We Just Had Vermont's Coldest Night Of The Winter. Uphill From Here? Snow Looms, Too

The "Haze Cam" looking toward Juniper Island in 
Lake Champlain, showed wall to wall ice cover 
this morning. I'm guessing the whole lake
is now frozen after this morning's subzero cold

Congratulations, Vermonters!

Most of us, anyway, just endured the coldest morning in the winter of 2025-26. Unlike other parts of eastern U.S. we didn't break any record lows. 

And, scattered across the state, there were a few exceptions to the "coldest morning" designation. But you get the picture. 

As expected, areas that were able to stay clear with light winds cooled off the most. Burlington got to at least 12 below, making this the coldest morning since February 5, 2023. The winter of '23 was actually exceptionally warm, except for two brutal days early in February that year.

Lake Champlain was this close to freezing over completely yesterday.  There were just a few holes in the ice left just offshore of Port Kent, New York,  I guessing the lake is entirely frozen today. It sure looked like it is from the Haze Cams at the University of Vermont that are pointed at the lake. If the lake is 100 percent frozen, it's  the first time since March, 2019 that's happened.

Most places across Vermont were in the teens below zero this morning. Newport was at 19 below. Morrisville and St. Johnsbury got to at least 18 below. I saw a reports of 16 below out of Bennington and Rutland.

Across the pond in New York, perennial ice box Saranac Lake was at 26 below. Watertown, New York was 27 below, which is positively balmy compared to the minus 35 they endured there Sunday morning. 

There were some weird exceptions to the cold. Montpelier had a breeze until 7 a.m. So far, their low is an unremarkable 5 below. 

Springfield, snug in the Connecticut River valley, is sometimes colder than many other places in Vermont. But they were at 2 above zero with a light north breeze at 6 a.m.. But things can change rapidly in frigid mornings like this. Springfield's winds went calm, and they had fallen 7 degrees to minus 5 by 7 a.m. 

The warmest place in Vermont was probably the summit of Mount Mansfield, They were at 0 degrees at 6 a.m. The second morning of a cold snap, when high pressure is centered nearby, often creates an inversion. We've got that going this morning. A layer a few thousand feet over our valleys is relatively warm compared to what we've been dealing with in the valleys. 

Except for those "warm" spots this morning, I think there's a decent chance that this morning will turn out to be Vermont's coldest until next winter. No promises, though. 

TODAY THRU WEDNESDAY

A new snowfall map with two to six inches of new snow
expected for most of us between Tuesday and Wednesday
afternoons. Heaviest snow Tuesday evening. 

That inversion will at least partly mix out today. With the sunshine, that'll allow us to get into the teens above zero. A 30 degree increase in temperature from dawn to mid-afternoon is pretty impressive, even if it won't exactly seem toasty warm once we get past noon.  

Tonight, temperatures should initially crash with clear skies and light winds. But changes are afoot. Overnight lows in the single digits to low teens below zero should hit by midnight, and then it will slowly start to get warmer. 

After that, we have some snow to talk about. We haven't had any absolutely tremendous historic winter storms this winter, at least not here in Vermont. (Other places certainly have).

But the timing of most of our mid-sized storms seems to be bad, and that looks like it might be the case on Tuesday. We've got an Alberta clipper coming at us from south-central Canada.

As it approaches, it will have a strong warm front attached to it. That warm front, which will never actually make it into or through Vermont, probably will still bring us a period of heavy snow just in time for Tuesday's evening commute. There's still time for the forecast to change a little, but that's the way it looks now.

The heavy snow will only last two or three hours in any given location, but for many of us, it will dump a quick two or three inches of snow in that timeframe. Slick roads and poor visibility could make the drive home on Tuesday unpleasant to say the least. 

After that initial big burst, some snow will linger overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday.  Again, unless something changes, it looks like we can expect 2.5 to 5 inches of snow. Some places in the central and northern Green Mountains might end up with more than six inches. 

The second half of the week will settle into uneventful weather with average temperatures for this time of year. We're seeing signs temperatures could go a little above freezing over the weekend, more likely Sunday than Saturday. 

If it does get above freezing over the weekend, it will end the longest continuous streak of sub-32 degree air since the January 26 to February 21, 2015, when we had 27 consecutive subfreezing days.  Out of the last 141 years of record, subfreezing streaks lasting as long as the one we're in now have only happened 20 times, according to the National Weather Service.

So, yeah, this is an odd winter.