Vermont weather geek's hodgepodge of weather and climate news and opinion. Often Vermont focused, but taking a national and global approach, with sometimes an appropriate dash of fun, outrage, cynicism and compassion.
Photo by Don Griffin in this screen grab from a San Francisco Chronicle Video shows the wildfire on Temescal Ridge near Pacific Palisades early on January 1. This fire was quickly contained after scorching about eight acres,
The wind has died down in southern California, so firefighters are taking advantage of the weather to at least attempt to gain the upper hand on these cataclysmic blazes.
Investigations are starting as to what set these fires off in the first place. Some have been easy to solve.
One fire started amid gusty winds in San Bernardino County, California Wednesday but firefighters managed to quickly stop it after itconsumed 30 acres but no houses.
It might be harder to ascertain what started some of the other, larger fires.
PALISADES FIRE
The worst of the blazes was the Palisades Fire, and there's tantalizing evidence that this firestorm has its origins with somebody being dumb within the first few hours of the arrival for 2025.
According to the Washington Postand other sources, some idiot set off fireworks in the dry brush on the Temescal Ridge in the Santa Monica Mountains not far from the Skull Rock Trailhead shortly after midnight January 1. Firefighters responded and put out their blaze before it could get super out of hand.
The New Year's Day fire covered eight acres and took about four hours to contain. No buildings were damaged.
The start of the huge Pacific Palisades fire in this photo by Don Griffin, via the San Francisco Chronicle, seems to show the origin at the about the same location a the January 1 blaze,
The Palisades Fire started around 10:20 a.m. local time January 7, right around the same spot as the January 1 blaze.
Experts say it is absolutely possible for a wildfire to reignite up to 10 days, sometimes even more after it was initially extinguished.
There could have been a hot, smoldering piece of wood that was missed in the New Years Day incident partly buried under soil or rocks.
There it sat, until the 80 mph Santa Ana winds hit on January 7. Blast your annoying leaf blower on a smoldering camp fire (when you're sure you can't start a forest fire!) and see what you get.
It was basically the same thing with the Los Angeles wildfires.
Per the Washington Post, the timing of the fire's start was bad for another reason. Firefighter were responding to other incidents around Los Angeles when the first 911 calls came in regarding the Palisades Fire. That might have delayed an initial response, but I'd like to see more investigation into that before drawing firm conclusions.
If there was a delay in getting firefighters to the scene, some procedures will need to be looked at so that doesn't happen again.
EATON FIRE
The other large fire, the Easton Fire wiped out much of Altadena, California. The cause of this one isn't confirmed by any fire agency either, but the utility Southern California Edison is under the spotlight.
Lawsuits have already been filed against the utility, saying their equipment is to blame. Specifically, the lawsuits allege the fire "ignited because of SCE's failure to de-energize its overhead wires which traverse Eaton Canyon - despite a red flag (particularly dangerous situation) wind warning)."as KTLA reports.
Utilities have taken to cutting power to wind-prone areas when gusts are expected to reach dangerous levels and are combined with high fire hazards.
For their part, SCE says that the cause of the fire is still under investigation and that winds in the canyons that day weren't strong enough to reach thethreshold at which power is cut. However, the utility is investigating whether the sensors were wrong.
It's going to cost billions to fix California after this month's devastating wildfires. Many of the GOP want to withhold aid until blue state California becomes sufficiently MAGA-like.
You've got to hand it to the more big mendacious wing of the GOP: They certainly know how to set up a scheme to get what they want.
They provided a master class on how they operate with the past week's tragic California wildfires. This whole post will sound like a wildly conspiratorial rant, but hear me out.
First, much of the GOP have bombarded us with truckloads of lies and misinformation and red herrings. Their voices of deception are so loud and big that they drown out the facts and the truth.
Leading a sizable portion of the population believing them. Propaganda works.
They're good at packaging up in neat little soundbites. Fox host Jeanne Pirro is especially adept at this, offering a fire hose of lies, exaggerations and fiction Monday evening:
"To have empty fire hydrants and empty reservoir, no water pressure and you know, it's just, it is just a disaster. And, you know how to lose billions for the homeless, and all kids of money for illegals, but can't manage forestry and you can't take care - take something that's predictable. And the question now is whether Americans in other states should be paying the bill for their policy, which really ignored the fundamental prevention efforts."
See what she did there? She's got the gullible thinking that California taxes residents to death to lavish wealth on the homeless and illegal migrants, as if that's a thing.
And now, she concluded, we should withhold aid to desperate, distraught fire victims until, I don't know, California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he has brown people and The Gays and tells billionaires they no longer should pay taxes or something?
IN FOR THE KILL
Next step: Go in for the kill: With the backing of gullible millions of minions across the nation, they go to work trying to change the "enemy" into an image of themselves.
That enemy to them is California. The giant state is not kind enough to billionaires, not cruel enough to the disadvantaged. California's leaders think climate change is a problem, which of course annoys the GOP's fossil fuel company donors.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is fighting back against GOP efforts to withhold aid to California after this month's wildfires.
So, departing from the way things have always been done, the GOP wants to attach strings to any disaster aid.
For now, the proposed "strings" are described in, I guess, code words? MAGA wants better forest management, whatever that entails. The Los Angeles fires have burned through brush land and of course neighborhoods, and not forests.
I saw a clip of Sen. Roger Marshall R-Kansas on Fox giving up the jig and suggesting that some of the strings attached to California aid be that the state abandon its climate initiatives.
"House Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-Louisiana) said Monday that 'there should probably be conditions on that aid,' and pointed to disagreements about California's 'resource management' and 'forest management mistakes,'
(There's that like about forests in Los Angeles again!)
"Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber, also blames the fires' devastating outcome on 'policies of the liberal administration out there' during a Sunday interview on CBS's Face the Nation."
Barrasso wants strings attached to California aid, too. Apparently, liberals should have gotten their act together and somehow blocked the 80 mph winds that fanned the flames somehow.
WIDER AUDIENCE
California isn't the only audience for this GOP stunt. It's a warning to everyone who might otherwise go their own way to fall in line with what the Trumpers want. It is very mafia. Nice state you got there. Hate to see anything ruin it.
Some GOP Congress creatures are completely blunt about this plan.Per Washington Post:
"Rep. Zach Nuns (R-Iowa) said California and other Democratic-controlled states would need to atone for 'bad behavior' if they wanted federal assistance.
'We will certainly help those thousands of homes and families who've been devastated, but we also expect you to change bad behavior,' June said Monday on Fox Business. 'We should look at the same for these blue states who have run away with a broken tax policy. We want to help our colleagues in New York, California and New Jersey, but those governors need to change their tune now."
In other words, become MAGA or die.
If we're going to play that game, should we withhold hurricane recovery aid for Republican counties in Florida where wrecked buildings were built in areas prone to storm surges? Or should we punish red counties in western North Carolina because Republican local leaders allowed construction in flood plains? Maybe we can blame Republicans in Florida and North Carolina for not doing enough to get people out of harm's way?
Sane people wouldn't do that. Disaster victims, no matter their political stripes, need help now if not sooner. So just get it to them and shut up about politics already.
Even the talk of adding strings to wildfire aid is costing money and wasting resources that the GOP is claiming they're so keen on saving.
Newsom also worked out a deal to create a $50 million war chest to legally defend the state against Trump administration overreach. That's $50 million that could be spent on better things, but this is the world we live in now.
On X, formerly Twitter,Johnson slammed Newsomfor daring to clap back at the misinformation campaign.
Newsom's response was: "Mr. Speaker, when Louisiana's need help with hurricanes it's Californians -- many of whom were impacted by these fires -- who foot the bill to help your constituents. And they do it without playing partisan games.
Millions of your supporters are out here and they need your help, empathy, care, and whatever compassion you are willing to express."
At this point, I'm not holding out any hope for compassion or care from the GOP. Newsom probably was wasting his time trying to make that appeal. But I guess he's gotta try.
If Republicans open this can of worms, and Democrats eventually seize power again, are we going to force Oklahoma and Texas to adopt strict climate change measures before providing recovery money in a tornado aftermath? Force Alabama to embrace gay and trans people before we help out after hurricane.
HOW TO INFLUENCE
Besides, there is a way for Congress to influence what happens in California that's fair to everyone, including the victims and the taxpayers they so fervently claim they're siding with.
After every disaster, there's an assessment. What went right, what went wrong, what can we do better when there's a next time.
Things did go wrong in California, despite the heroic efforts of thousands of people.
The firestorm was so explosive, and everybody was using so much water, that the water pressure in hydrants fell to almost nothing, so there was nothing to fight the fire with. There was plenty of water in the reservoirs, but it was being used too fast for the hydrants to keep up. Should there be some sort of redesign of that system?
Should rebuilt houses be required to use fire resistant material, with no vegetation or flammable stuff anywhere near these new buildings? And what about forest management in parts of California and elsewhere. How can we improve that?
Did the Los Angeles Fire Department have enough resources? Was their initial response adequate? What could have been done better?
There's a lot of thing to look at to make the response better next time. And there will be a next time. I know California will do such an assessment, but Congress can mandate that, too, without tying it to aid to disaster victims.
BACKFIRE?
Republicans might already think they have "won" against those silly DEI liberals in California. But they might well have caused headaches for themselves. After all, not all the fire victims are liberal. Surely some of the people who lost their homes in California voted for Trump. So you're going to punish them for not convincing their neighbors to vote for Trump, too?
This could backfire big time in other ways, too. California is a "donor" state, pumping more revenue into the federal government than it takes in. Most red states are the opposite, taking in more federal dollars than they contribute.
I'd wonder if California could somehow retaliate against Washington if disaster aid is withheld?
After every big disaster, the community comes together in solidarity, helping each other, defending each other. That's happening in California.
Will the MAGA types in Congress alienate the Republicans in California who might not like their neighbors' politics, but will still help in a time of need. Will they resent the lack of help from Washington?
Even if Congress doesn't go through with attaching strings to wildfire relief aid, they've already slowed down the process. They'll debate the issue of attaching strings, and that will postpone relief for weeks or months.
Didn't MAGA bitterly criticize outgoing President Biden for supposedly going too slow with aid to flood victims in North Carolina? (Actually, Biden acted pretty fast, but as we already noted, the truth doesn't matter to much of the GOP).
MAGA has already sown plenty of mistrust in the government, and government aid. It's all contributing to the seething undercurrent of rage against all the major institutions of American society.
That anger can't stay contained forever, Hate to say it, but it's going to blow up in somebody's face. Probably the GOP, when too many people decide the Powers That Be aren't on their side after all.
This won't end well.
VIDEO:
The person who explain things much better than I can is somebody known as Politics Girl. She's all over social media, and I highly recommend subscribing toher YouTube channeland/or wherever else you can find her.
In this video, she goes over the disinformation regarding California's fires and she puts it into excellent context. Video is more than seven minutes long and worth every second.Click on this linkto view, or if you see the image below, click on that:
Lots of dark blue on the forecast map for this coming Tuesday, January 21. That means most of the Lower 48 is going to be shivering in Arctic air, but this one won't be nearly as horrible as some historic past cold waves.
A big Arctic outbreak is making its way into the United States and will dominate the weather headlines for a few days.
It will be brutally frigid, colder than a room full of ex-wives at a wedding. But this won't be a record breaker, despite the huge area of the nation it's about to hit.
It follows a general trend in which cold waves are losing some of their punch in the age of climate change. That's not to say we will never see intense, dangerous, record cold again - it's just that it's getting less and less likely.
The Arctic outbreak coming in now would have been considered pretty routine, say in the 1960s or 1970s.
In this one, temperatures up in parts of North Dakota and northern Minnesota could get into the low minus 30s. But record lows this time of year, which is on average the coldest part of winter, are in the 40s below.
This cold wave could bring freezing temperatures and perhaps a little snow and ice as far south as Houston, New Orleans, and perhaps Tallahassee, Florida by the middle of next week. The prospect of snow in these areas is pretty uncertain, though.
It doesn't snow often in these locations but they have had snow in the past. In Texas and surrounding areas, this cold snap won't be nearly as bad as theepic freeze of 2021, during which record cold temperatures and an ill-prepared Texas left the state with a collapsed power grid. The disaster killed nearly 300 people and caused $27 billion in damage.
Inauguration Day in Washington DC is forecast to be the coldest since 1985, when Ronald Reagan's festivities were forced indoors by wind chills in the teens below zero and actual temperatures in the single numbers.
It won't be quite that bad with Trump's inauguration as temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-20s when he takes office.
The cold wave will last about a week or less, but linger longest in the Southeast. Afterward, temperatures might not get terribly warm, but they will be more seasonable across most of the nation by next weekend.
VERMONT EFFECTS
We'll certainly notice the approach and grand entrance of this cold wave in the Green Mountain State, but this won't be one for the record books for us, eithereither.
Saturday will be warm and windy - very gusty in the Champlain Valley in fact. Gusts could reach up to 50 mph in the windiest spots which opens up the possibility of a few scattered power outages. Nothing widespread, but something to keep an eye on.
Before temperatures get above freezing, there could be a lot of blowing snow around, too, which would leave us with some spots with poor visibility and sudden slick spots on roads here and there.
Precipitation with the cold front will be very light, with just a few snow and rain showers here and there. The expected highs Saturday in the 35-40 degree range in the valleys will be the last mini-thaw for awhile.
Temperatures will drop Sunday, and we'll be in the thick of the cold for a few days.
There's one interesting little twist to this cold front. A trailing storm is expected to form in the Southeast and head northeastward. Originally, it was scheduled to pass too far to the south and east of Vermont to have any effect on us.
Now, forecasters aren't so sure. It could pass close enough to give us a quick shot of snow late Sunday night and early Monday. It looks like this thing will whip by too quickly to dump a lot of snow, but we could still see some out of this after all. Not sure on that one yet.
True to form with 21st century cold snaps in Vermont, this one will be pretty brief, with the worst of it lasting from Sunday night into Wednesday. We haven't had a long lasting bitter cold wave in a long time.
That's not to say we will never again have seemingly endless winter frigid spells, but the truly deep, horrible, long lasting ones almost seem to be a thing of the past.
Overnight lows in Burlington Sunday night through Wednesday night are currently forecast to each be within a few degrees of 0. I'm almost sure a couple of those nights will be below zero. Then the weather will turn seasonable again.
Compare that to January, 1968 in Burlington, when 14 of the first 17 days of the month got below zero, with five consecutive days in the minus 20s. Or January, 1970, when 24 days were below zero, and all but one day in the ten day period from the 15th through the 24th were at least 11 below.
Or February, 1979, when nine out of the ten days fro the 9th through the 18th were at least 17 below, with the coldest being 30 below.
This winter is proving colder than recent ones, but they're a far cry from past bitter Arctic outbreaks we've had.
Devastation after a debris flow killed 23 people in Mendicito, California in January, 2018. A large wildfire a month earlier set the stage for this disaster. The same or worse could happen again in the ' aftermath of this month's wildfires if the weather turns very wet in February and March.
In what might at first glance seem like a strange development, a Pacific Palisades house miraculously spared by this month's wildfires wasdestroyed by a mudslide on Wednesday.
No, unfortunately, it did not rain in southern California yesterday.
Instead, the home above where the mudslide started was destroyed in the fire. Firefighting efforts and water leaks caused by the blaze soaked the steep hill, causing the mudslide.
This brings about a bigger worry: If the rains finally returns, southern California could face devastating mudslides.
This is always a risk on and below hillsides in the few years in the aftermath of a wildfire. Vegetation that hold soil and rocks in place has been destroyed.
Also, the heat of the fire makes soils "hydrophobic." Yes, kind of afraid of water.
Then, when it finally rains on steep slopes, the rain starts running downhill, gathering fire debris, rocks, stones and whatever else it can grab. These turn into devastating debris flows that wipe out everything in their path.
The problem can last months or even years after a fire, but the sooner it rains heavily after the wildfire, the more critical the risk.
Which leads us to the California wildfires.
It's supposed to be the rainy season right now in and around Los Angeles. That it hasn't really rained yet this winter is why this wildfire devastation was so surprising. Had it rained like it normally would have, there still would have been an awful windstorm with lots of trees and power lines toppled. But there would have been either no fires, or blazes that wouldn't spread much and be easy to suppress.
The rainy season in southern California goes into March. It could suddenly turn very wet. Especially in this age of climate change, there's a greater propensity for "weather whiplash," in which conditions go abruptly from hot to cold and back again, or very wet to super dry to soggy again.
I'll have more on this intensified "weather whiplash" in an upcoming post.
There's no real sign of rain in southern California anytime soon. Los Angeles might go the entire month of January without seeing any rain at all. On average, L.A. usually gets a little under three inches of rain in January.
There are subtle signs the weather pattern could change toward something wetter in February, though nobody knows for sure.
POST-FIRE DEBRIS FLOWS
A worse case scenario is if the things change so abruptly that atmospheric rivers start plowing into the southern California from the Pacific. Atmospheric rivers are narrow bands of deep moisture that can create torrential rains and flooding.
Atmospheric rivers hit the Los Angeles area last February, dousing the city with ten inches of rain that month - withseven inches coming in just two days. To nobody's surprise, that caused some horrible flooding and mudslides. and causing some serious flooding.
If the same thing were to happen this February, it would be catastrophic. Freshly burned hillsides would slip away or send intense debris flows flying down hillsides. Also, the wreckage of destroyed homes would not have been removed yet, so that would add to the scary debris flows.
These things hit fast, and there's little time to get out of their way. Usually, there's less time to evacuate ahead of a debris flow than people had when they fled this month's wildfires.
There's a history of devastating debris flows after wildfires, both in the L.A. area and elsewhere.
Last June, wildfires raced through the hills above Ruidoso, New Mexico, a community of about 8,000 people. Then the normal monsoon thunderstorms hit later in the summer. At least eight times, debris flows from the fire area crashed through the cityduring and after those summer downpours.
As of today, the fires still rage in southern California. More strong, dry winds are possible next week, which could make the situation worse.
Everybody wants it to rain in southern California. But we had better hope and pray the wet weather comes in the form of weeks with long periods of drizzle, light rain and fog. Such gentle wet weather would minimize debris flows.
The worst case scenario would be thunderstorms and downpours, which would a southern California catastrophe so much worse.
Destructive winds amid record high temperatures blew this pedestrian walkway onto a highway Sunday in Seward, Alaska.
As cold weather in much of the United States gets ready to turn truly Arctic and icy, Alaska is having a strangely warm, stormy time of it.
The most extreme weather hit Anchorage and environs Sunday, with a windstorm so fierce that some houses lost their roofs, caused a pedestrian bridge to partly collapse, and toppled scores of trees and power lines.
A landslide also blocked a road in Seward, but that was cleaned up within a day without causing injuries.
Winds gusted to 132 mph at a mountain location south of Anchorage,the Associated Press reports. Just north of Anchorage, a 107 mph gust was reported in Arctic Valley. Within Anchorage itself, winds reached 75 mph.
The extreme northern tip of Alaska experienced their own weird, warm storm. Utqiagvic, formerly Barrow is usually dark, dry and incredibly frigid this time of year. Normal highs are around minus 5 with the low around 16 below.
Instead, it's been incredibly warm for them. Also windy. Plus, on Tuesday, the had a rarity. Utqiagvic had a touch of freezing drizzle, which is practically unheard of there, especially in January. The high temperature reached 25 degrees, which doesn't seem impressive, but it fell just short of a record high.
On Monday, it snowed in Utquigvic, and if you melted it down, it amounted to 0.29 inches of rain. Again, that doesn't sound like much, but for them, it was a record wet or snowy day. The high temperature was 24, again just short of a record high. Oh, and the wind gusted to 60 mph.
So quite a day for them.
RECORD HIGHS
Fairbanks, Alaska is usually a bitter icebox this time of year, with a normal high of near 0 and a low around 18 below.
But on Sunday, the temperature soared to a record high of 47 degrees, beating the old record high by eight degrees. On Monday, Fairbanks set another record high of 42, It's now turning a little colder in Fairbanks, but not nearly as cold as it usually is this time of year.
After getting a little below zero Thursday, daytime highs are forecast to be in the teens and 20s for at least a week, with overnight lows above zero. That'll be warmer than it will be around here in Vermont.
Other record highs on Sunday up in Alaska included 44 degrees in McGrath, which exceeded the old record by a big eight degrees. Normally frigid Kotzebue got a little above freezing for a record high of 33, beating the old record of just 30.
WHY ALASKA BAKES, LOWER 48 FREEZES
A huge northward bulge in the jet stream is allowing warm Pacific air to flood into Alaska, so they're not having the January they're used to having.
This is one big, big northward bulge, so you're going to have a big, big corresponding dip in the jet stream to the east. That big dip is taking frigid air from the North Pole and is slamming it southward through central Canada.
That Arctic air will cross the border into the northern Plains later Friday and then quickly engulf virtually all of the Lower 48 from the Rockies to the East Coast by Saturday night.
The frigid temperatures are forecast to moderate, but not entirely go away, within about a week from when they start
.
Videos:
News report on the wind in Anchorage. Click on this linkto view or if you see image below, click on that
More wind damage around Anchorage:Click on this linkto view, or if again, if you see image below, click on that.
Security footage of a pedestrian bridge collapsing due to high wind in Seward, Alaska. Once again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.
Areas in red are under a red flag warning, meaning destructive fires are possible today. Areas outlined in purple are in a "particularly dangerous situation" where any fires that start or spread would be extremely fast moving and erratic. Click on map to make it bigger easier to see.
A glimmer of good news in California Tuesday as winds weren't quite as strong as forecast, helping firefighters hold the lines on the giant wildfires burning there.
Reports of 35 to 50 mph with higher gusts have been coming in all morning. That rare, "particularly dangerous situation" fire weather warning remains in effect through 3 p.m, local time today for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Residents have been told to have a "to go" bad ready by the front door, and be ready to leave, and quickly at the drop of a hat.
There are far more firefighters deployed in and around Los Angeles today than when the fires started last week, so the hope is those resources can gain the upper hand if a new fire starts.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reportsabout 50 arrests for looting, flying drones in fire zones, violating curfew and other crimes. Three of those were arrested for arson, but the fires they allegedly started remained small, were quickly put out, and were not near the disaster zone.
So far, the death toll is 25, but up to 30 people remain missing. Searchers are looking for bodies in the rubble of some of the worst hit neighborhoods,
Here's one snapshot of the new reality Angelenos are facing. One resident said the sound of helicopters rattling around overhead all night and through the pre-dawn hours would have once driven him nuts. But the fact that those helicopters are trying to prevent more destruction is actually soothing, and helps him fall asleep.
OUTLOOK
If the region can get through today without existing fires going out of control again or new ones igniting, then the region gets a brief reprieve,
Winds should relax again toward evening and stay fairly calm at least through Saturday, which is great. Some of the lighter breezes could actually come off the Pacific Ocean instead of the desert. Those ocean winds will bring a little needed humidity, but unfortunately no rain.
Plus, the nightmare is far from over. Meteorologists say strong, dry easterly winds might redevelop early next week, and there is still no real rain in the forecast through the end of the month
A new fire started in Ventura County Monday evening, forcing some evacuations. But firefighters managed to put a stop its forward progress after it consumed about 61 acres. Thankfully, so far no houses or other buildings, and the fire is about half contained.
A very large wildfire was burning in Mexico, just south of the International border below San Diego County, California. While the U.S. is not immediately threatened by the fire, it bears watching.
Videos:
Some dog videos in the mix this time.
In this first one, I have to tell the back story. It's heartbreaking but ultimately has a happy ending. On the first day of the fire, NBC reporter Liz Kruetz interviewed a distraught man trying to reach his home where his two dogs were trapped as the fire closed in. "I literally rescued them off the street, they deserve better than this," Casey Colvin tearfully told the reporter.
Firefighters rescued one of Colvin's dogs before his house was consumed by flames, but the other one, Oreo ran off. For several days, he worried about dog, though there were photos indicating Oreo was still alive,
Then, the same reporter helped Colvin get to his destroyed house on Sunday, where he found Oreo alive. The reunion is joyous.
If any of you trolls pick on this guy for his emotions, I hope the rest of your life is one of misery. The traumatized man represents all of those victimized and distraught by the fire. They're clinging to any good news they can get. Colvin represents them all.
Click on this linkto watch this gripping video, or if you see the image below click on that. Make sure the Kleenex is handy:
In this case, a dog is rescued from the fire. The understandably frightened dog was trapped in the yard of a house in flames. First responders rescued it, and a photographer snapped photos. This inspired an outpouring of donations to help dogs and other animals who were victims of the fire. . Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that.
In the next video, a passerby in a neighborhood rescues a woman and her four dogs whose house is on fire and whose car won't start, They braved a blizzard of burning embers to get out of harms way. The video is pretty harrowing. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below click on that.
A drive through Altadena, California after the fire. You can tell despite the destruction this was an absolutely beautiful community. If there were no fire, I'd live there in a heartbeat. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that.
My St. Albans, Vermont this morning, neatly cleared after another inch of snow last night. The northern Vermont snow machine is about to shut off, though in the face of expected Arctic air.
The weeks long flurried to death daily snow machine in the northern Green Mountains of Vermont is about to temporarily (mostly) shut off for several days.
Most of us in northern Vermont keep getting installments of light snow to the point where we now have a few to several inches of snow on the ground. Far northern Vermont and the Green Mountains, especially from Killington north are swimming in seasonably deep snow cover. Nothing extreme, but decent.
Yesterday morning, the town of Westfield, which has really turned into Vermont's snowball town this winter, received another 8.5 inches installment of snow and they now had just under two feet of snow on the ground.
Averill in the Northeast Kingdom had a snow depth of 20 inches, with a foot and a half on the ground in Montgomery.
Jay Peak has reported 195 inches of snow this season so far,
More snow fell in the northern Green Mountains overnight, but that is tapering off. Again, a big range from a trace in overnight to I'm sure more than half a foot in the northern Greens.
Southern Vermont, especially the lower Connecticut River Valley is totaling missing out. So far, the snow in lowlands of southern Vermont just isn't there.
They've had almost no precipitation this month. The snow in northern Vermont away from the mountains has been lacking moisture too.
Halfway through January, total precipitation in most valley towns in Vermont is only about a half inch of water. It's just the northern mountains that have actually been getting enough snow, the type we need to replenish things in the spring.
DRY, FRIGID OUTLOOK
Other than one more period of light snow on Saturday - mixing with or changing to light rain for a time in the valleys - we won't see much more than very light flurries starting Sunday and probably continuing through next week.
There were hints in some forecasts for a potential nor'easter on Monday that would have provided some decent snow. But that possible storm is totally off the table. Ain't happening.
That's because some bitter Arctic air is plunging into most of the United States from the Rockies eastward. The frigid air will arrive here by Sunday and take up residence for several days.
That means a very likely round of below zero weather. Since Arctic air can't hold much moisture, we won't see much of anything fall from the sky beyond flurries. There might be a few snow showers in a couple lucky spots if lake effect snows from Lake Ontario hold together into the Green Mountains, but that's about it.
There are hints of a slightly milder, somewhat stormier pattern toward the end of the month, but I'll believe that when I see it. For weeks, I've seen some long range forecasts earlier this month promising storms by about now, and they didn't materialize.
