30, that would obliterate the previous record cold temperature for a Panthers game."
Christmas Day will be slightly warmer, and thankfully, above freezing. The current forecast high is 38 degrees, which would make it the coldest Christmas Day since 2004 when it was 36. The coldest Christmas Day on record was in 1983 with a high of only 22 degrees.
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