Quick Vermont Thursday Evening Arctic Blast Update

The latest wind chill forecast, issued Thursday afternoon
from the National Weather Service office in South 
Burlington still indicates 40s below wind chills coming up

 Not much change had come through for our brief but intense Arctic blast, scheduled from later tonight through Saturday. 

First of all, today wasn't all that nice to begin with, at least in the Champlain Valley. Sure, it was seasonably warm, near 30 degrees. 

But with winds gusting to around 35 mph, wind chills were in the teens at best, and that cold snow blowing off roofs and slamming into my face as I walked around St. Albans, Vermont today wasn't fun.

But the joy gets more intense tonight, as advertised. The Arctic cold front, with its really heavy but brief snow squalls, should enter northwestern Vermont by around 10 p.m. tonight, reach roughly a Middlebury to Newport line by around 11 p.m., and pass by Rutland and St. Johnsbury by midnight.

It looked like on radar that some preliminary lighter snow showers were already crossing the International border into Vermont as of 5:15 p.m. today. That might develop a few little slick spots on northern Vermont roads before the main show arrives later.

Temperatures are still expected to crash fast behind that cold front.  An example is a forecast I saw for Burlington, which has the temperature at 19 above at midnight and 6 below by 9 a.m. Temperatures would then stay around 6 below all day before crashing in the evening to lows Friday night in the mid to upper teens below zero.

The worst wind chills are forecast to come between about 3 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday. In the mountains, the expected wind chill would be as low as 84 below atop Mount Marcy, New York and 73 below atop Mount Mansfield.

In lower elevations, expected wind chills would range from about 39 below in Springfield to minus 50 in Newport. Stay indoors, kiddies! 

If you hate the cold, forecasts are still solidly calling for a big warmup beginning Sunday. Several days next week will get above freezing.  

More details coming tomorrow morning, once we're into the heart of the cold. It will be interesting to see whether this cold wave is more intense, or less intense than forecast.