Minus 15-degree wind chill convinces park in North Carolina it’s too cold to open

Grandfather Mountain in western North Carolina announced Tuesday that it will stay closed until further notice due to “inclement weather.”

Specifically, it’s too darn cold.

The temperature atop the mountain was 4.6 degrees at 9 a.m. on Monday, and the National Weather Service recorded a wind chill of minus 15.3 degrees, the park posted on Facebook.

Things were not much better Tuesday, with a low of 2.8 degrees and an expected high of 22 degrees. However, it had only reached 17 degrees by 2:45 p.m., according to Weather.com.

Photos posted on Facebook show the park looking like a big refrigerator, with snow on the ground and an icy glaze blocking out the sun.

A few people insisted on Facebook they’d still like to get on Grandfather Mountain for hiking, which prompted the park officials to post: “Well, we could always use some help shoveling.”

It was even colder 60 miles south on Mount Mitchell State Park — the highest point east of the Mississippi — where the weather station reported a temperature of 3.2 degrees at 5:50 a.m. and a wind chill of minus 17 degrees at 12:04 a.m.

The temperature extremes came overnight as a front brought light snow and cold “about 8 to 10 degrees below normal” to the mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

The rest of the state is feeling it, too. Lows in the 21 to 23 degree range are expected the next two nights from Charlotte to Raleigh, NWS forecasters said.

Grandfather Mountain said it would reopen Tuesday “weather permitting.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Minus 15-degree wind chill convinces park in North Carolina it’s too cold to open."