As We Brace For Arctic Blast Console Yourself With Fact Its Even Worse Elsewhere (Arguably)

A windchill forecast map from the National Weather Service
office in South Burlington has "real feel" temperatures 
in the minus 40s for most of us in Vermont this weekend.

We're just getting a foretaste today of the Arctic blast we've been talking about for days now.

That's the one that will put actual temperatures to around 20 below across most of Vermont Friday night and early Saturday, and drop our wind chills into the minus 40s Friday and Saturday. 

I haven't seen much change in that prediction, so we're just have to brace ourselves. 

When the Arctic blast is here, the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, relative to average, will be basically here - northern New England and much of the southeastern corner of Canada

Before I go on here, I really need to make a public service announcement, and I'll do it again as we head toward this weather episode. Every time this happens, some moron or morons decide they're going to hike up Mount Washington or some other dangerous New England place in 100 below wind chills, to, I don't know, prove they're superior to nature?

They end up dying, and putting at risk the lives of rescuers trying to find them. Don't be the moron. 

Anyway. 

There's two ways to look on the bright side with this situation. The best one is the cold wave still looks like it will be mercifully brief. By late Sunday afternoon temperatures will be well into the 20s to around 30 above zero. 

And then, possibly well into mid-February, we'll be back to the regularly scheduled warmer than normal winter we've been having.

Another way to feel better about the impending Arctic attack is simple schadenfreude, which is taking comfort or joy in the misfortune of others. 

If you want to do that, there's plenty of people we can look at. A huge area from Texas to Tennessee is experiencing an ice storm. An ice storm, by the way, that is definitely not headed in our direction. 

Just a thin skim of ice, mostly on overpasses, created havoc and plenty of crashes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Monday and Monday. That will continue as the ice is expected to continue across much of Texas today and tomorrow. Including in the Dallas metro area.

The storm forced the cancelation of 1,000 or so flights on Monday, most of them around Texas.

The ice in Arkansas and western Tennessee is expected to become thick enough to bring down trees and power lines, in addition to making roads virtually impassable.