Temperatures started to plunge in Charlotte midday Friday, and they’re expected to slide all the way into the single digits by Saturday morning.
Social services agencies and local governments are expanding their capacity to provide temporary shelter to homeless people.
Forecasters are warning of dangerously cold wind chills that will grip the Charlotte region through the holiday weekend, posing a serious threat to people without access to heat. Christiaan Patterson with the National Weather Service says temperatures are expected to drop this afternoon into the evening when temperatures could feel like they’re in the teens. Then the coldest winds will arrive tomorrow morning.
“Those winds are going to continue overnight into Christmas Eve morning, by about 8 o’clock tomorrow morning in Charlotte, the wind chills will be about negative 2,” she said.
The real temperature will be about 9 degrees.
Those temperatures could cause hypothermia or frostbite. Homeless shelters across the region are expanding capacity and working to get people indoors. Duke Energy is warning the strong winds and saturated ground could down trees and power lines. Already, the utility is reporting some 38,000 customers without power across the Charlotte region, and 165,000 total in North and South Carolina.
And flight cancellations are piling up at Charlotte Douglas International, as airlines deal with low temperatures, high winds and snow in much of the U.S. As of noon, 138 flights to or from Charlotte have been canceled, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. Another 167 flights are delayed.
