Quick Wednesday Evening Vermont Weather Update, Squalls, Then Very Cold, Then More Snow?

Snow squalls like this one approaching St. Albans,
Vermont in February, 2022 are possible Thursday and
Friday afternoons. Note in the background
the sudden transition from 
nothing to torrential snowfall.

Since the weather is getting very exciting once again, I figure some more frequent updates should be in the cards here. 

There's a series of things we need to look out for here in Vermont over the next few days:  

Scattered snow squalls tomorrow and Friday, bitter cold Friday night into Sunday at least, and then effects from that giant southern and central U.S. storm. 

THIS EVENING

Some light snow is working its way northeastward through the state this evening. It won't last long, but the expected inch or less of snow will be just enough to make the roads iffy tonight. 

SNOW SQUALLS

Quite a few snow showers and some snow squalls are on the agenda for both tomorrow and Friday afternoon and evening. It's impossible know when and where the squalls might hit this far in advance.

Just be ready for fast changing conditions on the roads if you're out and about tomorrow afternoon and evening, and Friday afternoon and evening. One minute you're in clear air on a dry highway, next minute you're in a whiteout on icy roads. 

It won't hurt to listen for snow squall warnings from the National Weather Service. If your area goes under one, it's probably best to postpone travel until the snow squall passes.

Each day, the snow showers will deposit an inch or less of snow on most of us. The heaviest squalls might leave up to two inches, and the Green Mountains could get a two day total of 2 to 5 inches.

BITTER COLD

The National Weather Service has issued an extreme cold watch from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon. We'll see rapidly falling temperatures to below zero with gusty northwest winds. Wind chills could reach 30 below. It would probably be best to reschedule outdoor activities during that period.

It'll remain at or below zero Friday night through at least late morning Sunday. The extreme cold watch expires Saturday afternoon because winds will turn light.

MORE SNOW?

A lot of the computer models are insisting on bringing some snow from that expected vast winter storm in the southern, central and eastern United States up into Vermont. 

I'll have a complete update tomorrow morning. 

Nation Faces Days Of Extreme Cold, And Huge Winter Storm Of Ice And Snow (Vermont Forecast Included)

Huge area in red on this map is expected to be affected
by a massive winter storm this weekend. 

The next several days will be peak winter across most of the United States.

And downright dangerous. 

Most of the northern tier of the United States from North Dakota to New England is in for intense cold. In northern Minnesota, wind chills could drop into the mid 50s below zero.  

Even worse, a massive winter storm is taking shape. It'll extend from eastern New Mexico, , through the southern and central Great Plains, then across  much of the South and the eastern United States.

The placement of who gets the worst of it is still a little in question, but the area affected will be massive. 

A large area across the South is expecting a crippling ice storm. Those most affected will endure possibly days-long power outages and severe tree damage. To the north of the ice, snow accumulation in some areas might be measured in feet, not inches. 

People across the South away from the immediate Gulf Coast are being told to stock up on food and supplies, just in case. 

The storm won't really start until Friday, but the warnings are already sounding pretty dire. Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Associated Press that the storm could be a "widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas....I don't know how people are going to deal with it."

The odd thing is this won't be a huge, strong low pressure system causing the problem. Instead, a massive blob of heavy, frigid Arctic air will press down into the southern United States. Then, a wet flow of warm, lighter, humid air will glide over this bitter cold air. The rising air will unleash a barrage of snow and freezing rain onto the millions of southerners shivering on the ground below. 

The storm will likely consolidate and finally grow stronger near the East Coast toward Sunday night. 

New Mexico and Texas will be hit first on Friday, then everything will spread eastward and eventually somewhat northward through the weekend and into the beginning of next week. 

This could easily become the first weather disaster of the year costing $1 billion or more. We'll have much more on this over the next several days as the storm develops.  

VERMONT IMPACTS

A classic cold winter afternoon sky yesterday over
St. Albans, Vermont. By this weekend, we'll
REALLY be shivering in subzero cold. 

Frankly, we're in for some miserable midwinter weather in Vermont, but overall, we're lucky.

We won't be nearly as cold as places like Minnesota. That massive storm should either give us a slight glancing blow, or not affect us at all.  

But we have a bit of snow in the forecast, some wind, and eventually that bitter cold air. Even when the chill eases off a bit toward the beginning of next week, we'll be mostly on the colder than normal side  right into February. Possibly through most of February. 

A series of weak weather fronts will harass us today through Friday. A lame warm front today will spread light snow through most of Vermont this afternoon and evening. Almost everyone will see an inch or less of accumulation. The mountains, as always, could pick up a bit more than that.

But even that little bit will probably make the roads a little iffy for the drive home from work this evening. 

The warm front will bring temperatures to the low 20s this afternoon, then those readings will hold steady tonight. In the Champlain Valley. Temperatures will actually slowly warm up overnight as south winds gust to 40 mph or even a bit more. 

Enjoy tomorrow, as it will be the last warm-ish day for quite awhile. Highs should briefly reach the low or even mid 30s in a few spots. A cold front coming at us will probably set off more afternoon and evening snow showers. A few spots away from the Champlain Valley might even see a brief snow squall. 

Once again, though, most places will see an inch or less, with - as always - a little more in the mountains. Like today, tomorrow's snow showers could once again make your drive home from work or school tomorrow afternoon a little annoying.

Thursday's cold front won't introduce us to the super cold air. It'll only get a little chillier. Another cold front on Friday will be the one to make us absolutely miserable. 

The first half of Friday should be OK, with temperatures within a few degrees either side of 20. But the wind will pick up and the temperature will fall all afternoon. Wind chill alerts will probably be issued starting later Friday and going through much of the weekend. 

We'll start the day with subzero temperatures Saturday morning, and those of us who get above zero Saturday afternoon will be the lucky ones.

Saturday night will be super cold. Early guesses are teens below zero. That's not even close to record cold territory, but it's much worse than what we've gotten used to. Clouds from that massive storm in the south might - again if we're lucky - keep us from getting even colder.

That huge storm is forecast to pass far to our south Sunday night. An early guess has it heading off the coast around Delaware.  Some of the forecast models are suggesting a little snow could make it all the way north into Vermont Sunday night despite our great distance from the storm. 

That moisture will be battling the very dry, cold air over us, so I'm still dubious as to whether we'll get any snow. I'll keep an open mind, though. 

It'll probably stay cold through next week and probably beyond, but it won't be quite as bad as what we'll deal with this coming weekend. 

Trump Says Climate Change Is A Hoax. But That's Partly What Got Him So Obsessed With Greenland

Donald Trump's desire to seize Greenland is likely less
about national security and more about mining the 
island's riches, and climate change. 

If I had a penny for every time Donald Trump said climate change is a hoax, I'd be as rich as he claims to be. 

And yet. Trump's latest foolishness with Greenland has been brought about in large part by the very climate change he denies. 

Let's set the scene: 

As you may have heard, Trump is insisting that the U,S. annex Greenland. He keeps yakking about "national security," that Russia or China will arrive in take over Greenland in about an hour unless the U.S. does so first.

In reality, it probably isn't so much about security. Existing security agreements, and NATO, preclude Russia and China from causing too much trouble in Greenland.

Remember, the basis of NATO is if one member is attacked, the whole organization is attacked. So in a world without Trump, if somebody invaded Greenland,  U.S. and NATO forces would defend the Arctic island. 

I don't believe China or Russia would take such a big risk. I've seen a lot of analysis out there that says the same thing. 

Of course, if the U.S. attacked Greenland, that would be a war against Denmark. As PBS notes, NATO has no obvious way of dealing with open conflict among its members. 

That's why an American invasion or non-consensual takeover of Greenland would probably end NATO.

Here's why Trump might want to see NATO go the way of the dinosaurs: 

Trump and his oligarch cronies really want to exploit the natural resources up there in Greenland, including diamonds, lithium and copper.  These minerals are super valuable nowadays because we need them to build things like batteries and smart phones.

I also surmise that Trump sees NATO as an obstacle to obtaining those riches. He's probably looking for a convenient way to put NATO into the garbage dumpster of history.

Or something like that. 

Trump doesn't even have to take over Greenland for "national security." 

A 1951 treaty with Denmark gives the U.S. military carte blanche to do pretty much whatever we want in Greenland's territory. We could send thousands of troops up there tomorrow if we need to. So, as futurism.com tells us, there's no national security need for us to take over Greenland. 

Which means "national security" is just a fig leaf for Trump and his gang to make more money off his presidency. It's all transactional. 

IT'S CLIMATE

The Washington Post had a nice analysis of the situation in Sunday's editions. This one paragraph helps crystalize the situation. And tells us why climate change matters in all of this.  

"The prospect of the United States using military force against the NATO ally, as Trump has floated, could end the decades-old defense pact. His bid for the territory is one of the most concrete examples of how climate change is influencing geopolitics. As the northernmost parts of our planet continue to warm, the effects could change the ways the international community operates."

 The Arctic is warming at four times the rate of the rest of the world. The extent of Arctic sea ice is declining. That, in turn is exposing some potential tantalizing sea routes on top of the planet. 

 Here's how WaPo lays out the stakes:

"'The freeing of the Arctic from sea ice, at least seasonally, will create an entirely new theater for economic and security competition,' said Joseph Majkut, director of the energy security and climate change program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'And while we've know that is going to be the case for some time, it seems we're at an inflection point.'"

A study in the journal Nature said that if the planet warms by a total of 2 degrees Celsius over the average in the late 19th century, the open water period in the Arctic would increase to 63 days each summer.  If that warming goes above 3,5 degrees above the Victorian Age climate, the Arctic could be open for shipping at least three months out of the year.

Of course we don't know how long it will take to get that warm, so all bets are off. 

There's another issue related to the climate change that Trump says is a hoax. As Greenland's vast ice cap inexorably melts, the diamonds, lithium and copper Trump and his billionaire buddies covet become more accessible.  

"His fixation on Greenland is an admission that climate change is real," John Conger, and advisor to the Center or Climate and Security said in the New York Times, as futurism.com points out. 

Trump probably also wants Greenland so he can change the rules up there. 

The New York Times notes that Greenland has banned uranium mining. Uranium is often found right alongside rare earth minerals like lithium. The ban is already facing legal challenges, and if Trump takes over Greenland, that no uranium rule would be gone in a flash.

It turns out Trump thinks climate change is real. The "hoax" language he uses for our warming world is just one of many ploys to gin up his cup. 

 

SUNY Oswego Webs Cam Spectacularly Shows How Changeable Snow Squall Season Is

An intense snows squall slams into the campus of 
SUNY/Oswego on Monday. See the series of photos
at the bottom of this post to watch how the
squalls unfolded. 

I occasionally checked in with State University of New York/Oswego web cams on Monday, watching dramatic views of how fast the weather changes in the winter on the shores of Lake Ontario.

The photos in this post kind of go back and forth a little between two SUNY/Oswego web cams. One   web cam is at Hart Hall, which offers stunning late afternoon views of the lake. The other at Shineman Center is equally as good. 

In the series of photos below, you'll see a large snow squall approach. I believe this dark cloud was a snow squall along a cold front, or a trough line ahead of a cold front. 

The main band of lake effect snow formed a short time later and continued pummeling the lakeshore northeast of Oswego overnight and this morning. 

The squall in our series of photos was almost certainly enhanced by moisture from Lake Ontario. The part of the series from when the wall of snow seems to be at the edge of campus to when visibility drops to near zero came within about five minutes or less. 

Once that squall goes by, it clears up dramatically. But you can see new snow squalls starting to form. The new line of snow squalls, as mentioned, are the ones pummeling areas mostly a little south of Watertown, and a little north of Oswego today. Total accumulation in New York's notoriously snowy Tug Hill region could be up to four feet. 

In this morning's SUNY/Oswego web cams, you can just barely see the heavy lake affect snow band in the distance, on the extreme right edge of the camera's view.  

The cam grabs I have in this video cover about an hour and 15 minute period. The series of photos are below. You can click on individual images to make them bigger and easier to see.  Enjoy!

Sort Of Cold Today In Vermont As We Await Severe Weekend Arctic Blast

"Planet Claire" style skies over West Rutland, Vermont
during last evening's northern lights display. Photo by Brent
Barnett via Meteorologist Jess Langlois/Facebook
 

 It really wasn't quite as cold this morning as I thought it might be here in Vermont, which is great news, considering what's coming.  

I hope you didn't miss it, but skies partly cleared last evening, so a lot of us got to see the northern lights. 

Viewing from the naked eye, it looked like the northern half of the sky over St. Albans had a pink haze. It almost made me think we were on the B-52s' Planet Claire.  "Planet Claire has pink air....."

Most of us started the day in the teens, which was actually a smidge above normal. Those readings won't go anywhere today. We'll stay right there in the teens. 

Tonight will get down into the single numbers above zero for the most part. The cold hollows might sneak a degree or two below zero. Banana belt towns might hold closer to 10 degree for so.  No biggie.

We've got one more brief warm up coming in before the bottom drops out of everything. The upcoming "warm" spell won't really feel that way since winds will be gusty most of that time. Wind chills ruin everything. 

Tomorrow will get into the 20s on increasing south winds. Tomorrow night will hold in the 20s as those south winds get stronger. The Champlain Valley could see gusts to 40 mph or so.  Nothing earth shattering, you'll hear the roar in the trees

The balmy day will be Thursday when many of us will hit the low 30s ahead of that Arctic cold front blasting out of Canada.

We won't get much snow out of what will essentially be a series of cold fronts. Some of us, especially in the northern Green Mountains, can expect some scattered snow showers tomorrow.  We'll have even more snow showers Thursday, and a couple towns might see the snow come down pretty hard, but really briefly. 

Between now and Thursday night, most of us will get less than an inch of snow. The Green Mountains could score a couple of inches.

COLD WAVE

I'm sort of burying the headline hy waiting until now in this post to talk about the Arctic cold that's coming. But it's still three days away, and it's easier for me to do things chronologically. Sue me. 

We will however, go from the above mentioned Planet Claire to bone chilling former Planet Pluto.

Well, OK, the average temperature on Pluto is minus 387 degrees Fahrenheit, says NASA.  I know we won't get that cold. But this weather wimp will whine that it will feel like 387 below. 

At this point, the cold wave looks like it will be a long slog, with the worst of it coming from Friday night to Monday night. 

The chilliest daytime during this whole escapade will probably be on Saturday. Many towns, especially in northern Vermont will probably stay at or below zero.

If Burlington's high temperature does not make it above zero Saturday, it will be the first time that's happened in four years.  If it stays under zero, that will make it the first time since January, 2018 they've stayed below zero all day. 

The expected low temperatures Saturday night should be mostly in the teens below zero. That'll likely make it the coldest night since February 4, 2023.

A slow warm up should start early next week, but temperatures will stay below normal.  

We'll have more on the cold snap as it draws nearer.

Russia's Northeast Coast Is Buried In Unbelievably Deep Snow

Digging out from incredible snows in Kamchatka, a
region on the Pacific Ocean in Northeast Russia 

I saw a lot of images on social media showing ridiculous amounts of snow in Kamchatka, a  region o Russia on the Pacific Coast.

Those images looked so surreal that I thought it was all just AI slop.

Turns out at least a few of those images are the real deal, even if many others were fake.

Kamchatka, a city and region near Russia's Northeast Coast, has had storm after storm since December. The snow depth on the ground is at least as deep as a normal person is tall. 

According to the Moscow Times:

"In December, Petropavlovsk-Kamchastsky saw triple the monthly average of snowfall, while January 1-16 saw around 150% more than the monthly average for the period. The average height of snow in the city reached 170 centimeters (5.5 feet) with drifts exceeding 2.5 meters (8 feet) in certain neighborhoods.

'The last time we saw something like this was over 50 years ago, in the early 1970,' said Vera Polyakov, head of Kamchatka's Hydrometeorology Center. 'These conditions are exceptionally rare as far as modern observations go.'"

Reuters reports that close to 33 feet of snow has fallen since early December in the region around Kamchatka.

Schools have been closed and public transport is shut down. 

In the past couple of days, temperatures have risen to just above freezing. That is causing huge amounts of snow to slide off roofs, which is dangerous for anyone standing nearby. A 63-year-old man died when  he was struck by a massive snowfall off of a nearby roof. 

Enormous, falling icicles are another danger. 

More snow and wind is forecast for Kamchatka today through next Monday with temperatures hovering near freezing. 

The Kamchatka region is on Russia's northeastern coast, across the Bering Sea.  The area has a population of roughly 310,00 people.

Storms similar to nor'easters in New England and southeastern Canada regularly sweep through the region. Kamchatka often sees big snowstorms. But they've never seen anything like this in many decades, at least.

If you think you've heard of Kamchatka before, it might be from this summer, when a powerful offshore earthquake rattled the region and generated a damaging tsunami that slammed into the coast. 

Video:

A lot of videos I've seen of Kamchatka's snow appear to be at least partly AI. I've never seen so much AI slop online connected to one incident. There were several "photos" of snow drifts reaching to the 10th or higher floors of apartment blocks. Didn't happen. Welcome to the grim new world in which everything is fake, and nothing can be trusted, I guess.

But I found one video that I THINK is genuine. Part of it contains images of people gleefully jumping from upper story windows in apartment blocks and floofing into deep snow, Yes, I know "floofing" isn't a real word, but you get the picture. 

  

Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

 

Later in the day, the New York Post put up this even better video of the incredible snow in Kamchatka. Again, click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Normal Jet Contrails Send A Florida Congressman Into A Chemtrail Conspiracy Tizzy

The alleged chemtrails Rep. Greg Steube said were
over Florida "sky's" over the weekend. These 
are standard issue jet contrails, but I guess
weird conspiracy theories are moree fun. 

 I'm in an abusive mood today, so I'm going to pick on somebody you don't know, but it'll be worth it.

We're talking about Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida), an esteemed member of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. 

We're going after Steube because over the weekend he took a short video of a beautiful blue sky streaked with a few jet contrails.

To most of us, those contrail streaks are bits of frozen water from the exhaust of passing jets. They are just long, streaky clouds. To Steube, the white streaks in the sky were the dreaded chemtrails. (insert ominous music notes here).

Steube, posted on X  three times on Saturday, with photos and a video of the sky.  Steube wrote the following on one of the post; "Was a clear sky this a.m., now this. Didn't Florida ban spraying chemicals in our sky's (sic). We need to ban it nationwide. There is no way that water vapor would stay that long in the sky." 

Um, then how do other clouds stay in the sky for hours or even days?

Most of the contrails in Streube's photos seemed to be heading in the same direction, suggesting an established flight path. So it shouldn't have been surprising to see contrails. The video included a jet leaving behind a fresh contrail, which I guess to Steube was "proof" of the chemtrail attack. 

To illustrate how ridiculous the post was, a community note was added to it, noting chemtrails are just a conspiracy theory, and what Steube saw in the sky was standard issue contrails.  

Chemtrails don't exist, no matter how often some people insist otherwise  A few people who see the enemy everywhere think jet contrails are a secret government plot to spray chemicals into the air for some nefarious purpose. Mind control? Population control? Who knows?

The debunked conspiracy theory dates back to at least the 1990s. But with an ever-widening social media audience, people are still cranking out the idea that harmless ice crystals are out to kill us. 

Most of those posting about chemtrails probably know they don't exist, but spreading weird, scary false stories is great for clicks and views, I suppose. 

Speaking of scary it's more than a little frightening that a U.S. Congressman believes in chemtrails.

As Raw Story tells us:

"Given the important role Steube plays as a sitting member of the influential House committee, that frequently receives highly classified briefings on national security threats, helps shape intelligence laws and policy and oversees intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI, his apparent reference to a decades-long debunked conspiracy theory alarmed some onlookers." 

Note in Steuben's X post that reference to Florida banning spray chemicals in, as Steube, put it, the "sky's."

Florida, and some other mostly Republican states, have passed laws banning or restricting geoengineering and weather modification. The impetus behind these laws is, surprise! chemtrails.

Around the time Florida passed its law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier talked breathlessly of Florida being under attack from "toxic particulates being sprayed into our atmosphere."

The toxic particles beings sprayed into the atmosphere are thse chemtrail screamers. You'd think an allegedly educated politician would know better.

But apparently not.  

 

Will Lake Champlain Freeze Over This Winter

There was still a lot of open water on Lake Champlain
 as of Sunday as this photo shows. But an expected
long, intense cold spell could eventually make
the lake freeze over for the first time since 2019.

 We've got a LOT of cold air headed toward the eastern United States, including here in Vermont. 

That frigid air looks like it might last quite awhile, too. Does this mean Lake Champlain will freeze over? Possibly, if the chill lasts long enough. 

If Lake Champlain does completely freeze over, it'll be the first time it's happened since 2019. In 2022, it came this close to freezing entirely, but there was always at least aa small hole of open water in the lake that winter. 

As of Sunday the huge expanse of the broad lake was ice-free. Bays, estuaries and coves were frozen, as they almost always are this time of year. But even inside Burlington's breakwater, there was no ice. After a warmish early January, we'll need a brutally long cold wave to ice over this lake. 

Such a cold wave seems to be a distinct possibility. 

It's not at all odd to have open water in Lake Champlain during mid-January.   Typically, if the lake turns into wall to wall ice, it doesn't happen until the very end of January or in February. There's been a few years in which the lake didn't freeze until March.

There's Lake Champlain freeze over data dating all the way back to 1816. But back in the 1800s and early 1900s, there were no planes flying over the lake to confirm it was entirely frozen. I imagine some historic "freeze overs" were actually only close, but no cigar.

After 1930, I could only find two years - 1977 and 1981 - in which the freeze over hit before today's date. 

If the lake doesn't freeze over this year, it would tie the record for most consecutive years of winter open water on the lake. The only other time six years went by without a complete freeze over was 2008-13.

Climate change is making it harder to freeze Lake Champlain. Since 2000, the lake has only frozen over eight times. It used to be more frequent than that before the world started substantially warming up

COLD FORECAST

The eastern third of the United States will be taking a break from that climate change warmth over the coming days and weeks. 

This will be a widespread, intense cold wave stretching from the northern Plains to New England and down into the northern Gulf Coast states. 

Locally here in Vermont, it still looks like most of this week won't be that bad. It'll certainly be cooler than the weekend was, but still pretty reasonable for a Vermont January. 

We'll get an initial taste of the cold tonight through tomorrow night. Highs Tuesday will only be in the teens, and it'll get close to zero in some towns Tuesday night .

Lake effect snows will go gangbusters this week
with an area south of Watertown, New York
expecting three to four feet of snow by Wednesday.

We'll briefly warm into the 20s for highs Wednesday and Thursday before the bottom drops out of everyone's thermometers.

In Vermont, and throughout the Northeast, it'll be an old fashioned cold wave. 

By that I mean it will be reminiscent of the long Arctic spells we used to see in the 1970s.  In recent decades, intense cold snaps were hit and run affairs. They'd blast in with their intense chill, then with a day or two, it was over.

This one looks to arrive this coming Friday and last perhaps for nearly a week. That means a long stretch of "high" temperatures near 0 or, if we're lucky the single numbers above zero. Each night will go below zero with some of those nights far below zero. Like teens and 20s below

At least that's the way it looks as of this morning. There are always changes to the forecast as we get closer to an event, and this is no exception. 

Frigid weather regimes like the one we're entering are usually quite dry, and that will be the case here. Remember, warm air can hold a lot of moisture. Bitter cold air holds very little. So, at most, we expect a few snow flurries from time to time in the valleys, and slightly heavier snow showers in the mountains. 

The next chance for any accumulating snow is when the cold front introducing the super cold air approaches us toward the end of the week. There's a chance of a few heavier snow showers or snow squalls around Thursday, but we're not too sure about that yet. Even that would only give us an inch or two of snow. 

The exception to the very little snow rule will be downwind from the Great Lakes. 

In New York, Lake Ontario will help produce the biggest monster snows. The infamous Tug Hill region south of Watertown could have four feet of new snow by Wednesday morning. 

Lake Erie freezes over more quickly than Lake Ontario, because it's much shallower. Since ice is forming on Lake Erie, the snow belts south of Buffalo, New York won't be quite as bad as the Tug Hill region. Still, up to two feet of snow could come down in areas near Lake Erie.

I don't have any information yet on how the lake effect snows will work when the real cold air arrives next weekend. 

I don't see any signs of any balmy weather coming to the Northeast anytime soon. The best I can give you is that the chill might ease off somewhat by the time we get into February. 

 

Minnesotans Find Ally In Frigid Weather In Battle Against ICE

The now-infamous image of the ICE agent slipping
and falling on an icy Minneapolis street has become
a symbol of how winter-tough Minnesotans
are enduring the battle against ICE
oppression much better than the federal
forces in town to take away all the immigrants

The Battle of Minnesota between federal ICE agents and the good people of Minneapolis and other cities rages on. 

The citizens of frigid Minnesota have discovered they have one key ally in their struggle against the excesses of these often out of control federal agents. Winter. Including the regular slippery, not Gestapo ice, as in frozen water. 

Minneapolis has so far had the kind of winter we've had here in Vermont. Lots of freeze/thaw cycles and bouts of freezing rain to make everything even more interesting underfoot.

Judging from the videos of ICE agents slipping and falling on the ice, much to the delight of their many critics, I think the boots issued to ICE agents weren't exactly made for a Minnesota winter. 

Very much like Vermonters, Minnesotans know instinctively how to deal with winter. How to dress for it, how to embrace the cold. As The Other 98% wrote on Facebook:

"Beyond the spectacle of agents in tactical gear skidding on black ice, this moment reveals something deeper about the confrontation: A clash between a highly militarized federal apparatus and a community rooted in lived experience.

Many protestors have come equipped with insulated gear, boots with traction spikes and the kind of winter sense from years of Minnesota cold rather than federal training manuals. That difference - lived winter resilience versus bureaucratic enforcement - is playing out in real time on city streets."

Demonstrators are also using winter as a tactical tool against ICE, and against at least one right wind agitator who came to Minneapolis, and quickly fled. 

A constant hot spot in the Minneapolis unrest is the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE agents are headquartered. The weather turned much colder in the past few days in Minnesota. Protestors dumped water on the pavement near the building to form ice that could hinder, or at least annoy ICE agents. 

ICE ended up arresting four people, who they called "agitators" for "refusing to disperse." It appears ICE was irritated that they (allegedly) "threw objects, shouted profanities and endangered  the public by pouring water on the roads to create icy, hazardous conditions."

Judging from those ICE falling on ice videos I mentioned, the water on road idea just might be effective. 

On Saturday, Jake Lang, a right-wing nut and pardoned January 6 rioter, tried to lead an anti-immigration demonstration in Minneapolis, but hundreds of Minnesotans did not want to put up with his garbage. 

So, they chased Lang out of town, throwing punches at him, which I'm a little concerned about, and spraying him with water from squirt guns, which I'm not even a little concerned about. Temperatures hovered near 10 degrees at the time, and Lang did not appear dressed for the weather. 

Although video showed a little blood coming out of the back of Lang's head, he reportedly was not seriously injured. But I bet he was damn cold. 

Meanwhile, Trump is toying with the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy 1,500 federal troops to Minnesota. 

Critics, and there are a lot of 'em, say doing that would just escalate the uproar over ICE raids, at least some of which look legally dubious. It also appears ICE agents' interactions with protestors aren't always kosher, either.

In any event, the Pentagon is ordering about 1,500 active duty soldiers to get ready for what might end up as a deployment to Minnesota. The soldiers are with the Army's Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division, which specializes in cold-weather operations. 

 It looks like the Trump administration is beginning to notice the difficulty of dealing with a northern winter.  

Minnesota weather is now frigid and getting colder. Temperatures are only in the single digits with snow falling today. It'll be below zero tonight. An even stronger Arctic blast is due in Minnesota by next weekend.  

People out in the streets are rooting for the Arctic blast. The New York Times quoted Chris Foreman, a military veteran who has joined the protestors near the Whipple Federal Building: "I want it to get cold.....People know that a lot of these ICE guys are from the South. They're coming into a different environment and they're not used to it."

Frigid weather tends to slow things down. I hope that the Arctic cold will bring the temperature down figuratively as well as literally. 

Southern Vermont Finally Sees Snow; Much Colder Weather Due

Traffic cam grab of Route7 in Shaftesbury, Vermont
showing yesterday's snow and more snow falling
A new winter weather advisory has been issued for
Vermont's southernmost two counties. 

 Southern Vermont, which has so often missed out on snowfall this winter, finally got a  little bit Saturday, and a little more is on the way.  

Both Bennington and Brattleboro received 5.5 inches of snow on Saturday. There might have been slightly higher totals in the southern Green Mountains, considering the town of Savoy, in the Massachusetts Berkshires, received 10.5 inches.

Most places in central and northern Vermont received two inches or so of fluff on Saturday.

Now, it turns out southern Vermont is getting even more snow.

That offshore nor'easter we mentioned yesterday is indeed staying offshore. But its band of moisture is extending further northwest than expected. That means Bennington and Windham counties are once again under a winter weather advisory. 

Those areas should get another two to five inches of snow. The southern Vermont snow is coming in two waves. One is going through this morning well ahead of the storm.

Meanwhile the actual nor'easter is now forming in the southeastern U.S.  We can confirm those snowy predictions in Florida. Some snow was falling in northwest Florida early today. A winter storm warning is in effect for a couple counties in northwest Florida for one to two inches of snow. Those winter warnings extend through southwest and central Georgia.

It's astounding that northwest Florida has managed to get two snowy Januaries in a row.

Anyway, our nor'easter will really rocket past New England tonight, sending another wave of light snow through central New England, including southern Vermont. It should be over with by tomorrow morning. 

WARM TO COLD

Forecast weather map for next Sunday. If it pan
out, this is a textbook map for a huge Arctic outbreak
Strong, huge frigid high pressure from Canada 
seen plunging into U.S. with huge area of 
bitter north winds in the eastern half of 
the United States,

Today will be the "warmest" day we see in a long time. Highs should make it to around 30 for most valleys today.  

An increasingly cold and dry pattern is set to start tomorrow, with waves of frigid air coming our way. 

Tomorrow will make it into the 20s, which isn't too bad, but gusty winds will make it feel worse.The first of these cold fronts will make Tuesday cold, but not incredibly so. Expect highs that day in the teens with lows near zero.

After a brief warmup into the mid and upper 20s by Thursday, a more intense and longer lasting cold wave will blast in. That'l affect not only Vermont, but pretty much all of the central and eastern United States.

Here in Vermont, we probably face several days with below zero temperatures, starting next weekend and continuing into the beginning of the following week.

We'll have more details on that as we get closer to that icy nightmare. 

Warm Winters Are Shutting Down Alpine Ski Areas In Europe

A French ski area closed and abandoned because winters
no longer provide enough snow to make many
ski resorts viable. Photo by Thomas
Valentin/Guardian 

Europe just got over what has become in recent years a rare blast of winter weather. 

It's only been a week and a half of chilly, snowy weather, and who knows what the rest of the winter will be like over there.  

Cold, snowy spells in Europe's ski areas are getting more and more unreliable, this month notwithstanding. 

The warmer, climate changed world means that the European ski industry in suffering. And in many cases, disappearing. 

As the Guardian tells us: 

"In France, there are today 113 ski lifts totaling nearly 40 miles in length that have been abandoned, nearly three-quarters of them in protected areas. It is not just ski infrastructure. The Mountain Wilderness association estimates that there are more than 3,000 abandoned structures dotted around French mountains, slowly degrading Europe's richest wild terrain. This includes military, industrial and forestry waste, such as old cables, bits of barbed wire, fencing and old machinery."

Some closed resorts look like they were hit by a neutron bomb. Everything is still the way it was left last year, or a few years ago, but all the people are gone 

The Céüze 2000 ski resort in the southern French Alps closed for the season at the end of the winter, 2018. Pretty much everyone assumed it would open the following winter. 

But it didn't. Six years after that 2018 spring closing, a yellowed newspaper dated March 8, 2018 remains on a table next a half-empty body of water. A staff scheduled remained pinned on a wall.

The resort needed at least three months per year of decent skiing to at least break even.  That had pretty much stopped happening. 

The resort had been open for 85 years. But it is now one of many ghost ski areas in the French Alps and elsewhere. The Guardian reported that 186 French ski resorts have closed since winter snows began getting unreliable in the 1990s. By the 2010s, a few winter nights were as warm as summer nights should be. 

France now has 113 ski lifts totaling almost 40 miles that have been abandoned. 

One major problem with the shuttered ski areas is pollution. Equipment rusts and that rust runs into the ground. Insulation and other material from deteriorating buildings scatters around the landscape.

The Guardian says in France, the law requires ski lifts to be removed if they are no longer in use, but the law applies to ski lifts built after 2017.

However, many of the older defunct ski areas in France might be left to rot into the ground. 

The problem isn't limited to Europe. As CBC tell us, more than half of the ski resorts in North America have disappeared since the 1970s. There's a lot of reasons for that, but one of them is climate change that have made winters in many areas less reliable. 

In the United States, the average ski season between 2000 and 2019 shortened by five to seven days, according to Earth.org. Those numbers could double or triple by 2050. 

Here in Vermont, skiing is hugely important to the state's economy. Last year was good after a rough start. This year so far has been quite good, too. But in general, winters are getting warmer, which melts the snow almost as fast as it can fall.

At least as measured in Burlington, seven of the top ten warmest winters have occurred since 2001, and the top four since 2016. Vermont ski areas have invested heavily in snow making to recover more quickly from the warm spells. 

Will that be enough, or will Vermont and other Northeast ski areas go the way of the French Alps?

Not immediately, for sure. But eventually, the ever-rising global temperatures don't really bode well for the future of skiing in many places around the world. 

 

Florida Cold Worst In A Few Years. A Little Snow Thrown In, Too?

In this photo from Facebook, somebody Friday morning
wrote their state's name on window frost somewhere
in southwest Florida. 

Beach weather is on hold in sunny Florida as sharp cold fronts have dropped temperatures into the 20s in many locations, and are threatening a little snow near the Georgia border. 

Temperatures fell to as low as 18 degrees in Cross City, in northern Florida. Jacksonville had a record low of 22 degrees. Other record lows were reported in some cities in southern Georgia. 

Other cities that did not set record lows but still shivered included 24 degrees in Ocala, 30 degrees in Melbourne and Daytona Beach and 32 degrees in Orlando. 

Maybe they should have temporarily turned resort water parks to ski slopes?

A new cold front is expected to bring another bout of chill to Florida starting tomorrow. This one could deposit a little snow in extreme northern parts of the state.

Forecasters have been backing off on the amount of snow that might fall. If it does, it'll only be a dusting across parts of the panhandle near the Georgia border.

This won't be anything like last January, when a snowstorm shattered records along the Gulf Coast and northern Florida. As much as nine inches of snow fell in the Florida Panhandle. 

Still, two consecutive Januaries with snow in Florida would be something. 

The cold front that brought the incredible snow last year to northern Florida last year did not push significantly into South Florida.

This year, chilly temperatures covered the entire state. 

The temperature Friday morning in Miami was 44 degrees. It was not a record low, but it was the chilliest the city has been in three years. Fort Lauderdale reached 43, also the coldest in three years. 

This was enough for iguanas to rain down from the trees, temporarily paralyzed by the cold. Manatees huddled in big herds in bays and estuaries fed by warm springs to keep warm. 

The next cold front, the one that might bring snow to the northern tip of the Florida will give only a glancing blow to the southern parts of the state. It should be in the low 50s in Miami by Monday morning.  

Mostly Southern Vermont Snow Today, Trending Colder Next Week

Total snow accumulation through this evening, 
included whatever fell last night. A few places in
southern Vermont could see 6 inches of snow. 

 For most of us, it actually warmed up overnight, setting the stage for a snowy, mild Saturday in Vermont. 

Most of the snow, as we mentioned yesterday, will hit southern Vermont, but all of us will see a few flakes. 

The winter weather advisory has been expanded into Windsor County, so now all four southern Vermont counties are under that advisory. 

It looks like everyone along and south of Route 4 will see a total snowfall of 3 to 6 inches by late tonight. Those three to six inches will extend northward along the Green Mountain spine to about Sugarbush Resort. 

Some of the northern Green Mountains will also see three or four inches as well. At least that's the way things looked as of this morning. 

Elsewhere in Vermont, expect about an inch or two of snow, with maybe three inches in a couple spots in the Northeast Kingdom. 

It'll be a great, comfortable weekend to enjoy the snow, too. Highs today in the valleys will be in the low 30s, with temperatures Sunday afternoon running within a few degrees either side of 30. Winds won't be all that strong either, staying under 20 mph for the most part.  

Snow will have largely ended Sunday, so at most, we'll see just a few snow flurries under mostly cloudy skies. 

The ski resorts must be loving this, given that it's the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. 

NOR'EASTER WHIFFS

A storm is developing in the Southeast that could actually give a dusting of snow to a few spots on the Florida Panhandle tomorrow morning.  The storm will strengthen into a nor'easter as off the East Coast. In the so close and yet so far department, it'll be east of New England early Monday morning. 

The nor'easter will stay too far east to give Vermont any additional snow. Sure, eastern New England might get a few inches, but unless something surprises the hell out of New England meteorologists, it's not in the cards for the Green Mountain State.

The well-advertised colder air will be at our doorstep on Monday.  South winds will increase, especially in the Champlain Valley. So highs in the 20s that day will feel colder with the gusts. As the cold front approaches, it will generate very little snow, unlike some fronts that introduce a bout of colder air.

TURNS COLD (BUT NOT RIDICULOUS)

Starting Tuesday, temperatures should stay near to below normal, but it's not looking quite as frigid as forecasts from a few days ago hinted at. The frigid air isn't really plunging south from Canada as much as it could. It's coming in from the northern Plains then heading east. It'll modify and warm up a little bit by the time it gets here.  

Was nice to see the sun out for awhile yesterday, but the
clouds should mostly hang tough 
for the next few days

There will also be a pool of absolutely ridiculously cold air in central and northern Quebec, but for now, anyway, westerly jet stream winds will keep that insanely frigid air north of the border. 

The bottom line is we expect highs next Tuesday through next weekend in the teens and 20s, with lows in the single digits, with some nights getting below zero in spots 

We're in what is normally the coldest part of winter now, so we're lucky that for the time being at least, we're not getting into the kind of air that would get us into the 20s below zero. 

Interestingly, it hasn't been below zero in Burlington since December 9. For now it looks like the next chance of Burlington getting below zero would be about a week from now. 

The overall weather pattern looks like it will keep us mostly on the cold side probably into early February at least. It remains to be seen how cold, of course. If we stay lucky, it will only be moderately cold. But if things change only very slightly, that supply of ultra-frigid air could sneak down on us from Canada.  We can't be sure of anything like this until a few days before it hits. 

The weather pattern will remain active, with frequent chances of light snow or flurries. But for now, it looks like today's snow in southern Vermont is the most we'll see for awhile.  

Friday Evening Update: A Little Extra Snow In Vermont Forecast, Especially South

National Weather Service has ticked up expected
amounts of snow late tonight through early Sunday
morning, especially in southern Vermont. 

Just want to post a quick Friday evening update to note an uptick in expected snow amounts late tonight and Saturday. 

Most of northern Vermont is still expecting just light snow showers and periods of light snow starting late tonight and going into tomorrow evening. 

Total amounts in the north have ticked up a bit, but will still be an inconsequential one to three inches in most spots. Of course the central and northern Green Mountains will see more than that. 

The problem is in southern Vermont. It turns out a fairly dynamic but somewhat moisture-starved system  might have a little bit more moisture than first thought.  

So, Rutland, Bennington and Windham counties are now under a winter weather advisory starting around midnight-ish tonight and going until tomorrow evening. 

Most places in this area can expect three to six inches of snow, except maybe closer to two inches in far northwestern Rutland County. 

Southern Vermont ski areas, which have looked longingly at the northern Green getting dumped on, really want to see some big snows. They won't get a blizzard, but the National Weather Service is going for four to eight inches in the Green Mountains from about Killington south. 

So, pretty good!

The snow will never come down all that hard, but maybe moderately at times in the mountains. 

Temperatures should get into the low 30s in southern Vermont valleys and Champlain Valley tomorrow, so the snow there will be kind of on the wet side. 

You might encounter some slippery road conditions anywhere in the Green Mountain State between the hours before dawn tomorrow and later Saturday night.  Captain Obvious tells me the worst roads will probably be in the southern Green Mountains, which will see the heaviest snow. 

U.S. Just Had Fourth Warmest Year On Record. Was Also A Busy Storm Year

Virtually all of the Lower 48 had a warmer than normal
year in 2025. Those little white spots were close to 
average. Overall, it was the fourth warmest year on record.

The United States had its fourth warmest year on record in 2025, and it was an active storm year, according to a year in review from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

The report from NCEI came out the same time as their global report for 2025. That report, as I posted about Thursday. indicated the the world had its third warmest year in 2025 and that the past three years have been by far the world's warmest on record. 

Per NCEI:

"Temperatures were above average nationwide, with the most pronounced warmth across the western third of the country. The Rockies and Westward region, stretching from the West Coast through the Rocky Mountains, recorded its warmest annual temperature on record."

The United States might have had its warmest year on record, or close to it, had we not experienced January, 2025 the way we did. It was the coldest since 1988.

But things quickly heated up from there, as NCEI explains.

"This was followed by the second-warmest spring on record, driven by widespread warmth across the Southeast, where Florida recorded its second warmest May. Summer heat included a late June heatwave affecting over 100 million people ad record warm July overnight temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic.

Anomalous warmth persisted into the latter half of the year, as meteorological fall ranked as the nation's third warmest. Following a November that saw five states set monthly records, nine states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming - recorded their warmest December on record." 

In the end, Nevada and Utah had their warmest year on record. Including those two states a dozen had one of their four warmest years on record. Here in Vermont, the state as a whole had its 18th warmest year. As always, the relative temperatures within the Green Mountain State varied. Burlington had its ninth warmest year. 

The United States as a whole had a drier than normal year. The lower 48 had an average of 29.19 inches of precipitation, which was 0.73 below average.

No state had an extremely high or low amount of precipitation. Kentucky had its ninth wettest year on record and Florida had its 11th driest. The Plains were a little on the wet side, and the East Coast and Southwest were somewhat on the dry side. 

STORMS/DISASTERS

The United States suffered through 23 weather/climate disasters in 2025 that cost at least $1 billion, according to Climate Central.

These 23 disasters cost a total of $115 billion, which is above the inflation-adjusted average of $67.6 billion. Only five other years were more expensive, with 2017 being the worst, with $405.2 billion in damage. 

Tornadoes

The United States had a preliminary count of 1,559 tornadoes in 2025, which is above the average of 1,225 twisters. The past year had the fifth highest tornado count on record. 

 Despite the extra tornadoes, and the strong ones that occurred in 2025, the death toll from twisters was close to average. Sixty-eight people died in tornadoes in 2025, compared to an average of 71.

North Dakota had quite a tornado year in 2025. The first EF-5 tornado - the strongest you can get - since 2013 touched down near Enderlin, North Dakota on June 20. North Dakota also had the most tornadoes in a single year with 72 of them. The old North Dakota record for a single year was 61 in 2010.

Hurricanes/Tropical Storms 

The Atlantic basin had 13 named storms in 2025, which is a smidge under the average. For the first time  since 2015, no hurricanes made landfall in the United States, which was a welcome break from a string of disastrous hurricane years. 

We were especially lucky since many of the hurricanes that did form were unusually strong. Three Category 5 hurricanes formed, which is the second  most on record. There was also Category 4 Gabrielle.

Easily the worst hurricane of the bunch was Melissa. A dropsonde recorded a wind gust of 252 mph at an elevation of 820 above the ocean as the hurricane was approaching Jamaica. That was a world record, exceeding the previous dropsonde record of 248 mph in Typhoon Mega in the western Pacific Ocean in 2010. 

DECEMBER IN REVIEW

December was incredibly warm in the West, with nine
states having their hottest December on record.
The Northeast was a little on the cool side. 

As mentioned above, the notable news about the December was the huge area in the West that had its hottest December on record. Overall, last month in the Lower 48 was the fifth warmest on record, NCEI tells us.    

Most months this year had very few areas in the United States that were cooler than normal However, in December, chilly air in the Northeast slightly offset the heat in the west. This helps explain why December was only the fifth warmest, and not the warmest.  

Nine northeastern states were cooler than most months in the 131 years of record. But none were particularly close to the coldest on record. The closest to the record was Pennsylvania, which had its 36th coolest December, so not that impressive. Here in Vermont, we had our 42nd chilliest December out of the past 131 years. Again, not an impressive record.

The West was impressive, however.

Three of the nine western states (Utah, Nevada and Arizona) that had their hottest December broke the previous record by more than 2.5 degrees. It's exceeding rare to break a previous hottest month record by one degree or more. 

Also three states - Utah, Wyoming and Colorado - were more than 10 degrees warmer than average. Again, that's an incredible feat. 

Precipitation in the Lower 48 averaged out to 2.01 inches, which is 0.33 inches below average. Like temperatures in December, precipitation was maldistributed. 

The central and southern Plains and most of the Gulf Coast were much drier than they should have been. Oklahoma had its driest December on record. Oklahoma City, for example, had just 0.09 inches of rain in December. They should have had about 1.8 inches. 

Seven other states in the parched region had one of their top ten driest Decembers on record.

On the opposite extreme, Washington, Montpelier, Idaho and Wyoming had one of their top ten wettest Decembers on record. 

 

Back To Winter Here In Vermont. But It's Worse Elsewhere

Though remaining snow ended in most of Vermont 
overnight, light snow continued in parts of the 
Champlain Valley past dawn. This is a traffic cam
grab of Route 7 in Ferrisburgh at around 8 a.m today.

The cold air is back in Vermont.  It makes it feel like today's date is not January 16, but January 359. January always seems like by far the longest month of the year. 

In Burlington, yesterday was the last of nine consecutive days with above freezing high temperatures. I can guarantee it will stay below freezing today. 

During the transition to colder weather in Vermont yesterday afternoon, we ended up with some lingering trouble on the roads.  

The incoming cold air stalled out temporarily, and temperatures in most places east of the Champlain Valley stayed a bit above freezing until afternoon. In the Champlain Valley, a little freezing drizzle fell in the late morning before precipitation changed to light snow. 

The result of all this was some nasty Vermont roads for awhile. There were some crashes along Interstate 89 in the Bolton area. Another two vehicle crash was reported in Fairfax.

Since this is blessed Vermont, things once again were much worse elsewhere. That's almost always the case. 

Areas in the snow belt regions of the Great Lakes saw a rash of big highway pileups over the past couple of days. 

In New York, not far from Syracuse, at least 36 vehicles crashed into each other on Interstate 81, injuring at least seven people. Two big pileups occurred in Pennsylvania, one on Interstate 90 in Erie County and another on Interstate 80 in Clarion County. 

On Wednesday, at least thirty vehicles piled up on the Indiana Toll Road in Elkhart County on Wednesday amid heavy snow there. 

Up in Toronto, Canada, nine inches of snow snarled traffic and closed schools. 

 VERMONT FORECAST

Higher elevations did get cold enough for some snow overnight Wednesday and early Thursday, even as valleys remained above freezing and rainy. The most I saw was 4.7 in Craftsbury and 4.6 in South Albany.  Other mid-elevation locations had maybe two or three inches. Very little fell in most valleys. 

 More light snow broke out Thursday afternoon and night. This was light, fluffy stuff. At least it created a thin layer of fresh powder atop the old crust from previous, rain-soaked snows. 

 The additional snow yesterday afternoon and last night amounted to one to three inches in some areas of northern Vermont. Valleys in southern Vermont pretty much missed out. 

Here in St. Albans, Vermont, at my place, I received 1.1 inches of snow. A third of an inch of that was that crusty, schmutzy stuff from yesterday morning. The rest was feathery fluff that fell from late afternoon yesterday to early this morning. 

The snow overnight has been especially persistent in the Champlain Valley for some reason.  I bet some places in the central and southern Champlain Valley and adjacent Green Mountains to the east picked up at least two inches of fluff, judging from radar images. 

Judging from traffic cameras, most roads in Vermont didn't look too bad, though some in the southern Champlain Valley and through the Green Mountains had some snow on them. Likely icy patches, too.

We probably aren't going to see much snow going forward. At least for the next few days. The heavy stuff will be mostly limited to lake effect near the Great Lakes, the kind that contributed to those pileups in Pennsylvania and New York. 

As expected, it's cold this morning, with temperatures in the single numbers in most places. It'll stay cold today, with highs in the teens to near 20.

The chill should ease off over the weekend. It'll pop back up into the low 30s in the valleys Saturday and within a few degrees of 30 degrees on Sunday. 

While we're experiencing average January weather here on Sunday, it might actually snow a little in the Florida panhandle. If it does, it'll be the second January in a row with snow there. Though last year's snow was much bigger, epically breaking records. 

We'll always have a chance of some light snow and flurries all weekend. Most places will have an inch or less. However, the southern Green Mountains could pick up a few inches from the tail end of lake effect from the Great Lakes. 

BITTER COLD RETURNS

On Monday, it's beginning to look like a nor'easter will pass by New England, offshore. At this point it looks like it will have little, if any effect on Vermont. But we'll watch this, because if the storm tracks further west than expected, we could see some snow, especially south and east. 

That would be nice, as that part of Vermont has largely missed out of snow lately. 

The nor'easter is iffy, the forecast for frigid weather is not. The middle of next week will be brutal, with highs probably staying in the single number and low teens and lows below zero. Nothing even close to record breaking but still very noticeable. 

It'll stay cold late next week and beyond, but we're not yet sure how cold. Frigid air will lurk nearby for the rest of the month, and occasionally, ooze on in to send temperatures below zero again. 

The weather pattern will remain active, with several disturbances and storms in the mix later next week and beyond. It's way too soon to say which ones, if any will affect us. It's always possible one or more of these could give us a big dump of snow, but there's no way to determine that right now.