It's a bitterly cold weekend across North Carolina, but records will not be set.

That's because it was much colder around this same time 39 years ago.

What You Need To Know

  • Low temperatures dropped below 0 in much of North Carolina on Jan. 21, 1985

  • Mount Mitchell set a new record-cold temperature for the state, reaching a low of -34

  • Asheville, Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte also recorded all-time record lows

One of the coldest arctic outbreaks on record for the eastern United States arrived in the Carolinas during the second half of Jan. 1985. That sent temperatures to below zero for much of the state on the morning of January 21, 1985. 

Several locations in the state recorded their all-time coldest temperatures. That includes Mount Mitchell, which measured the coldest temperature ever recorded in the state.

Wilmington dropped to 5 that morning. While that set a record for the date, the Port City's all-time record low is 0 from Christmas morning 1989 after a winter storm that made for rare white Christmas along the coast.

The frigid temperatures did not just affect the Carolinas. Wind chills below -10 in Washington, D.C. canceled President Ronald Reagan's second inauguration that same day.

Temperatures also dropped below freezing across much of Florida. The state's secretary of agriculture called it the "Freeze of the Century" as Florida's citrus crop suffered $2.5 billion in losses.

According to the National Weather Service, 126 deaths were attributed to the 1985 arctic outbreak across the country.

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