Friday Morning Arctic Blast Update: UGH!

Since it's so bitterly cold out, I'll try to warm you up a little
with a photo of a beautiful warm, sunny Vermont summer
 day a couple years ago. 

 Well, it's here. The long awaited Arctic blast, polar vortex, whatever you want to call it. 

Temperatures were crashing early this morning as expected. For instance, Burlington dropped from 24 degrees at midnight to 2 above by 6 a.m. 

Temperatures will continue down and reach below zero soon, if they haven't already, and will stay below zero all day. Wind chills are ramping up, and the expected 30 to 45 below wind chill values will hit as the day wears on. 

MORNING DRIVE TIME

There's some slick areas on the roads this morning from those brief but heavy snow squalls overnight. Some of the squalls were intense enough to create some thundersnow up in Orleans County. 

 Road salt doesn't work great in low temperatures, so any ice lingering on the roads won't easily go anywhere.  Bridges and overpasses, especially over rivers will be especially dangerous. Steam rising from the water often forms black ice on the bridge.

That's one the reasons we see so many winter crashes on the Interstate 89 bridges over the Winooski River between Winooski and Burlington.

From about Burlington south into Addison County, the frigid winds blowing across the mostly unfrozen Lake Champlain  today will create light lake effect snow.  

Areas exposed to those strong northwest winds will also suffer from blowing snow that can briefly reduce visibility and leave an area of snow on the roads. You're driving along and the roads seem OK, then you hit that snow in skid out. 

Further north, this problem is even worse. There's a blizzard warning up for far northern Maine today. There won't be much new snow up there, either, but strong winds and low temperatures will create a ground blizzard.

A ground blizzard, common in the northern Plains but less so here, is when there's little or no snow falling out of the sky, but blowing snow is so thick that visibility is reduced on the roads to near zero.

TOO COLD TO DO ANYTHING

Otherwise, the bitter cold air is dry, so most places won't see any additional snow. 

If you had big plans today or tomorrow, check to see if they're still on.  They probably aren'.t Besides, today and tonight especially will be a perfect time to stay indoors, eating stew and binge watching Netflix or Hulu or something. 

Another photo attempt to warm you up today. Photo is
at the Burlington, Vermont waterfront during a July, 
2018 heat wave. I remember it was 91 degrees 
when I snapped this photo. I sincerely doubt it's
this nice along the Burlington lake front today.

Many schools in Vermont are closed today. I know, I know. I went to school, too, in weather this bad when I was a kid. But the fact that we've had such warm winters is a bit of a shock. People aren't use to this.

Jay Peak announced Friday that it would shut down its ski lifts today and probably run them on a limited basis on Saturday. "While this may sadden the hardest of our corps, it's in the interest of both our team and guests that we do so," the resort said in a statement issued Thursday.

I'm sure other ski resorts are closing or limiting lifts today, too. 

That gets me to something I brought up before that needs to be repeated: Will you hard core adventurers just STOP.  Don't climb Mount Washington, just for this one 48 hour period.  Don't go for a jog in just shorts and a t-shirt. You know who you are. I've seen you. 

You're not impressing anyone, and if your hiking and skiing the back woods in this ridiculousness, you put rescuers in danger, too. Not just yourself. Or do you care?

Phew! I really had to get that out of my system. 

The annual Penguin Plunge into Lake Champlain in Burlington to benefit Special Olympics is also canceled, and somehow turned into a remote event. The real deal had been scheduled for Saturday, but meteorologists, the City of Burlington and organizers deemed the event too dangerous give the expected wind chill.  

Organizers are telling would-be plungers to instead, after the cold eases, to make snow angels in bathing suits, or have snowball fights in shorts and t-shirts, or anything like that between now and February 20.  

TONIGHT

Snuggle in for a frigid night. The forecast hasn't really changed in days as to how cold it will get overnight and early Saturday morning.

The banana belt towns near Lake Champlain should bottom out in the mid to upper teens below zero, with continued wind chills in the 35 to 45 below range. Most other places in northern and central Vermont should get into the low to mid 20s below zero with wind chills in the 40s below. The coldest hollows should flirt with 30 below - actual temperature.

This terrible weather is still looking like an incredibly quick hitter. Saturday will still be frigid, but not as cold or windy as today.  Most places should actually get to a few degrees above zero by mid to late afternoon.

Overnight Saturday, it will actually warm up, and be pretty decent by Sunday morning, with temperatures at dawn probably in the teens for most of us.  Those readings will go into the upper 20s to mid 30s by late afternoon Sunday. That's actually a wee bit warmer than average. 

And, every day during the upcoming week will be warmer than average for this time of year. 5