Triangle to experience 'one of the coldest 7 day periods on record'

The Triangle is going to ring in the new year with a blast of frigid air that will keep temperatures bitterly cold all week.

Posted 1:21 a.m. Dec 31, 2017 — Updated 3:17 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Triangle will ring in the new year with a blast of frigid air that will keep temperatures colder than the area has seen in decades.

The cold that has been gripping the nation made it's way into the Triangle Sunday as wind chills make it feel even colder. Wind chill temperaturess started Sunday in the low- to mid-teens around most of central North Carolina, and they'll finish the day the same way as New Year's Eve revelers watch the calendar flip.

"It's hard to believe just 24 hours ago we had 50 degrees and sunshine," said WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel.

The record low for New Year's Day in Raleigh is 12. The forecast for Monday shows a low temperatures of 14 degrees, but the first day of the year is just the beginning of a stretch of below-freezing temperatures that will chill the Triangle for the next seven days.

"The cold weather will be relentless through the end of the week," Fishel said. "This is going to be one of the coldest seven day periods on record."

Temperatures, on average, will be 15 to 20 degrees below normal for the next week, Fishel said.

Despite the cold winter weather, Fishel said the chance of snow is unlikely for anybody in the Triangle.

An upper atmospheric trough on Wednesday could create the perfect conditions for flakes to fall, Fishel said, but current models have the system staying too far east of the region.