Coldest Daytime Temperatures In Vermont In A Generation In Wild Arctic Blast

A National Weather Service meteorologist 
from South Burlington took this amazing shot
of a huge steam devil over Lake Champlain
as they were at a traffic light at the corner
of Main and Prospect in Burlington.

 Quick update this Friday evening, because I'm astonished by how cold it got in Vermont this afternoon. 

Temperatures have been falling all day, going from ridiculous to outrageous. By 5 p.m. it was down to 15 below in Morrisville, minus 18 in Lyndonville and 20 below in Island Pond, Gallup Mills and Lake Eden.  

Even in the Banana Belt of Burlington, the temperature fell from 7 below at noon to 12 below at 5 p.m. 

I haven't had a chance to look up when was the last time it was this cold in the afternoon, but it might well be decades since this has happened. 

The odd thing is, this afternoon and early evening's frigid temperatures won't go into the record books. 

We won't have our coldest high temperatures for this date, because it was in the teens and low 20s just after midnight this morning. That's because the cold front had just barely arrived by midnight. 

Overnight low temperatures tonight will be dangerously cold for sure, but not record breaking. 

The Polar Vortex has sunk into southern Quebec late this afternoon.  Remember, the Polar Vortex is that whirlpool of especially frigid air that sets up in the far northern hemisphere in the winter. Sometimes it sinks oddly south, which it has just done. 

The Polar Vortex should not be in southeastern Quebec and northern Maine, but here we are this evening. But this is a quick hit, and by midnight, this vortex should begin to scoot northeastward away from us.

Which means the core of the coldest air is over us now, and into the first half of the night. 

This fact, and because the wind will continue to blow and keep the air mixed, means we won't get as cold tonight as it could if the Polar Vortex lingered, and stayed over us. 

Yes, most of us will be between 20 and 30 below tonight which is gawd awful. But it won't get as cold as it could, because the air will start modifying late tonight.

I don't think there will be too many record lows, if any, overnight. For instance, the record low today, before midnight in Burlington is 25 below, set in 1971. It won't get there by midnight. 

The record low for Saturday is 26 below in 1963. We won't get there early. 

So, we'll have a truly remarkable February cold snap in Vermont with few, if any records broken.

I'm also impressed by how disruptive this cold snap is. I saw hardly anyone out today. Traffic was light, and any business that was open was having a slow day. 

The extreme temperature difference between the still largely unfrozen Lake Champlain and the air created some very dramatic steam devils over the water all day.

These look like funnel clouds, and the extreme weather made them big. I'll have to see some analysis on this, but some of the steam devils might well have qualified as waterspouts  - tornadoes over water. Some of them appeared to connect with overhead clouds. If that happened, some of these funnels might have qualified as waterspouts. 

All I know is that all afternoon, I could see these funnels from my home office in St. Albans, over the lake. I took video, and others took photos, of some impressive funnels, either giant steam devils or weak waterspouts. 

The bottom line: Today, was a weird, weird day for weather in Vermont. More on this tomorrow morning. 

Video: Scenes from an incredibly cold February day, after an otherwise warm winter. Click on this link to view if you don't see image below, or click on the image if you see it to view.