22 Below: Temps Plummet Below Zero in NC, TN

UPDATE: Here are the readings from Thursday morning:

Mount LeConte, TN: -10Mount Mitchell, NC: -11Grandfather Mountain, NC: -4Beech Mountain, NC: -5

According to blog reader Trent, the -22 was the lowest "official" reading at Mt. LeConte though unofficially they fell to -32 during the 1985 cold outbreak (when Mt. Mitchell hit -34). During that same cold wave, Grandfather Mountain had a *high* of -10, which LeConte also did yesterday.

ORIGINAL POST: A blog reader left a comment on my earlier entry talking about temperatures in the single digits (F) in the North Carolina mountains, so I looked further and found these incredible readings last night:

Mount LeConte, TN: -22Mount Mitchell, NC: -13Grandfather Mountain, NC: -8Beech Mountain, NC: -6

As of 4 PM, Grandfather and Mount Mitchell were flirting with the 0-degree mark for a high. These are extremely high mountains of course, and those temps weren't representative of the populated areas of the states, though it was unusually chilly with teens in all of western North Carolina this morning. Asheville fell to 8 (far from their record of -2) while Charlotte fell to 18 (their record for the day was 11).

More folks in the Appalachians and Northeast will join the below-zero club tonight, and we could see similar or even colder readings in those southern Appalachian mountains, although that's unclear (AccuWeather.com predicts 4 degrees colder in Charlotte tonight, but 4 degrees warmer in Asheville). I'll update this list on Thursday.