Nor'easter Zips Away, Leaving New England To Deal With Cold Winter Winds

The snow was over and the sun was out early this 
morning in Vermont. But it's cold, so it's hard to 
get all the snow and slush off the roads. Salt isn't
working great. This is Route 100 in Ludlow 
around 8 a.m. today on a traffic cam grab.

 Our nor'easter from last night, true to form zipped on past and is pretty much out of our hair as of this morning. 

It pretty much played out as expected, though there were a few twists and minor surprises involved with it. 

Once it got its act together, the storm seemed even a little more dynamic than I might have expected. It provided northeast New Jersey and the New York City area the spectacle of thunder snow, which is always fun. 

Apparently the extra oomph the storm had allowed it to overcome the dry Arctic air flooding in from the northwest. 

Which meant even the northern Champlain Valley managed to see a little fluffy snow.  Here at my place in St. Albans, Vermont, I collected 1.9  inches of basically feathers. 

It was early when I was writing this, so far I haven't seen a lot of snow reports coming in. Far southern Vermont got the most, as expected. 6.5 inches was reported in Readsboro with 6.1 at Woodford State Park. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington said there might have been some extra moisture off of Lake Champlain that added a little to the snowfall in Addison County, but we didn't have reports from the area as o 7:30 a,m

COMING UP

As long planned, it's cold out there. 

It seems the core of this massive Arctic outbreak is hitting the middle of the nation and then the Deep South, so we're sort of being just clipped by it here in Vermont and the rest of New England. 

Almost all of the nation from the Rockies east are under cold weather advisories or cold weather warnings. (So far, we haven't quite met the criteria for such an alert in Vermont yet).

A bizarre winter storm is still expected starting later today and going into at least Tuesday along the Gulf Coast. 

As expected, far southern Vermont got the most snow,
with reports of around six inches or a little more. Early
morning revealed a winter wonderland along
Route 9 in Searsburg in this traffic cam grab.

Even though we're not getting the worst of it here in the Great White North of Vermont, it's so cold your home thermostat will probably give you the middle finger, and it will stay that way through Thursday morning. 

Temperatures in Vermont a little before dawn were mostly in the single numbers above zero to around 10 degrees. The sun is coming out very nicely in most areas, but that won't heat us up. It actually won't get any warmer than it was early this morning.

If you're ignoring the frigid inauguration in Washington DC today and instead heading up to ski at a resort for end of the long Martin Luther King Day weekend, first of all, you're nuts.

But if you insist, note the wind chills up in the mountains today will be in the 20s to perhaps 30s below zero. You really better be wearing the right clothes if you do this.  

 Tonight starts a three-night string in which most of us get below zero. This won't be anywhere near record cold, of course.  Record lows this time of year are in the 20s below in the Champlain Valley and many places elsewhere in Vermont have been known to get into the 30s below in the past.

Instead, this time, it'll be 0 to 5 below in the Champlain Valley the next three nights and in the 5 to 15  below elsewhere. 

Daytime "highs" will be 5 to 15 above today through Wednesday. 

The timing of this cold snap is very typical. On average, the coldest weather of the winter hits around a month after the winter solstice, and that's where we are now.  It's all uphill from here, but don't get too optimistic. We can get some really bitter air, colder than the current blast, right into mid-March. 

Still, we have at least a temporary warming trend coming up, as readings will rise to pretty average levels by Thursday afternoon and beyond. 

By Sunday, current forecasts have it turning hazy, hot and humid, at least compared to the weather we're having early this week. By that I mean afternoon temperatures by Sunday could reach the low 30s. 

Plus, the days are getting longer. Sunset this afternoon is a good half hour later that it was at the winter solstice in December. 

Spring hasn't sprung, but we're getting there, and it will hit faster than you'd think.