This Vermont Morning Even Colder Than Yesterday, Except On "Tropical" Mountain Summits

A waning moon at dawn with a clear sky and temperatures
UPDat around 15 below this morning in St. Albans, Vermont. 

UPDATE: 5 p.m. SATURDAY

Turns out the coldest temperature reported in Vermont this morning was 35 below in Island Pond.

I did already mention the report of 33 below in that Northeast Kingdom town, but it ended up getting a couple degrees colder. 

Judging from the list of low temperatures from this morning provided by the National Weather Service in South Burlington, most of us were in the upper teens to mid 20s below zero. 

It was a bracing morning, for sure! 

Since temperatures were so low, they had nowhere to go but up.

Dramatically, really. Island Pond was up to 19 degrees at 2 p.m. a rise of 54 degree in just seven hours or so. 

We still have more cold weather to go through over the next week. Temperatures will yo-yo all over the place, but expect a few more nights of subzero cold between now and next weekend.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

It was another brutally cold morning in and near Vermont as we started Saturday, as you surely am aware.   There were signs of at least some brief relief from the Arctic conditions uphill. I'll get into that in a moment. 

Yesterday and today might end up being the coldest weather of this winter. Though the jury is still out on how intense a cold wave next week will end up being.  Most of Vermont was even colder this morning than on Friday. 

I saw a report of 33 below from Island Pond, Vermont this morning, the first time this winter I've seen that's it's gotten to 30 below in the Green Mountain State. Such readings in the cold hollows used to be fairly common, but now, not so much.

In much of the 20th century and in earlier decades, it used to get into the 40s below zero once every several years in Vermont. The coldest on record for the state is 50 below in 1933.  I don't remember the last time it was 40 below in Vermont. I doubt it will happen this winter. 

In the bigger Vermont towns as of 7 a.m. it was 14 below in Burlington, which is so far two degrees colder than it was yesterday.  Montpelier was 18 below this morning, compared to minus 14 on Friday. Morrisville was at 27 below, a full seven degrees chillier than Friday. Newport reported minus 23.

A couple places actually managed to be "warmer" this morning than on Friday.  Highgate was 17 below early this morning, compared to 20 below Friday. 

The teens below zero were more widespread this morning that yesterday. Far southern Vermont was in the single numbers below zero yesterday. This morning, I'm noticing 11 below in Bennington and 17 below in Springfield.

Northern New York, like yesterday, wins the prize for coldest in the region. It was 30 below for the second day in a row in Saranac Lake. Ogdensburg was once again at 33 below. Brrr!!  It was also in the 30s below at several locations in northern Maine. The coldest I've seen so far this morning in Maine is 35 below. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington will later this morning surely have a comprehensive list of Vermont low temperatures, and I can pass those along when they're available and if they yield anything interesting. 

The "warm" spots this morning are actually in the reporting stations that are normally the most frigid - the mountain summits. Most of those places were actually above zero early today. Even Mount Washington, New Hampshire was at 1 above zero. While Vermont's valleys were still solidly in the teens and 20s below zero at 8 a.m., the top of Mount Mansfield was a toasty 5 above zero.

Those warm summits are a sign that this Arctic blast is all but finished.  Cold air over us drained into the valleys, which is why this Saturday morning is so cold for most of us.  Meanwhile, warmer air started moving in aloft, which is why the summits are so warm. Comparatively speaking anyway.

The weak winter sun later this morning will be enough to mix the atmosphere and most of us will quickly warm into the teens this afternoon. That's still colder than normal, but still better than yesterday!

The mild spell will be short-lived as another Arctic cold front Sunday will drive us back below zero by Monday morning. This one will be brief and not as cold as Friday and this morning were. But another Arctic front expected Tuesday will open the doors for another spell of icebox weather for the second half of next week that could rival the weather we've just been through.

I still see signs of something of a pattern change that would make us a little milder. It might not be super warm, but better.  This new pattern, if it develops, would also probably be more active, which would be a switch from the mostly very dry weather we've seen this month. 

Though nothing is sure on this yet, the chances of snow or other types of precipitation seem like they'll go up as we get into February.