CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The National Weather Service in Charleston has released a look back at more than a century of New Year’s Day weather history across several West Virginia cities, highlighting notable temperature swings, precipitation records, and snowfall extremes recorded on January 1 over the years.
The climate review includes data for Beckley, Charleston, Clarksburg, Elkins, Huntington, and Parkersburg, with periods of record ranging from the late 1800s through 2025. Normal New Year’s Day high temperatures across the region typically range from the low 40s to mid-40s, with normal lows generally in the mid-20s.
Historical extremes show just how varied the holiday can be. Some of the warmest New Year’s Day high temperatures occurred in the early 1950s and 1970s — including 78 degrees recorded in Clarksburg in 1973 and 76 degrees in Charleston in 1985. In contrast, some of the coldest high temperatures were logged during bitter outbreaks in 1900, 1977, and 2018, when several locations failed to climb out of the teens.
Record low temperatures have dipped well below zero in multiple cities, including -8 degrees in Clarksburg in 2018 and -11 in Elkins in 1968. More recently, 2022 produced some of the warmest overnight lows on record for New Year’s Day across the region, with several sites remaining in the 50s.
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The report also highlights notable precipitation and snow events. New Year’s Day 2022 ranked among the wettest on record for many locations, while historical snowfalls — including 8 inches in Clarksburg in 1971 and 7 inches in Beckley in 1918 — show that the holiday has occasionally arrived with significant winter weather. Some of the deepest snowpacks observed on January 1 reached 20 inches in Elkins in 1971.
The National Weather Service notes that these statistics are based on long-term climate records and U.S. Climate Normals from 1991–2020, offering historical perspective rather than a forecast for upcoming New Year’s conditions.
