Chill sweeps through Central Virginia

For the second day in a row, Central Virginia woke up this morning to temperatures nearing single digits.

An artic blast has thrust the area into a deep, if temporary freeze, according to the National Weather Service.

While a thaw will arrive by Wednesday — eliminating almost any chance for a white Christmas — the frigid temperatures have made for a rough start to the holiday week for some.

Auto repair shops around Lynchburg reported mixed results as the cold weather settled in Monday. Some shops saw no increase in business, but Cash’s Garage in Madison Heights was staying busy.

“We’ve had several tows due to the cold,” owner Dennis Cash said. “People are having a hard time starting.”

At AAA Mid-Atlantic, spokeswoman Wendy VanCuren said auto club members across Virginia suffered.

“On a typical winter day … we have 1,048 calls,” VanCuren said. “By noon today, we were halfway there. As of 3 p.m. we have surpassed that.”

Of those calls, she said, 34 percent were battery-related; 36 percent needed a tow.

Batteries more than three years old need to be checked to make sure they’re still capable of generating an adequate charge, she said.

“Cold weather is also very tough on belts and hoses,” she said. “If they’re already cracked and worn, they’re more likely to fail.”

Preventative maintenance can be overlooked when money is tight, she said, but is the best way to avoid weather-related problems.

Salvation Army shelters in Lynchburg are also seeing a greater demand, spokeswoman Chesley Vohden said.

Thirty men stayed at the 24-bed men’s shelter Monday, Vohden said. Eight women and a child were housed at Hope House.

“We’ll continue to take them and put them on cots,” she said of the men’s shelter. “We’ll put them in the hallway if we have to.”

Forecasters expected a low temperature this morning in the Lynchburg area of 14, said Jim Hudgins, of NWS.

That’s noticeably warmer than Monday’s low of 15, which matched the low for this date from 2005.

“We’ve had these fronts coming through every two to three days,” said Jim Hudgins, of NWS. “This front is a whole lot stronger. Instead of Canadian high pressure, we’ve had artic high-pressure. It built right overhead.”

Hudgins said the artic high-pressure is moving quickly and temperatures are expected to rebound today.

While today’s temperatures aren’t expected to climb out of the 30s, they are expected to moderate on Wednesday and reach 55 on Christmas Day — and that means raindrops, not snowflakes.

The last white Christmas in Central Virginia was in 1999 when 2.9 inches of snow fell just before the holiday. The last actual snowfall on Christmas Day was in 1981 and it amounted to only one inch. The last really big snow dates back 39 years when 18 inches fell.