Incredible Arctic Blast Blessedly Almost Over In Vermont

One of many large steam devils on Lake Champlain
Friday amid subzero, windy, awful conditions.

 This has easily been one of the coldest 24-hour periods in a long time. Especially yesterday afternoon and evening. t 

Thank goodness it's almost over. 

The most remarkable part of this was how cold it was during the afternoon and evening yesterday.  In the late afternoon, when temperatures should be peaking for the day, actual temperatures were in the teens to low 20s below across much of Vermont. 

Wind chills were in the 30s and 40s below region wide, with a few spots in the low 50s below.

After spending a short time freezing my fingers with video shots of the terrible conditions out there, I spend the afternoon in my St. Albans, Vermont home office, space heater switched on to max. (Resulting video from when I almost froze my fingers is at the bottom of this post)

From my perch in the office, I watched an endless parade of steam devils on Lake Champlain in the distance.  Until almost dusk, that is, when it appeared the northern end of the lake was rapidly freezing over. 

I noticed the national media had its attention on Vermont yesterday. WCAX-TV reporter Melissa Cooney provided updates to CNN Friday morning from Burlington's icy waterfront. She seemed in remarkably good cheer, given the conditions out there.  

In the weather set up we've had, with strong blasts of northwest winds, the mountain tops tend to be coldest. And windiest. The summit of Mount Mansfield has spent several hours at least in the minus 30s. It looks like the wind gauge isn't working up there, though. 

On top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, it was unimaginably brutal. At one point last night, the actual temperature up there was 46 below, with a wind of 96 mph gusting to 127 mph. That created a wind chill of 108 below!

That 108 below is believed to be the lowest wind chill on record for anywhere in the United States. 

Back down here in the low lands, the temperature only cooled off a few more degrees from last evening. That's because the core of the cold air - the Polar Vortex - was already starting to head off to the north and east before dawn today.

That's not to say it wasn't gawd awful bad out there this morning. Everyone in the valleys was in the mid teens to mid 20s below zero, in line with forecasts that been in place for days. It felt much better than yesterday, though, when I headed out, because the wind wasn't blowing so much. 

  We probably won't set any record lows in Vermont, though. The record low in Burlington today is 26 below, and the temperature had been hovering at 15 below for a few hours there as of 6 a.m.  Montpelier's record low today is 21 below, and they were around 13 below early this morning. And St. Johnsbury? Fughettabout! Their  record low on today's date is 32 below, and they were at least ten degrees warmer than that just before dawn today. 

However, record lows were set in southern New England, including at Boston, Providence and Worcester. Boston's low of 10 below is the coldest that city has experienced since 1957.

The fact  that our Polar Vortex is on its way out means - onward and upward!!

Temperatures got to work rising soon after the sun came up.  The wind is still stiff, but lighter than it was yesterday. The wind will continue to diminish. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington will very likely allow the wind chill warning to expire at 1 p.m. today.

By mid to late afternoon, almost everybody in Vermont will see temperatures above zero. Barely above, but above nonetheless.

Overnight tonight, temperatures will actually rise, not fall, and should be in the upper single numbers and teens above zero by dawn.  However, especially in the Champlain Valley, it will "warm up cold" as strong south winds add a wind chill bite to the air during the morning. 

However, by mid to late afternoon, many of us will hear the drip, drip, drip of water from the icicles hanging from the eaves of our houses. Yes, most of the warmer valleys will actually above freezing.

The Great, Brief Cold Shot of '23 will be over.

Video. Scenes of the Friday's insane chill around Burlington and South Burlington. Mostly of the steaming Lake Champlain, but other shots of people who did not look happy with the chill

Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, you can click on that to watch as well: