High winds have knocked out power in parts of Southwest Virginia as an Arctic cold front moves through that has dropped temperatures to near-zero in many places.
You can find an interactive map of power outages across Virginia here; you can click on each county to get the specific number of people without power. You can find a more specific map of outages Appalachian Power territory here. You can also follow weather journalist Kevin Myatt on Twitter at @kevinmyattwx. Want more news from Southwest and Southside? You can sign up for our free daily email newsletter. We have a weather newsletter, too. Here are updates as we receive them:
12:45 p.m, Monday: Appalachian power restoration ahead of schedule
Appalachian Power says that it is ahead of schedule and expects to have power restored to most places by tonight. Previously, the utility had said it didn’t expect to restore power to much of the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas until Tuesday night.
Appalachian, in what it says will be the final update for this storm, says: “Most customers still without service from the storm should have service restored by late tonight. In isolated cases or areas where extensive repairs are needed, restoration may extend into tomorrow.”
As of 12:45 p.m. Monday, the number of customers without power across Virginia stood at 5,104, according to the website Power Outage. Of those, the biggest number was in Franklin County, where 1,349 were without power. Other big outages were in Lynchburg (974), Roanoke County (920), Botetourt County (400) and Bedford County (340).
11 a.m., Monday: Outages down to 6,003; biggest numbers are in Franklin County, Lynchburg and Roanoke County.
As of 10:45 a.m., the number of electric customers without power in Virginia is down to 6,003, according to the website Power Outage. That’s down from 10,438 on Sunday evening and down from 143,525 at the height of the storm on Friday.
The biggest number of those is in Franklin County, where 1,530 customers are without power. Other significant outages remain in Lynchburg (1,124), Roanoke County (990), Roanoke (525), Botetourt County (417), Bedford County (406), Pulaski County (157) and Campbell County (123).
We’re awaiting an update from Appalachian Power, which previously said it would take until Tuesday night to restore power in parts of the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas.
6 p.m., Sunday: 10,438 without power; Appalachian says restoration timetable is on track
Christmas night arrives with 10,438 electric customers in Virginia without power, down from the 17,852 who were without this morning and down from 143,525 at the height of the storm.
Appalachian Power says its restoration timetable, which calls for power to be restored in the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas by Tuesday night, remains on track. The utility says 150 more workers from throughout the American Electric Power system arrived in the region today, joining the 1,250 already at work. Another 120 are expected Monday.
As of 5:46 p.m., the website Power Outage says the biggest group of those without power in Virginia are in Franklin County, where 2,632 are in the dark. That’s down from 7,899 at the peak outage on Friday. Other significant outages remain in Roanoke County (2,185 customers), Lynchburg (1,330), Roanoke (950), Bedford County (653), Botetourt County (612), Campbell County (423) and Pulaski County (363).
Appalachian says it’s previously announced restoration timetimable still holds:
Tonight
- Northern Panhandle customers in West Virginia
- Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe County customers in Virginia
Monday Night
· Albemarle, Amherst, Floyd and Nelson counties in Virginia
Tuesday Night
· Bedford, Botetourt, Campbell, Franklin, Henry, Patrick, Pittsylvania and Roanoke counties, along with the cities of Lynchburg and Roanoke in Virginia
The utility says the next update come down at 11 a.m. Monday.
9:40 a.m., Sunday: 17,852 without power
Christmas morning finds 17,852 electric customers across Virginia without power, down from 26,373 Saturday evening and down from 143,525 at the height of the storm, according to the website Power Outage.
The biggest number of those is in Franklin County, where 3,852 are without power, as of a report at 9:17 a.m. Other significant outages remain in Lynchburg, where 2,586 are without power; Roanoke County, with 2,519; Bedford County with 1,489; Campbell County, with 949; Botetourt County with 799 and Pulaski County with 567.
We have no new updates from Appalachian Power. We previously reported that the utility said it would be Tuesday night before power can be fully restored to parts of the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas. See Appalachian’s full estimate of power restoration below in the 6:30 p.m. Saturday report.
Weather journalist Kevin Myatt tweeted Saturday night: “Very cold next 2 AMs in SW/Sside Va, 5-10 degrees milder than Sat AM, then gradually milder in week ahead, maybe 60 by NY Day. Keeping half an eye on Mon PM/Tues AM for clipper but probably won’t do much.”
6:30 p.m., Saturday: Appalachian says it will be Tuesday night before power is restored in the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas
As night falls on Christmas Eve, some 26,373 electric customers across the state remain without power, slightly less that half the number without power earlier this afternoon. Most of those are clustered around Lynchburg and the Roanoke Valley and Appalachian Power says it will be Tuesday night before power can be restored in some of those places.
At 6:06 p.m, Appalachian released these restoration estimates, which move up the restoration time in Giles County and for the first time established restoration estimates for Albemarle County, Pittsylvania County and parts of the Lynchburg and Roanoke areas:
Tonight
- West Virginia customers, except those in the Northern Panhandle
- Virginia customers in Buchanan, Dickenson, Giles, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, and Wise counties
- Tennessee customers
Tomorrow Night
- Northern Panhandle customers in West Virginia
- Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe County customers in Virginia
Monday Night
· Albemarle, Amherst, Floyd and Nelson counties in Virginia
Tuesday Night
· Bedford, Botetourt, Campbell, Franklin, Henry, Patrick, Pittsylvania and Roanoke counties, along with the cities of Lynchburg and Roanoke in Virginia
Appalachian says 1,250 storm response workers are now on the scene across the region. with more workers scheduled to arrive tonight and Sunday. It says some of those additional workers are coming from other American Electric Power utilities in Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. Appalachian advises: “Customers with outages can help speed restoration by turning off large electric using appliances, such as heaters and water heaters, until 15 or more minutes after power has been restored.”
A map by the website Power Outage showed the single biggest outage is in Franklin County, where 3,931 were without power as of 6:07 p.m. Other big outages were in Lynchburg with 3,088; Roanoke County with 2,949; Bedford County with 1,705; Campbell County with 1,127; Botetourt County with 948; Danville with 941; Tazewell County with 918 and Pulaski County with 666. However, the map also showed smaller outages in every locality south of Interstate 61 and west of Interstate 85 with the exceptions of Bath County, Brunswick County, Charlotte County, Lunenburg County and Salem.
1 p.m., Saturday: Appalachian says it will be Sunday night before power is restored in many places
Appalachian Power says it likely will be Sunday night before power is restored to customers from Montgomery County to Carroll County. The utility says it hopes to have an estimate this afternoon for when power will be restored in the Roanoke Valley and Lynchburg and surrounding areas.
The company has issued this timetable:
Restoration Estimates
In the most heavily affected areas of Virginia, including Roanoke, Lynchburg and surrounding areas, we are still assessing damage and expect to provide restoration estimates this afternoon. In areas where we can provide restoration estimates, most customers should have service restored as follows:
Tonight
- West Virginia customers, except those in the Northern Panhandle
- Virginia customers in Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, Scott, Tazewell and Wise counties
- Tennessee customers
Tomorrow Night
- Northern Panhandle customers in West Virginia
- Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski and Wythe County customers in Virginia.
Appalachian says more than 1,000 storm response workers are on duty and and says “hundreds of workers from several states” are set to arrive later today or Sunday.
As of 12:38 p.m., 56,136 customers of multiple utilities across Virginia were without power, down from 61,356 this morning and 143,525 on Friday afternoon, with the hardest-hit areas being in Appalachian’s service territory. Appalachian said that at the height of the storm some 50,000 of its customers were without power; that number is now down to 36,000.
The most significant outages are in Franklin County, where 6,183 remain without power; Danville, where 5,960 served by Danville Utilities are out of power; Roanoke County, where 4,326 are out of power and Lynchburg, where 4,075 are out of power. In that Montgomery to Carroll area that Appalachian says won’t be restored until Sunday night, the biggest number is in Wythe County, where 3,347 are out of power; Carroll County, where 2,118 are out of power; Pulaski County, where 1,515 are out of power, and Montgomery County, where 1,230 are out of power.
11 a.m., Saturday: Grayson Highlands measure -19, Copper Hill measures -14, Blacksburg ties record low of -4
Weather journalist Kevin Myatt reports on Twitter: “Blacksburg official low of -4 ties Dec 24 record low set in 1989. Roanoke low of 3 is coldest Dec 24 low since 0 in 1989, which tied 1983 record for Christmas Eve. Lynchburg low of 4 is coldest Dec 24 temp since record of 1 in 1983. All 3 sites have at least 110 years of data.”
Also: “Copper Hill in Floyd Co (-14) beats out Burke’s Garden in Tazewell Co (-9) in battle of region’s elevated temp sinks, per NWS co-op data. Too windy to maximize chill of those type settings compared to high ridges like Grayson Highlands (-19) & Bald Knob (-15) on VT remote sensors.”
Also: “In case you’re wondering, all-time official record low for Va was -30 at UVa’s Mountain Lake Biological Station on 1/21/1985. I do know someone who was at Grayson Highlands then & measured -35 with handheld device. This Arctic outbreak has peaked here so 1985 records are safe.”
9:40 a.m., Saturday: Appalachian asks customers to reduce power; thousands still out
Power has been restored across much of Southwest and Southside Virginia but thousands remain without electricity as temperatures drop to single digits. In coordination with the regional grid operator PJM, Appalachian Power has asked customers to reduce their electricity usage.
The utility specifically asks customers to reduce your electricity use by:
- Setting your thermostat lower than usual, if health allows
- Postponing the use of major electric appliances such as stoves, dishwashers and clothes dryers
- Turning off non-essential electric lights, equipment and appliances
“Minor adjustments to thermostats and other measures can make a significant difference,” the utility says.
Appalachian says this advisory should remain in force until 10 a.m. on Christmas Day. It also advises: “If further emergency action is required to reduce the load on the electric system, PJM would direct the company to begin grid protection power outages to parts of its service territory. These outages will be brief and intermittent whenever possible to limit the impact on customers.The action will only be taken if necessary to avoid widespread power loss and to prevent long-term damage to the regional electric system. Customers should be prepared for the possibility of temporary electric service outages if further emergency action is required. Please check with elderly or disabled family, friends and neighbors to ensure they are okay and have a plan for possible outages.”
As of Saturday morning, the biggest outages are in Franklin County, where 5,998 are without power, and Danville, where 5,957 are. In Roanoke County, 4,821 are still out of power. In Lynchburg, the figure is 3,169.
Roanoke County will open a warming shelter at the South County Library from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The entrance is on the side of the building. The library itself is closed due to the holiday weekend. The library is located at 6303 Merriman Road. Coffee and phone charging stations are available.
Weather journalist Kevin Myatt reports on Twitter: “Virginia Tech’s sensor at Grayson Highlands about a mile high bottomed out at -19 last night. Many locations along Blue Ridge and west of I-81 are below zero this AM with single digits over most of rest of SW/Sside Va. Region’s coldest Christmas Eve since 1989 at most locations.”
6 p.m., Friday: Power still out for many across parts of Southwest and Southside
The number of people without power has gone down but significant outages still remain in some places. As of 5:39 p.m., the biggest outage remains in Roanoke County, where 7,296 are without power, followed by Franklin County at 6,098, Wythe County at 3,369, Danville at 3,306, Lynchburg at 2,930, Pittsylvania County at 2,557 and Prince Edward County at 2,544.
Weather journalist Kevin Myatt tweets that Bluefield saw temperature fall to -2 this afternoon. Fortunately, there are few power outages in Tazewell County, the county that includes the Virginia portion of Bluefield.
Myatt also tweets: “For those in the Cardinal Weather snowfall contest who picked for Bluefield, Dec 23 goes down as date of 1st 1-inch snowfall. Tri-Cities got 0.4 & Blacksburg 0.1, but none of the 6 sites besides Bluefield have had a first 1-inch snowfall day yet.”
2 p.m., Friday: Power outages spread through Southside
There are now more outages across Southside. As of 2 p.m., the biggest number numerically is 7,899 without power in Franklin County and 7,600 without power in Roanoke County but Prince Edward County and Cumberland County have the most outages on a percentage basis — 3,633 without power in Prince Edward and 1,976 without power in Cumberland.
Weather journalist Kevin Myatt tweets: “59 mph wind gust today at Floyd appears to be strongest on list with 58 mph at Hardy east of Roanoke close behind. Roanoke airport has had a 51 mph gust. 50+ gusts not unusual with Arctic cold fronts in winter but this wind event a notch or 2 more widespread, persistent than most.”
Bluefield dropped from above freezing at 4 a.m. to to 0 degrees at 11 a.m. In Hot Spring, the temperature is -1.
9:30 a.m., Friday: 6,000-plus out of power in Roanoke County
Weather journalist Kevin Myatt reports on Twitter at 9:21 a.m.: “Roanoke County now leads the pack in Virginia with 6K+ customers without power. State now has over 60K, mostly along Blue Ridge but some in Southside. Good news is that most of 4K Wythe customers without power have been restored.”
As for the forecast, Myatt tweets: “NWS projected low of 2 for Roanoke on Sat AM, some models go lower. Roanoke has not been below zero in almost 27 yrs, since 2/5/1996. Interesting interval if it were to happen, as Roanoke went 1936 to 1963, also 27 years, for longest previous streak without subzero temps.”
For his latest weather update on Cardinal, he reports on the cold front in “North Pole set to crash into Virginia Friday morning, set up shop for Christmas weekend.” Earlier in the week, he said all this was coming: “Bone-chilling Christmas for all; snowy white for some, hopefully merry for everyone.”