Quick Vermont Arctic Blast Tuesday Evening Update

Finally some clear skies today gives us a decent visible
satellite view of Lake Champlain, dark blue color
indicating is is mostly ice free. Will be interesting to 
see how much of it ices over in next few days. 
You can also see New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee
and Maine's Sebago Lake also mostly ice-free

 Forecasts haven't changed too much for the expected blast of Arctic air later this week. 

This will only be a quick update, with more details coming tomorrow morning. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington, to nobody's surprise,  has issued a wind chill watch for late Thursday night through Saturday. Wind chills are still expected to go to between 30 and 45 below zero Friday and Saturday. 

This will almost definitely get upgraded to a wind chill warning as we get closer to the event. 

Before we get there, you'll need to really bundle up tonight and early tomorrow. We've got some cold air, that, in any other winter, would be totally routine. But in many places around Vermont, this will be the coldest night of the year so far. 

Not only is the air chilly today, it is dry. Which explains the brilliant, beautiful sunshine we've seen this afternoon after a full month or more of mostly gloomy, foggy overcast.  Enjoy it. This is the first day this year that the sun sets at 5 p.m. With the clear skies, it will be lighter out there later than you're used to. You should see some twilight when we get close to 6 p.m. 

With clear skies, and light winds, the expected low temperature tonight in Burlington is 3 above zero. Until now, the coldest night this winter was 8 above. Away from Lake Champlain, many areas will be a few degrees below zero overnight. 

I've never seen this much of Lake Champlain ice-free this late into the season. Even parts of St. Albans Bay has no ice on it, which is bizarre, really, for January 31. It will be interesting to see how much of the lake will freeze over between now and Sunday. I know it won't completely freeze over, but the ice will certainly cover more territory within a few days. 

There's lots of weird nuances to bring up regarding this odd, brief Arctic outbreak. Details coming tomorrow morning!