Like Snow? Head To Northern Japan. They're Absolutely Buried

A recent street view of Aomori, Japan which
has been buried beneath a series of 
snowstorms coming off the Sea of Japan,
Photo by Larry Lane via Facebook

If you think you've gotten too much snow this winter, be glad you're not in northern Japan.  

Snow depth reached more than nine feet in some areas on Japan's northernmost island, leading to crushed buildings, impossible travel and the risk of avalanches and deaths from being buried by snow sliding off roofs. 

At least 35 people have died and nearly 400 are injured by recent extreme snows. Japanese emergency agencies have not said how the deaths and injuries occurred, but local media said that at least some of the deaths and injuries have involved falls from roofs as people try to remove snow from overburdened homes and businesses. 

Per AccuWeather:

"The deepest snow has been concentrated in northeastern Japan, home to more than 1 million people. In the city of Aomori, snow was piled near seven feet high, disrupting travel and for ing some rescue teams to enter homes through second-story windows. The snow depth was the most in 40 years, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency."

The Guardian reports that the winter weather has brought chaos to 15 of the country's 47 prefectures.  In some areas, the last time snow as this deep was not 40 years ago, but 1945. So it's been awhile since Japan has seen anything like this. 

Areas of northern Japan often get feet upon feet of snow in the winter. Cold winds coming from Russia and China pick up moisture as they cross the Sea of Japan and dump it as snow when it hits northern Japan. It's like the lake effect snow you see in western New York, but the Japan snows tend to be much deeper.

Aomori is sometimes described as the world's snowiest city. But this year is ridiculous. 

Frequent Arctic air outbreaks have caused numerous huge dumps of snow on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. The storms have been bigger and more frequent than usual, with few if any thaws in between. 

The snow has been relentless for weeks, and people are constantly trying to clear the snow. "I'm at my physical limit," one resident of Aomori said, probably speaking for everyone in town. 

 There was a few days of thawing in the past week, but that has temporarily ended. The above freezing temperatures created a risk of avalanches and flooding in areas where water can't drain because snow is blocking ditches and storm drains. There's even been some rain. 

The thaw also also allowed feet-thick chunks of snow to  slide off roofs, and that has been causing damage to some buildings. At least 40 structure in Aomori suffered at least some damage in just one day. The snow sliding off roofs has also collapsed power lines in some parts of the region. 

The snow reasserted itself and spread into many of the huge cities of Japan on Sunday. 

Some areas of western Japan not far from Kyoto reported up to 14 inches of snow within six hours.  In Hokuriku, a couple feet of snow fell within a 24 hours. The snow spread into Tokyo, where a couple inches fell.  Tokyo on average usually gets a snowfall that size only once, maybe twice per winter. 

Bullet trains in Japan were operating at reduced speeds due to the widespread snow and about 50,000 people were affected by train delays and cancelations around Tokyo.

The new round of snow was poorly timed because it came while national elections are being held and universities are doing entrance exams. Some of the universities have delayed those exams. 

A break in the weather, with a little more thawing even in hard-hit Hokkaido is expected later this week.

 Videos:

 Incredibly snowy scenes from Aomori, Japan. In recent weeks, up to 15 feet of snow has fallen in the areas Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Another very snowy news clip. Once again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that

 

No Outdoor Brunches In Vermont Today: Wicked Cold As Expected

Had to re-up the cold air hurts my face
to illustrate the Arctic blast we're in the
midst of experiencing. 

 Sure enough, it was solidly below zero everywhere in Vermont this morning  as we "enjoy" our blast of Arctic air courtesy of the lovely folks over in Siberia. 

I guess we can rejoice in the fact that this isn't record cold. Just unpleasantly nippy. 

As is usually the case in the first full morning of a cold wave like this, temperatures across Vermont were pretty uniform as the day started. 

Almost everyone in Vermont had temperatures in the single numbers below zero as of 8 a.m. today.  

A north wind is keeping the atmosphere mixed so everybody gets to enjoy roughly the same level of cold. 

Had it been clear with calm winds, temperatures would be all over the place this morning, with  relative warm and cold pockets. That's what we have coming tomorrow. More on that in a bit.

Winds were a little lighter in northern New York, and temperatures were in the teens below most places there. 

Watertown, New York went to calm winds overnight and, incredibly, they got down 35 below. Actual temperature, not the wind chill.

Speaking of wind chill, it felt like it was in the 20s below across most of Vermont this morning with north winds blowing at around 10 mph, give or take. As my headline suggests, take your brunch inside a cozy restaurant, maybe near the fireplace. 

The wind will keep us feeling frigid all day today. But, the core of the very coldest air is moving out, and the sun will also more or less shine most of the day. That means we should get above zero for actual temperatures this afternoon. Those north winds will keep blowing, so we can expect wind chills in the teens below through the day.  

Watch out if you're crazy enough to go skiing or something 52 blike that today. The wind chills on those exposed slopes could be ridiculous. The wind chill on Mount Marcy, New York last evening was 63 below. On Mount Mansfield, it was 52 below.

It'll be a little better up there today, but not by much. 

TONIGHT AND BEYOND

About as wintry a satellite view as you can get. This
one, taken Sunday morning, shows solid snow cover
remaining all the way down to Virginia. Those clouds
you see off the entire East Coast are caused by
frigid air flowing over warmer Atlantic water. 

The second night of a Vermont cold spell like this gets hard to predict. Some places will still have breezes that will prevent temperatures from completely bottoming out. Some sheltered valleys could end up with calm winds and readings well into the 20s below by dawn tomorrow. 

Also, there might be some areas of cloudy skies around for awhile tonight. If they clear out fast, it'll turn colder. If the clouds hang on, it won't be quite as bad.  So, please forgive your local Vermont meteorologist if they tell you tonight's lows across the state will range from minus 5 to near 25 below. 

Monday still looks like it will be another cold day as the frigid Arctic high pressure only begrudgingly. That high will probably be right on top of us during the day, so expect sunny skies, light winds and highs in the low to mid teens. Not that bad, honestly. 

After another subzero start to the day Tuesday, clouds will fill in ahead of the next little Alberta Clipper storm from Canada. That'll probably deposit another one to three inches of snow on the Green Mountain State Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Unlike several other Alberta Clippers in recent weeks, this one won't have particularly frigid air behind it. It looks like we'll have a few days of average, quiet weather late in the week. Average this time of year means highs in the 25 to 32 degree range with lows between 5 and 15 degrees.  

Maybe we're turning a corner. There's actually a chance this weekend might be the coldest weather we'll see until next winter. Of course, I might have just  jinxed us into being in the 20s below until April. Let's hope not! 

New York City Rediscovers Winter,And Not Everybody Is Happy About It

This screen grab of a New York City webcam on Friday 
looked peaceful enough, but some New Yorkers are 
not handling the toughest winter in recent memory
very well. It gets very cold again this weekend. 

Snow and winter cold that just won't go away is driving some New Yorkers batty. 

As many of us know, almost a foot snow and sleet fell on New York City back on January 25 and it has just sat there. Stubbornly. Daring for people to say mean things about it as it turns gray, yellow, slushy and gross. 

Mean things are also being said about the air temperatures, which has been consistently colder than it's been in yeats. 

And those mean things are being said. 

Egged on by the New York Post, a right wing, Murdoch owned publication, New Yorkers, mostly of MAGA ilk are enraged that snow is still narrowing sidewalks, making parking difficult and is just plain nasty to look at, now that it's been sitting around getting dirty for more than a week.

Trash bags are still out there too, as the sanitation department focused on clearing snow, so some trash pickups were delayed.

All that snow I'm sure is frustrating to New Yorkers. But it's mostly really about the Post and MAGA trying to do anything to take leftie Mayor Zohran Mamdani down a peg. Because he's - gasp! a democratic socialist. 

Hizzoner probably hasn't done a perfect job with this winter storm. No mayor would. But from my vantage point, he's done pretty well from what I can see. But what do I know? I'm just a hick from Vermont who has plenty of room to throw snow out of the way if I need to. 

The complaints seem to center on the fact that in past big storms the snow disappeared from the streets pretty quickly after big storms. 

Which is true. 

But the whiners don't seem to understand the concept of thawing. 

The temperature in New York has remained near or below freezing since the storm hit on January 25 and 26. Most past storms featured warmer, thawing weather right after the storm.

The complainers point to a 27 inch blizzard on January 23, 2016. That one was more than twice as deep as this year's snowfall, but it disappeared fairly quickly. It was above freezing in New York every day after that snowstorm. It was 47 degrees on January 27, 56 degrees on January 31 and a toasty 60 on February 1

Snow depth fell to just six inches within a week after the storm. By February 2, only a trace remained. 

It's not like everybody is complaining. A lot of New Yorkers just say fughetaboutit

On Threads, a New Yorker very reasonably wrote: "All these people talking about yellow snow and dirty snow. Garbage piled up. This is how it has always been after a snowstorm. For decades. It doesn't make it right. It just makes it true. Don't blame Mamdani. Don't blame the MTA. Understand that it takes time to remove snow in a city this size."

Other people got deliciously sarcastic on line:

"After TWO WEEKS there's STILL snow in Central Park, New York City! When will Mamdani get rid of it! Another epic fail!" 

The writer made clear this was indeed sarcasm, so other people mockingly piled on poor Mayor Mamdani. 

"Why hasn't Mamdani made the temperature go above 40 degrees yet?"

"And when will that monster finally put the leaves back on the trees?"

"Socialism brings snow. Why do you think Russia has so much snow?"

"Snow never existed before he was mayor. He cast a spell to create this thing called snow."

"Wasn't he to blame for the blizzard of '96?"

Mamdani was four years old when the blizzard of 1996, so it of course makes perfect sense that this notorious storm was his fault. 

CLEANUP CONTINUES

 New York has alternate side parking rules in which people need to park on one side of the street some days, and other side on different days. This allows for street cleaning.

The city suspended the rules after the big snowstorm on January 25-26. But the suspension ends on Super Bowl Sunday - this weekend -  and quite a few cars are buried under snow and ice. Those buried cars will need to be moved by then, or there will be towing and serious expenses for those car owners. 

It was fairly mild by this winters standards in New York Thursday and Friday which softened the ice encasing the cars a little. That was everybody's last chance to dig out their vehicles. With another intense blast of Arctic cold surging into New York, the ice around those cars is no doubt hard as concrete again. Good luck getting rid of that.   

I'm sure there will be plenty more whining when the expensive parking tickets and towing hit on Monday. 

NO FERRIES

Ferry service on the Hudson and East Rivers have been suspended for a week and that's not going to change anytime soon.  So much ice has built up around Manhattan island that it's too unsafe for ferries to operate.

The ice diminished around Manhattan this week, but it's still there. And those frigid conditions forecast for the weekend mean that you're not going to take the famous Staten Island Ferry or any other ferries for awhile yet if you're around New York. 

At least New York is in for a minor break, anyway. After this cold snap clears out, daytime temperatures most of this week will be in the 30s. 

Florida Freezes To Mess Up Your Grocery Bill

Farmers at Southern Hill Farm in Clermont,
Florida tried encasing crops in ice which
counterintuitively protects crops from harsh
freezes. Many farmers do this. But the 
cold was so intense in Florida the icing
did not work in many cases. Photo
from Southern Hill Farm via Facebook

This winter's cold is turning out to be expensive. And I'm not just talking about your heating bill. 

If you like fruits and vegetables, the price is probably going to spike soon, if it hasn't started to do so already thanks to those big Florida freezes. If you're tired of rising grocery prices, this isn't the news you want to hear. 

Some towns and cities hit all-time record lows for the month of February last weekend to kill off whatever didn't die in previous freezes this winter. 

The state was hit by a freeze back on December 30, with more freezes in mid-January before a series of frigid nights began around in the final week of January and intensified in February. 

It takes awhile for freeze damage to crops to become fully apparent. Farmers and agricultural organizations in Florida are just starting to assess the damage. So far, it's not looking good. 

CENTRAL FLORIDA

In central Florida, WFTV reports total losses at central Florida blueberry farms: 

"At H&A Farms, owner Michael Hill says his blueberry crop was wiped out because of the cold snap over the weekend. 'This whole farm is a complete loss,' They have a thousand acres of blueberry plants around the state. He cut into a blueberry to us the inside. "That's all brown. It's supposed to be green. 

Hill says they pack 40 percent of Florida's blueberries, which go to stores like Publix, Aldi and Costco. And because these berries died, Michael says he will no longer need the 2,000 workers to pick them in the fields or the hundreds needed to pack them."

The crop losses will have a ripple effect. Forklift operators, quality control specialists, shipping coordinators, boxers, stackers, packers, all those occupations in Florida blueberry industry vanished in a single night of cold weather. 

At one citrus farm in Plant City, in central Florida east of Tampa, temperatures remained below 28 degrees for more than six hours on both last Friday and Saturday nights. Even with covering trees with ice to protect the crops, damage starts when temperatures fall to 28 degrees or lower for four consecutive hours. 

At least eight to 10 percent of the current citrus crop was destroyed, making this the worst citrus freeze since at least 2010. Future citrus crops might be affected, too. 

"There will be heavy leaf loss from the frost damage and some of the young trees we've planted over the past ew months probably won't make it,' Trevor Murphy, the citrus grower in Plant City told AccuWeather. "The bloom and new flush on the trees will not make it either - we should have our main bloom toward the end of February into the first part of March. It'll be a few days until we start seeing leave and fruit drop. Coldest and longest duration of cold I've had since I've been growing oranges."

Also in Plant City, a farmer named Jonathan Allen, said his 120-acre field of sweet corn was wiped out. When farmers get desperate, they get creative. He tried building a berm and flooding the field to create a warmer microclimate, but the wind was so strong the subzero cold blasted right through the fields.  

"This freeze is the worst that I can remember, probably worse than 1989....Across the board it's devastation, complete devastation."

SOUTH FLORIDA

The more recent cold wave, on the weekend of January 31-February 1 blew all the way through South Florida and beyond. A town in Cuba reached 32 degrees, the first time on record that anyplace in Cuba reached the freezing point. 

Unlike previous cold waves, then, South Florida agriculture was trashed.  

As Axios Miami reports: 

Markon Cooperative, a North American produce supplier, wrote in market update on Wednesday that "recent freezing temperatures across Florida will  have a major impact on current crop production."

So yeah, that's really bad, since so much of our stuff comes from Florida. And I"m unsure how Trump's tariffs affect the price of food coming in from different nations, like Mexico. 

 Axios Miami says Markon Cooperatives affiliated squash growers report more than 50 percent of that crop has been lost. Bell pepper loses are at nearly 50 percent. Tomato growers say their fields have definitely suffered damage, but how much was still being assessed at the end of this week.

 One tomato grower told CBS Miami that a good 20 percent of his crop was probably lost. 

LANDSCAPES AND FIRES

Across most of Florida, plants, palms and some trees are now brown, wilted and battered. Some people, assuming climate change made them safe, planted tropical trees and plants in central Florida that don't tolerate freezes. 

These plants had managed to grow for years in warmer winters, only to be wrecked by this month's freeze. Proving the climate change is uneven. The general warming trend is punctuated by extremes, like the Arctic cold Florida has experienced lately.  

Floridians are being advised to leave their trashed landscaping alone for now. Then, when spring buds and shoots begin to appear, property owner will know what is destroyed and has to be removed or trimmed and which plants will survive.

Lastly, Florida now faces an increased fire risk. The state is often prone to wildfires in late winter and early spring, as the usual warm season thunderstorms are usually absent. And right now, almost all of Florida is experiencing a drought. 

This year, because of the freeze, the landscape isn't as green as it usually is. There's now a lot of dead vegetation that can easily make fires spread quickly.  Several fires were already burning before last weekend's freeze, and this will just make things worse.

No rain is forecast in central and southern Florida for at least the next seven days. Northern Florida is expecting only light rain at best.

At least it's starting to warm up in Florida. Another frost is expected tonight in far northern parts of the Sunshine State. But after that, for the foreseeable future, anyway, further frosts are unlikely for at least a week or two, if not more. 

Arctic Blast Roars In; Enjoy Freezing Your Dupa Off

Vermont State plow truck caught on traffic cam this morning
clearing Interstate 89 in Bolton. Road conditions were 
definitely iffy this morning as an Arctic cold front brought
plunging temperatures and gusty winds to the state.

Our big blast of ridiculous Arctic air was arriving as i wrote this. Yippy, I guess. 

As of 7 a.m. the cold front was approaching Lake Champlain. Ahead of the front, temperatures were in the reasonable teens, with fairly light winds. There was an inch or two of fresh fluffy snow on the ground out there. All in all, very lovely.

Then the front crashed through. You could see the data from New York and northwestern Vermont as soon as the cold front went through.

 The temperature dropped to zero or below and the wind immediately became strong and gusty from the north. In many spots a  burst of heavier snow accompanies the transition into our Siberian weekend. 

The front had just barely passed Burlington as of 7 a.m. At that point, they saw a burst of heavy snow, and winds immediately rose to near 30 mph in gusts. 

So today will not be a pleasant one. Some of you in eastern Vermont will still be basking in what is comparatively summer warmth when you read this, as you might still be in the teens for temperatures for awhile this morning. 

But not for long!

This obviously won't be a record-breaking cold blast for Vermont. We've seen worse in the past. For comparison, the coldest actual temperature in this Arctic weekend in Burlington will probably be near 10 below.  Record lows this time of year are in the mid and upper 20s below zero.   

The air from Siberia that's moving in this morning is actually about as cold as the air we saw in an Arctic blast on January 23-25. This one will feel a little worse than the January cold because we'll have more wind this time. 

The overall forecast has not changed much since yesterday. In Vermont, it might not go as quickly below zero today as it did in New York, because the front is coming through the Green Mountain State at a time of day the temperature is normally rising. 

The temperature should fall throughout the day in Vermont. It might briefly hold steady early this afternoon with the sun coming out, but it won't matter. Most of us will spend the day within a few degrees either side of 0. 

Gusty north winds blowing all that fluffy snow around will make it feel brutal out there. 

Road conditions this morning weren't great, either, and will probably be slow to improve. The snow will tend to taper off as the morning goes on. The mountains could hold to a little fresh, windblown falling snow this afternoon.

If you insist on going skiing or riding today, you might want to check with your favorite ski area first.The resorts might have wind holds on some of their lifts. And wind chills on exposed mountain slopes will be falling into the 20s, 30s and even possibly 40s below zero this afternoon.

The wind will continue to crank all night tonight at between 10 and 20 mph as temperatures fall to within a few degrees either side of 10 below.  The combination will bring wind chills close to 30 below. 

 We're getting into late winter now. The sun angle is improving a bit. It's now the same angle as it was in the opening days of November. That higher sun angle will allow us to warm up to -- get ready for this! -- 5 above zero or so Sunday afternoon.   I think if this same cold wave hit in late December or early January, we might have highs at or below zero instead because of the lower sun angle earlier in the winter. 

There's your sign of spring, I guess.

It'll quickly go back below zero tomorrow evening and stay there until around mid morning Monday.

We're still looking at a warming trend next week. Monday should get up into the teens. Still cold, but better. After a final below zero morning low Tuesday for most of us, the rest of the week should be pretty average for mid-February. There might be a little snow, but nothing really to worry about. 

For a good month now, the computer models have kept cranking out large, complex storms for us roughly 10 days from when those forecasts are released. Then when we get closer to the date of the supposed storm, practically nothing shows up.

This morning's American model was no different. Social media scare mongers might seize on that computer model to say we're in for big, nasty storms February 18 and 22.  Don't believe it. Only start getting worried about a big winter storm if meteorologists are saying one is coming within three or four days.  

By the way, our Siberian express cold wave is more impress in the Mid-Atlantic States than it is here.

The onslaught of frigid weather is being accompanied by wind gusts to 60 mph in places like Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. 

In Washington DC the wind chill is forecast to be below zero for up to 30 consecutive hours. That's the longest stretch of such cold for them since 1994. Some power outages caused by the high winds might not get repaired for a couple days because of the frigid weather, making this Siberian Express especially dangerous in that region. 

 

Some Of America's Wildest Winter Storm Videos Of 2026 Part 2

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina did not look like the warm
vacation destination it usually is judging by this photo
taken just after last weekend's southern snowstorm.
Photo from Visit Myrtle Beach
South Carolina via Facebook.

It's been a dramatic winter of storms in the U.S. There's been a lot of videos floating around social media proving that fact. 

I've already put up one round of videos back on January 28.

But, more storms, more video! So let's get into it: 

Back in late January, just after the ice storm that slammed Mississippi, Tennessee and surrounding areas, the weight of the ice was still crumbling southern buildings even a couple days after the precipitation ended. 

Here's a dramatic surveillance video of a building in Benton, Arkansas losing the battle against the weight on the roof. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Video by Storm Chaser Aaron Rigsby of wild blizzard conditions on Cape Hatteras last Saturday and Saturday night, followed by a house fire Sunday morning in Nags Head. People down there had their hands full. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

Reed Timmer, who normally chases tornadoes, chased the winter storm down to Emerald Isle, on the barrier islands not far from Cape Lookout, North Carolina. He found snow drifts nearly burying cars. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina looked strange in the snow, too. Those palmetto trees looked out of place in the near blizzard conditions and in under the bright blue skies and blowing snow the next day. Again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Farmers in Florida often spray water on crops when temperatures fall below freezing. This actually protects the plants when temperatures go into the upper 20s and low 30s. 

But in at least one case, at a blueberry farm, the ice quickly grew inches and inches thick because it was so cold, and the subfreezing temperatures lasted so long, that the ice accumulated rapidly. The wind also knocked over equipment, increasing the volume of water hitting the fields.   Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

If people thought the snow was too deep where they were, they should look at the Tug Hill Plateau near Lake Ontario, New York. The region gets blasted by huge lake effect snows almost every winter. This year has been especially big on snow there, as the lake keeps delivering, and a lack of thaws has kept much of the snow on the ground. 

By the way, a little more lake affect snow is forecast for the area in the next few days, but it will only be a few inches. Not several feet. For a look, here's a news video from the area: As always, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Sad stories come out after storms like this from sometimes unexpected places. In Nashville, a plant store that sold mostly cactus and succulents lost power for a week, damaging the plants to the point they can't be sold. The owner lost $100,000 in merchandise. The insurer State Farm initially said they would cover the damage, but, as big corporations do, found a way to weasel out paying. 

It does look like people are trying to donate to help the store owner out. Here's the cautionary news cast. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that.  

Bracing For The Cold Snap In Vermont/Northeast

Snow forecast through tomorrow. But the fluffy snow we'll'
get isn't our big problem. The Arctic cold this weekend will
be what to watch out for. 

 Editor's Note: I'm recovering from my Wednesday eye surgery, which went well, so I might be posting at odd times or not as frequently as usual for awhile yet. We apologize for the inconvenience.

It got below zero in most places around Vermont early today. That's become a bit of a routine. That's the 11th below zero day Burlington  has had this winter and there are several more coming. 

The last time we had more below zero days in a  winter was just a few years back in 2021-22 with 20 days zero or below. 

Back in the 1960s, 1970s or even 1980s, we'd routinely have two or three dozen subzero days each winter, so this is no great shakes compared to what your parents or grandparents went through. 

There are some things about the cold weather we've had this year that feel novel. On instance is, of course Lake Champlain, which, if it didn't completely freeze over last night, probably will between now and early next week. 

Many parts of Lake Champlain, including inside the Burlington Breakwater have been ice-free or too unsafe to walk on in recent years. This year the area between Burlington's Waterfront Park and the Breakwater have become a crowd pleaser.  

Until tonight, anyway, there hasn't been much snow at all since January 26. Sections of the lake, like some area inside the breakwater and many other areas, have become great for ice skating. 

Enjoy if you can this afternoon, as this weekend will be terrible for outdoor winter fun. 

It'll cloud up as we go through late this afternoon and evening ahead of our Blast from Siberia. 

The bulk of the snow should come through roughly between around midnight and mid-morning Saturday. A bit of an upper level low along the cold front might enhance the snowfall a little. It'll amount to two of three inches of fluff for most of us. Maybe a little less than that east of the Green Mountains. And maybe four to five inches right in the ski resort zones of the Green Mountains. 

The snow might briefly come fairly hard while the cold front is passing by early tomorrow morning. The best guess is the front will make it into the Champlain Valley by roughly 4 a.m. and will pass into New Hampshire within a couple hours, give or take, after that. 

Our daytime highs will be in the mid teens to around 20 in the wee hours of tomorrow before the Arctic front blasts through. The Arctic air means business and it will come in fast on strong north winds. The temperature will fall all day.

That fluffy snow will blow around in wind that will gust over 30 mph. So there will probably be visibility problems on the roads in open areas even after the snow stops. Travel on the highways won't be great for the first part of Saturday, so you'll want to fit that into your plans.

Various cold weather alerts are in effect, which might make things a little confusing. Here in the North Country, they issue a cold weather advisory if forecasters think the wind chill will be between 20 an 30 below. An extreme cold warning goes into effect if the wind chill is going to be 30 below or worse.

Since the cold air is arriving in New York first and will establish itself more deeply during the day, an extreme cold warning is in effect on that side of the lake from 7 a.m. tomorrow to 1 p.m. Sunday.  

The wind Saturday might be a bit stronger in southern Vermont than in the north, which would lower the wind chill somewhat. So the southernmost two counties in Vermont are also under an extreme cold warning tomorrow and tomorrow night.

The rest of Vermont is under a cold weather advisory from late tomorrow afternoon to early Sunday afternoon. 

I wouldn't worry about the distinction between cold advisories and warnings and exactly when they go into effect. Just know it will be dangerously frigid outdoors in Vermont and surrounding states and in Quebec from roughly mid to late morning tomorrow well into Sunday.

I'm almost happy I have an eye injury as it gives me yet another excuse not to go outside this weekend 

That little upper level low that's coming with our cold front will be an ingredient that will feed a "bomb cyclone" or rapidly developing nor'easter far offshore of New England. 

The squeeze play between that bomb cyclone and the Arctic air we have coming in from Siberia will keep the wind going Saturday night. That's when things get really bad. Overnight lows will be near 10 below, or maybe low teens below. But the winds will keep gusting to maybe 25 mph or so.  That's when the wind chills go into the 20s an 30s below.

It's the kind of night I worry about if somebody crashes off a road at 2 in the morning and just freezes to death there. Or an overworked wood stove sets a house on fire.  People who live there, escape out into the cold in their pajamas, if they're lucky enough to escape at all. Then imagine you're a fire chief managing the task of putting the fire out in that weather. 

All kinds of dark scenarios go through my head when it gets this cold. Winter doesn't always inspire a glass half full kind of attitude.

Anyway, we get to Sunday and it will be bright and sunny. Yay!  But the strengthening February sun will only briefly get us a little above zero in the afternoon, and we'll still have a north breeze to keep the wind chill ridiculous. 

The wind will die down a little Sunday night. But the air should stir enough to prevent us from getting to say 20 or 30 below, like it would if it went dead calm.

But expect lows in the teens below zero by early Monday morning. And wind chills perhaps in the 20s below again.  

A warming trend of sorts will start Monday. By then we should get into the low teens. That's still cold but will fantastic after the weekend we'll have.

The rest of the week will be probably just a tiny bit cooler than average for mid-February. We'll have highs in the 20s, lows in the single numbers. Pretty close to the way this week has been. We'll take it!