Vermont Frigid Weather To Go On Endlessly, But Nor'easter Will Be A Whiff

Sun began to poke through the trees this morning in
St. Albans, Vermont after some light snow earlier.
It will stay cold for the foreseeable future. 

 Yesterday was the day that this month officially turned colder than average. At least as measured in Burlington. 

A fairly warm start to the month meant temperatures overall were averaging above the 1990-2020 mean That is until the big cold wave hit last Friday. 

The Arctic air has been offsetting that warmth earlier in the month. So as of yesterday, Burlington was a fraction of a degree colder than that average for January. 

Today and the next two days will drive January's average to a level decidedly below average. And February looks like it will turn out to be a frigid month. 

At least yesterday "warmed" up. Burlington got up to 19 degrees, the hottest it's been since late afternoon last Friday. I hope you enjoyed yesterday's heat wave, because the temperature is plunging once again.

A weak disturbance is coming through today, which explains the patchy light snow parts of Vermont have been seeing this morning. It won't amount to much, with pretty much everybody getting less than an inch. Some places in southern Vermont won't get anything at all. 

NEW COLD WAVE

But everybody is going to share in the reinforced cold air. By "everybody" I mean all of us here in Vermont, and practically everyone east of the Mississippi River. 

The core of the cold air is still plunging almost due south, from Ontario, Canada today, to the Ohio Valley tomorrow,  then to the Southeast, in and around Georgia by Saturday. 

There's already been dozens of record low temperatures set over the past few days in the South. This push of frigid air will mean more record lows.

The air temperature of this blob of Arctic air isn't all that unusual as it passes through places like Marquette, Michigan and Gary, Indiana. Sure, it's much colder than normal for them, but the upper Midwest sees this kind of thing almost every winter. 

The fact that the air is plunging so far south, all the way to Florida, really, is what makes this special.  Northern and central Alabama and Georgia could see readings in the low to mid teens Friday and Saturday nights. That's not including the windchill. 

In Orlando, Florida, it could get as cold as the low 20s Saturday night. Usually, winds are pretty calm when Florida gets a freeze like this. But Orlando's winds could be howling up to 35 mph late Saturday and early Sunday. That'll bring wind chills into the single digits.

In Miami, actual temperatures will probably fall into the mid-30s. If Miami gets down to 36 degrees, it would be the coldest in 15 years. If it gets to 34, it'll be the coldest since 1989.

For us in Vermont, we're in the frigid-but-we've-seen-it-all-before crowd.

A cold weather advisory goes up for all of Vermont except the Champlain Valley. this evening and lasts through late morning Friday. Wind chills should be in the 20 to 30 below range. In the Champlain Valley, wind chills should reach the teens.

Temperatures in the teens today will go well below zero tonight and rise only to the single numbers tomorrow around Vermont. It'll stay cold like that through Sunday, though highs Saturday and Sunday should be back up in the teens. That's not an impressive warmup, that's for sure. 

THE NOR'EASTER AND BEYOND 

The cold punch of air in the southeast will stir up that nor'easter we've been advertising for days. The nor'easter will get quite strong by early Sunday near the North Carolina coast. A winter storm watch is up for the Carolinas and northeastern Georgia, as they might get several inches of snow. 

The nor'easter still looks like it could brush far eastern New England, but Vermont still looks safe from the storm. We might get clouds and a stiff, cold north wind, but that's about it. 

It looks like we might get a break of sorts early next week, when high temperatures could rise into the low and mid 20s, and overnight lows would rise into the single numbers. Those figures are only a little colder than average.

But after that, signs point toward more Arctic air arriving and lasting quite a while. The only hope here is that forecasts that far out - a week from now - are often inaccurate.  In this case, I'd very much like to be wrong about the newly cold air later next week.