As El Nino Builds, July Tied For World's Hottest On Record, August Running Super Hot, Too

The world tied the record for the hottest July, according
to NOAA. If anything, August might be even 
further above normal as El Nino takes hold

As I noted in a previous post, El Nino is building on climate change to bring the world's temperatures to new heights. 

While we're heading into the last days of August, we see the July data is fully available. 

Data released about a week ago indicated July, 2026 tied with 2024 as the hottest on record. This is according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.  Since July is normally the world's hottest month of the year, so 2026 and 2024 are the world's hottest month on record. 

The Julys of 2023, 2024 and 2026 were the only Julys that were 1 degree or more Celsius above the pre-industrial average. 

Climate change has been going on for quiet awhile now, it's just accelerating lately.  For instance, the last time the world had a July that was at least a little bit cooler than average was in 1971.  

Land areas in the Northern Hemisphere were easily the hottest on record, breaking the previous 2024 record by 0.12 degrees Celsius, or 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Hot Oceans

Even more ominously, global ocean temperatures reached a record high for July. About 70 percent of the world is covered by oceans. Heat is released into the atmosphere, where it causes mischief in the form of record heat, droughts, and unusually vicious storms.

Overall, on average, world ocean temperatures peak in the spring, then declines until June, then rise to a secondary peak in early August, then slowly begins to decline again, 

This year, the global average ocean temperature rose rapidly since July, reaching an all time record of 21.1 degrees C as of August 21.  This odd late season increase has almost everything to do with the burgeoning El Nino. But since ocean temperatures were already elevated by climate change, it was easy for the oceans breaking records. 

Relative to average, the warmest places were most of North America, Greenland and Iceland, western Europe, Central Africa, northwest Asia, parts of Russia and Siberia. 

As usual in this climate-changed world, there were few areas that were on the cold side, and most of the "cold" areas were just barely, compared to the 20th century averages. The cool areas were Alaska, the persistent cold blob in the Atlantic south of Iceland, parts of Antarctica, and, marginally, parts of northern and central Europe. 

UNITED STATES

The Lower 48 of the United States had its 
hottest month on record in July. All states
were warmer than average.

In the United States, we had the hottest month on record in the Lower 48. Not just hottest July, ,though the month is usually the hottest of the year.   

Every state in the Lower 48 was warmer than normal, which is an extreme rarity. Even when the Lower 48 has an overall warm month, a few states are at least a little cooler than normal. 

While everyplace was warm, the hottest relative to average were in the central and northern Rockies and in the northern Plains. 

When you add up all the states that were way warmer than normal and sort of warmer than normal, we end up with the hottest month on record for the Lower 48. 

Wyoming had its hottest July on record. Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and North Dakota had their second hottest July on record. A total of 18 states had one of their top ten warmest Julys on record. Vermont had its 31st hottest July on record. 

Overall, the Lower 48 was drier than normal. Typical of summer the wet areas and dry areas were pretest spotty and random. 

Despite the dry theme, there were intense local floods, including in the Texas Hill Country and in the Northeast. 

New England had some of the most extreme disparities in precipitation. Southern New England was wet, with Rhode Island seeing its sixth wettest July on record. By contrast, Maine had its fourth driest July on record. 

Vermont had its 47 driest July out of the past 132 years. 

Meanwhile, August around the world has been running super hot. It's widely expected to be the hottest on record. We'll have updates, of course, when complete data for August becomes available.  

Spring Is The United States Storm Season: Dramatic Videos Prove It

Damage from an extreme hailstorm in Springfield, Missouri
in April. Video of the storm is in this post, Photo from 
Springfield Daily Citizen via Facebook

As we all know, spring is the tornado and storm season in the United States. That always leads to some pretty dramatic videos.   

We've got some of them here to let you gawk at Ma Nature at her angriest. Let's get right to it: 

During an outbreak of tornadoes on April 17, the town of Lena, Illinois was hit hard. The tornado was seriously wrapped in rain, so you couldn't see the actual funnel. 

And the parts of town that weren't' actually hit by the tornado were hammered by a wall of intense rain and wind that did its own damage .

The tornado itself was an EF-2 with top winds of 130 mph. 

The video is a web cam that recorded the maelstrom moving into the city. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Also, there's another Lena web cam that has a different perspective basically overlooking the entire town. Click on this link to view that one. 

In our next video, we see the benefits of obeying the safety rules when a tornado seems imminent. 

Two women were keeping track of a tornadic storm on their phones as they sat in the kitchen of a Minnesota home. 

When the wind suddenly picked up. The women quickly decided to run downstairs, with their two dogs in tow.  See in the video what happened next. Spoiler: The women made the right decision. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

On April 23, a massive tornado, an EF-4 with top winds of 170 mph, struck part of northern Oklahoma. It hit the southern edge of Vance Air Force Base before sliding along the southeast corner of Enid, Oklahoma.  It wiped out about 40 homes in a subdivision, but miraculously didn't kill anybody. There were ten relatively minor injuries.

The video below shows that as bad as this tornado was, things would have been much, much worse, had its path been the same, except displaced a little bit to the northwest. Enid is a city with a population of about 51,000. Had it gone through the middle of town, the destruction would have been extreme 

The video is a time lapse from a web cam that overlooks downtown Enid. You can see the tornado come  in from the right side of the view.  It eventually gets lost in an area of torrential rain, but it was still causing its damage even when it was invisible in the rain. 

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

Springfield, Missouri was hammered by a huge hailstorm on April 28. Some of the stones were at least softball sized, so you can imagine the damage. Sadly, the hail killed an emu at the local zoo. An unknown number of cars were damaged or destroyed, but the number of vehicles wrecked had to be in the thousands.  

At the Springfield-Branson National Airport, hundreds of cars left in the parking lot by people who flew to wherever were trashed, with busted out windows and huge dents. 

Per the Washington Post: 

"Some passengers had to be buses around 100 miles away to the airport in Bentonville, Arkansas because rental cars were damaged. (Airport Public Information Officer Ren) Luebbering said airport staff spent three hours covering the most badly damaged vehicles with donated tarps. 'We think we put 300 or 400 tarps out there on cars," Luebbering said. The airport warned online, 'Expect damage to your vehicle."

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

Here's another view of the chaotic Springfield, Missouri hail storm. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 On April 28, an EF-3 tornado caused a lot of damage in Mineral Wells, Texas. The tornado was wrapped in rain and hard to see. In this video. people in a car inadvertently drive to very near the edge of the tornado. The wind is howling on this freeway and debris fills the air. Pretty scary! As always, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

During another round of severe weather in the South,  storm chaser Daniel Shaw was driving near Monterey, Louisiana. They didn't see any tornadoes, but the lightning really put on a show. The video shows plenty of lot of lightning strike and Shaw kept saying they are not getting out of the vehicle. 

The end of the video is what really shocks, literally. Shaw is parked in a Family Dollar parking lot when the building gets hit by lightning. Let's 

 As always click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: 

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby's videos often make an appearance in these video highlight posts I occasionally issue. This is not technically one of Rigsby's videos but he stars in it. 

That same batch of lightning barrages affected Rigsby. He was chasing severe storms in Mississippi when lightning struck the Toyota Rav 4 as he sped down a highway. The car is toast.  Rigsby said he is OK, but felt the buzz of electricity when it struck.  He got into another storm chaser's car to continue the hunt for tornadoes.

Inside Edition has the story. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on this. 

So here's something different: A time lapse of an enormous iceberg passing by the town of Ilulissat, Greenland on April 13.  Looks like a mountain kind of saying, "never mind me, just passing through, I'll be out of here in no time. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Epic Blizzard Of '26 Winding Down After Setting Records, And Wowing People With Snow, Wind

New York City, like many other places in the Northeast
endured blizzard conditions today. A few areas set
all time snowfall records, while a few more
were closing in on their records. 

 The Great Blizzard of '26 is departing this evening, but it certainly will take awhile for many to get over it. It was a record-setter in some places. And a lot of places are buried under more than two feet of snow.
 

As of 3:45 p.m. today, a little over 6,000 flights had been canceled today, says FlightAware.com.  The mess doesn't necessarily end tomorrow. Even though the snow will be over, the hang over from today had already forced 2,000 cancelations Tuesday. Some more will probably be added. 

As of around 4 p.m. today, more than 570,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast. That includes more than 287,000 in Massachusetts and just under 100,000 in New Jersey. 

Power crews in Massachusetts weren't able to get to outages this morning and early afternoon because of zero visibility, blocked roads and winds of up to 65 mph

New England

It was still snowing in eastern New England late this afternoon, but some pretty incredible totals have already been reported. And they're setting records. 

As of 1 p.m., Providence, Rhode Island has 32.8 inches of snow, shattering the city's record for biggest snowstorm in its history. The old record was 28.6 inches in the famous Blizzard of '78, February 6-7, 1978

Rhode Island's statewide record for biggest snowstorm also has an excellent shot at being broken. 

The National Weather Service office in Boston said it would update all the snow totals in southern New England at around 7 p.m. this evening. 

Warwick, Rhode Island, about eight miles south Providence, had 36 inches of new snow. The record for biggest snowstorm in Rhode Island was also in the Blizzard of 1978, when 38 inches of snow fell on Woonsocket. 

North Kingston, Rhode Island was close behind at 35 inches. In Massachusetts, 33 inches of snow fell on Dartmouth, 31 inches fell so far in Somerset and 30 inches hit West Hanson.

The National Weather Service office in Boston said it would update all the snow totals in southern New England at around 7 p.m. this evening. 

Coastal flooding was a problem today, too. As with all the strongest nor'easters in New England, weather influencers flocked to Scituate, Massachusetts to watch enormous waves crash into a seawall then surge onto the rooftops of a row of houses. 

New York/New Jersey

The New York City area wasn't hit as hard as Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, but hard enough.  

As 1 p.m.  New York City's Central Park had collected 19.7 inches of snow, but more snow fell after that. If no more accumulates, it will be the city's ninth largest snowstorm on record. 

New York seems to have gotten a glut of big snowstorms in the past 30 years. Including today, eight of the Big Apple's 10 biggest snowstorms have occurred since 1996. That's an impressive statistic since Central Park records go back all the way to 1869.

Most places in the New York metro area, southern Connecticut and New Jersey received at least 15 inches of snow with several reports of more than two feet. 

Newark, New Jersey was coming close to its all time record for biggest snowstorm. They had 27.1 inches by 1 p.m. today. The record in Newark for biggest snowstorm was 27.8 inches in the blizzard of 1996.

As mentioned this morning, the strongest winds were on the eastern end of Long Island. Montauk Point registered a gust to 84 mph. 

Blizzard warnings in and near New York have been lifted, but winds will keep blowing snow around. As the storm wound down, temperatures in New York City got slightly above freezing, but it will get much colder tonight. That means the slush on city streets will freeze.

However, in a sign oa a return to normalcy, New York City Public schools will reopen tomorrow. 

New York City was still seeking emergency shovelers to get at bus stops, crosswalks, fire hydrants and other public places. Pay starts at $30 an hour and increases to $45 an hour after the first 40 hours worked. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

As expected, this monster storm was too far south to be a big deal in the Green Mountain State.

Bennington received only 3.6 inches of snow out of this. I have an unconfirmed report of 7 inches on a high elevation in far southwest Vermont.

 I don't have any other snow reports from anywhere else in Vermont, but I know that nobody in the Green Mountain State got anything notable.  Way up in the northwest corner of Vermont, I managed to see a brief, very light snow flurry today. So the official total here from the Blizzard of '26 is a whopping trace.

It's going to stay cold now through Tuesday night as the departing offshore enormous nor'easter pulls down cold air from far to our north. It'll get into the single digits for the most part tonight, only reach the upper teens and low 20s tomorrow and then probably get into the single digits tomorrow night. 

A weak system could give us maybe an inch of snow Wednesday, but that doesn't sound scary.

I'll have more details on Vermont's weather future in tomorrow morning's post. Spoiler: No historic storms are in Vermont's near future 

 

Blizzard of '26 Peaking This Morning; Southeast New England Hardest Hit

Satellite view this morning of the extreme nor'easter creating
the northeast blizzard. Note the eye-like feature of the
storm center, the cold front extending down through the
Bahamas and the bumpy look to the clouds in
southeast New England, which indicates very heavy snow

As expected the Blizzard of '26 raged all night and is still going strong. 

The only major change is that it made a slight jog to the south, so the northern fringes of the storm won't be as snowy as first thought. That affects us here in Vermont, but we were never going to get the brunt of this thing anyway. 

More on the Vermont forecast further down in this post. 

Southeastern New England and Long Island, New York seem to be the hardest hit places. Again, that was expected, but it's literally cold comfort to the people who live there. Or anywhere else affected by the blizzard.

As of 7:30 or so this morning, more tham 5,600 flights had been canceled today, according to FlightAware.com

Also as of 7:30 this morning, about 463,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast. That number will certainly rise as the storm continues to rage. 

This is still obviously a developing story and there will be much more. But let's break what we've got so far down by regions.

New York/New Jersey/Southern Connecticut

Montauk Point in eastern Long Island reported a wind gust of 84 mph. Stony Brook, Long Island peaked at 74 mph. Many gusts in the New York, metro area and New Jersey were in the 55 to 65 mph range.

Through 7 a.m. Quague New York, on Long Island had 23.5 inches of new snow. Islip, Long Island reported 22 inches of new snow. New London, Connecticut had 17 inches and the Bronx had 15 inches 20. Central Park also reported 15 inches of snow, the most in a single storm since 17.4 inches in 2021. It was still snowing as of 7:15 a.m, so Central Park will likely go over that 2021 total

 There were many reports of 12 to 16 inches in New Jers3ey. It was still snowing at 7 a.m., so those totals will go up. 

So far, about 126,000 customers had lost power in New Jersey and 21,000 or so in New York. 

We're still awaiting word on how severe coastal flooding has been. I did see some video of water entering streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I'm shore there is at the very least beach erosion on the Jersey Shore.

The snow should stay intense in this region until around mid-morning, when it should begin to tape off, west to east. The snow should move out entirely this afternoon, except maybe in central and eastern Long Island. Winds will stay strong and gusty, so the snow will keep blowing around.

Travel bans and states of emergency remain in effect today. 

New England Except Connecticut

Screen shot of WBZ-TV meteorologist Jacob Wycoff
enduring the blizzard blasting through 
Marshfield, Massachusetts this morning. 

The blizzard in southern and eastern New England was absolutely raging as of 8 a.m. today and the region has quite a few hours to go before it all ends.

Large areas of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts had whiteout conditions. In addition to the heavy snow, wind gusts in the 50 to 65 mph range w4re common. 

As of 7:15 a.m, 20.4 inches of snow had piled up in Exeter, Rhode Island. South Kingston, Rhode Island had 19 inches. As those reports came in, the heaviest snowfall was covering almost all of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts from about Boston south. 

Snowfall rates of three inches per hour in spots should continue through the morning. Eastern New England should have additional accumulations this afternoon. I'm sure some towns will report 30 or more inches of snow. 

Hourly weather reports from places that still had power were insane. At 8 a.m. Hyannis, Massachusetts reported heavy snow with winds gusting to 69 mph. Nantucket was gusting to 70 mph. Boston at 8 a.m. was reporting heavy snow with north winds at 38 mph gusting to 52 mph. The weather in Providence, Rhode Island was almost identical to Boston, except Providence was gusting to 63 mph .

The snow was pretty wet and heavy, especially south and east of a Boston to Providence line. What will amount to 1 to 2 feet of wet cement style snow propelled by wind gusts to near hurricane force in an area that is both fairly heavily populated and heavily forested means big trouble. 

I'm sure trees and power lines are being absolutely mowed down as I write this. Already, as of 8 a.m., 172,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses were without power and that number was noticeably rising. 

In some areas, residents have been warned that it could take day before power is restored. And while the blizzard rages, nobody can go out and start repairs. It's just too dangerous. 

Live video from Plymouth , Massachusetts showed whiteout conditions and powerful winds. The wet snow driven by those winds appear to have utility poles leaning ominously in some areas of Plymouth. There were still a surprising number of cars o the roads, though.  

On top of everything else, coastal flooding is likely from this all along the New England coast up into Maine.  

VERMONT EFFECTS

That slight jog southward in the path of this giant nor'easter is ensuring that the Green Mountain States is escaping with minor effects.

The storm is still far enough north to keep the winter storm warning going for Bennington and Rutland  counties. Even so, total snow amounts in southernmost Vermont have been cut back a little to 4 to 8 inches.

The National Weather Service have dropped winter weather advisories in Rutland and Windsor counties, as accumulations there will fall short of the 3 to 6 inches that had been predicted yesterday. tw

The rest of Vermont could still see an inch or two of snow, with little or nothing in the Champlain Valley. 

Honestly, that's OK. Most of Vermont is deep in snow, so we didn't need the disruption of a huge blizzard. I'll take today's blustery, cloudy weather with a bit of gratitude. 

The nor'easter will provide us with cold, stiff north winds gusting to 30 mph, so open areas could see a  few problems with blowing snow.

We'll really feel the cold air in the wake of the nor'easter tonight through tomorrow night with lows in the single digits and highs Tuesday barely making it to 20 if that in many areas.

A small system will probably throw a little snow at us Wednesday. Some forecasts had called for a more substantial snowfall this coming Friday, but that's definitely looking less likely. 

Like Snow? Head To Northern Japan. They're Absolutely Buried

A recent street view of Aomori, Japan which
has been buried beneath a series of 
snowstorms coming off the Sea of Japan,
Photo by Larry Lane via Facebook

If you think you've gotten too much snow this winter, be glad you're not in northern Japan.  

Snow depth reached more than nine feet in some areas on Japan's northernmost island, leading to crushed buildings, impossible travel and the risk of avalanches and deaths from being buried by snow sliding off roofs. 

At least 35 people have died and nearly 400 are injured by recent extreme snows. Japanese emergency agencies have not said how the deaths and injuries occurred, but local media said that at least some of the deaths and injuries have involved falls from roofs as people try to remove snow from overburdened homes and businesses. 

Per AccuWeather:

"The deepest snow has been concentrated in northeastern Japan, home to more than 1 million people. In the city of Aomori, snow was piled near seven feet high, disrupting travel and for ing some rescue teams to enter homes through second-story windows. The snow depth was the most in 40 years, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency."

The Guardian reports that the winter weather has brought chaos to 15 of the country's 47 prefectures.  In some areas, the last time snow as this deep was not 40 years ago, but 1945. So it's been awhile since Japan has seen anything like this. 

Areas of northern Japan often get feet upon feet of snow in the winter. Cold winds coming from Russia and China pick up moisture as they cross the Sea of Japan and dump it as snow when it hits northern Japan. It's like the lake effect snow you see in western New York, but the Japan snows tend to be much deeper.

Aomori is sometimes described as the world's snowiest city. But this year is ridiculous. 

Frequent Arctic air outbreaks have caused numerous huge dumps of snow on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. The storms have been bigger and more frequent than usual, with few if any thaws in between. 

The snow has been relentless for weeks, and people are constantly trying to clear the snow. "I'm at my physical limit," one resident of Aomori said, probably speaking for everyone in town. 

 There was a few days of thawing in the past week, but that has temporarily ended. The above freezing temperatures created a risk of avalanches and flooding in areas where water can't drain because snow is blocking ditches and storm drains. There's even been some rain. 

The thaw also also allowed feet-thick chunks of snow to  slide off roofs, and that has been causing damage to some buildings. At least 40 structure in Aomori suffered at least some damage in just one day. The snow sliding off roofs has also collapsed power lines in some parts of the region. 

The snow reasserted itself and spread into many of the huge cities of Japan on Sunday. 

Some areas of western Japan not far from Kyoto reported up to 14 inches of snow within six hours.  In Hokuriku, a couple feet of snow fell within a 24 hours. The snow spread into Tokyo, where a couple inches fell.  Tokyo on average usually gets a snowfall that size only once, maybe twice per winter. 

Bullet trains in Japan were operating at reduced speeds due to the widespread snow and about 50,000 people were affected by train delays and cancelations around Tokyo.

The new round of snow was poorly timed because it came while national elections are being held and universities are doing entrance exams. Some of the universities have delayed those exams. 

A break in the weather, with a little more thawing even in hard-hit Hokkaido is expected later this week.

 Videos:

 Incredibly snowy scenes from Aomori, Japan. In recent weeks, up to 15 feet of snow has fallen in the areas Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Another very snowy news clip. Once again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that

 

Huge U.S. Winter Storm Has Begun, And Will Worsen. Here In Vermont, Cold, With Maybe Foot Of Snow

All that pink on the National Weather Service web page
is winer storm warnings. It's one of the largest winter
storm warning areas I've ever seen. The purple in
parts of the south is ice storm warnings. 

The big national. winter storm is now underway, and it will continue to worsen as we go through tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. 

In some places, the storm could be the worst in years, or even decades.

First, we'll take a look at a stormy nation, and down below, you'll see our Vermont-specific update. 

DEVELOPING STORM

As of Friday afternoon, precipitation was blossoming over New Mexico and Texas and it was starting to head north and east. 

The mid-afternoon precipitation was mostly rain in Texas, but that was about to change. Subfreezing air had reached the border between Oklahoma and Texas north of Dallas. It was already in the teens in the Texas Panhandle. 

Sleet and freezing rain had already begun in areas around Lubbock, Texas.

As the precipitation keeps moving north and east and expanding, the cold air is pushing into this growing mass of rain. The die is cast. The massive winters storm has begun. It will continue to harass millions upon millions of Americans between now and Monday. 

Grocery store shelves are now empty or close to it from Texas to New England, as people heed warnings to stock up ahead of the storm. Fox Weather posted on X views of an Oxford, Mississippi grocery store that practically had nothing left. 

Don't expect to travel anywhere this weekend. As of 3;45 p.m. eastern time, more than 2,415 flights in the United States had been cancelled, and that number was rising rapidly, according to FlightAware.  Nearly 1,450 Sunday flights had already been canceled by this afternoon. 

ICE STORM

The scariest part or this storm is the freezing rain. There's vast amounts of it in the forecast and this icy precipitation will freeze an enormous area.

As of Friday afternoon, ice storm warnings covered parts  of eastern Texas; northern and central Louisiana; roughly the northwestern half of Mississippi; southwest and eastern Tennessee; northeastern Georgia, the western half of South Carolina and western and southern North Carolina. 

Most of these areas can expect at least a half inch of ice accumulation. A half inch is where trees, branches and power lines really start to break. Many places under the ice storm warning can expect three quarters of an inch or more. 

The ice storm warning in parts of South Carolina is the first one they've had in two decades. 

As meteorologist Matthew Cappucci noted on X, meteorologists are already calling for up to 1.25 inches of ice accumulation in northwest Mississippi, which is an incredibly rare forecast. He said tree damage would be equivalent to Category 1 or 2 strength hurricane.

Besides the power outages, many roads will be blocked by both fallen trees and ice. 

The power outages are going to be stupendous. All those people in heatless homes for days in subfreezing temperatures worry me.  Especially people who might need emergency medical help.

Areas north of the ice storm warnings are not off the hook. A wide band north of the ice storm warnings will have a horrible mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Forecasts for mixed precipitation have been trending north, especially along the East Coast.  

Sleet could mix in as far north as New York City. Even with the sleet, the New York metro area could see 12 to 18 inches of snow. 

The Washington Post put together this snow
accumulation map. Click on the image to make
it bigger and easier to see. 

Further north, along a broad path rom Oklahoma to New England, it'll entirely snow or almost al snow, with accumulations in many spots closing in on a foot. In some places more than that.  

It's indisputably horrifically frigid in the Upper Midwest with widespread temperatures in the 20s below. But that's not historically cold. Record lows are generally not being set in that region.

However, the storm will yank that cold air southward behind it, so record lows are expected in the southern Plains and perhaps some of the Gulf Coast States toward Monday and Tuesday. 

For instance, as the Washington Post tells us the forecast low in Dallas Monday is 7, and the record low that day is 12 above. Tulsa, Oklahoma is expecting a low of 6 below, which would obliterate the previous record low of 7 above in 1963

Brownsville, on the southern tip of Texas could get to 31 degree Monday, which would edge out the previous record low of 32 degrees.

As always, Donald Trump added his "wisdom" to this winter event. He posted this on social media: "Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???"

I'm not sure how many people familiar with climate science are "insurrectionists" but the explanation for this huge storm is called "winter."

Happens every year. Despite climate change, winter still happens, and you can still get extreme weather. Things like this just doesn't happen as often as it used to. That's partly why everybody is freaked out. 

There's record warmth currently in Greenland, Indonesia, northeast Africa and Madagascar. I guess we'll ignore those places. Moving on....

VERMONT EFFECTS

There's' some shifts in Vermont forecast since this morning, which I'm by no means surprised by.  

First of all, the main cold front introducing the Arctic air was just passing through Vermont as of late this afternoon.   It was getting gradually, noticeably colder this afternoon. This is not a well-defined cold front at all. The slide toward below zero weather is now accelerating as darkness falls.   

Wind chills were already in the single numbers and teens below zero as of 5 p.m. 

The National Weather Service's first crack at 
prediction snow amounts Sunday and Monday. 
This could change, but for now they have near
5 inch close to the Canadian border and a foot
near the Massachusetts border. 

We haven't had much in the way of snow squalls yet today, which is a slight surprise. It's still possible we might have a few heavier snow showers here and there this evening. 

It won't be widespread, but keep an eye out for any surprises on the drive home this evening. 

The extreme cold warning is still in effect overnight and the first half of Saturday. 

We're still looking at lows in the upper single numbers to mid teens below zero by Saturday morning. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph, so those wind chills will be brutal.

Lighter winds arrive during the day tomorrow. But with highs near 0, it won't exactly feel balmy.

The Storm

The big change this afternoon is that the winter storm watch has been upgraded to a winter storm warning for all of Vermont roughly south of Route 2. Meteorologists are pretty certain those areas will see a pretty good dump of snow from Sunday afternoon into Monday. For now, the National Weather Service is going with 9 to 16 inches of snow in the warning area.

Northern Vermont is still just under a winter storm watch because it's still a little unclear how much deep moisture will make it to the Canadian border. And if does get there, how long will it last. 

Usually, a winter storm warning is issued if they're expecting six inches or more of snow. A winter weather advisory goes out if it's going to be a little less than that. I'm sure one or the other will be in effect in northern Vermont by tomorrow.

Early guesses call for five or six inches of snow from this in far northern Vermont.

I will note that the National Weather Service forecast is a little conservative compared to some other forecasts I've seen.  Some New England meteorologists are advertising 8 to 12 inches in northern Vermont and 10 to 18 inches south. 

Everybody should note that the snowfall predictions will be adjust up or down here and there between now and Sunday. 

It's looking like the snow will start during the afternoon Sunday and reach its peak overnight Sunday into early Monday morning.  It'll continue probably through at least a good part of Monday. But it should e a pretty light snow by Monday afternoon. 

It's still looking like an oddly cold storm, so it will be more challenging to dress for it if you need to be out in it, or shoveling. If you have to drive through it, pack extra warm clothing, blankets and snacks, since it's going to be so cold.

It also will stay cold all of next week. And probably beyond. It's still super unclear if this storm will be a one-off for us or if something else will come along. The next nor'easter in the pipeline is next Friday, but it looks like it will pass by way too far offshore to give us anything interesting in the Green Mountain State.  

 

Remembering The Most Extreme January: Fatal Snows And Floods, January, 1996

The weather map on January 18, 1996. An intense storm 
centered near Wisconsin was already starting to drawn
record warmth into the eastern United States, By the
time the storm's cold front arrived the next day,
the winter heat and torrential rains immediately
melted deep snow, resulting in one of the
region's worst floods on record. 

Overall, this January so far in Vermont hasn't been that wild. We haven't had any record temperatures. It's been stormy, but not overly so. 

It's quite a contrast to exactly 30 years ago. 

January, 1996 is easily one of the most extreme weather months I can remember, here in Vermont and for pretty much everywhere else in the Northeast.

The month gave us everything. Deep snows, record cold, then record warmth and torrential rains, and widespread tragic flooding. Both in Vermont and throughout the Northeast. 

The month opened cold.  The low temperature in Burlington on January 6, 1996 was 23 below. It hasn't been that cold since. Down in Rutland, it was 29 below. Over in Island Pond, it got as cold as 32 below.

THE BIG SNOW

As those temperatures froze Vermont solid, a storm was lurking further down the East Coast. The storm would ultimately mostly miss the Green Mountain State, but make snowy history from southern New England to North Carolina. 

On January 7-8, a broad area from southwestern Virginia to southern New England were buried beneath 20 to 30 inches of snow. Some parts of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and West Virginia had more than 30 inches. A couple spots in West Virginia reported 48 inches. 

Philadelphia had 31 inches of new snow, easily its largest snowstorm on record.  Baltimore clocked in with 27 inches. New York's Central Park, had 21 inches. 

High winds whipped the snow into five to eight foot drifts. Travel was impossible in the urban corridor stretching from Washington DC to Boston. The storm contributed to 60 deaths and caused $500 million in insured losses. That's 1996 dollars. In 2026 dollars, it's a little over $1 billion.  

Another smaller, but still substantial storm hit the Mid-Atlantic States on January 12, adding to the deep snowpack. 

Hagerstown, Maryland had 34.7 during the January 7-8, 1996 blizzard with a water content of 2.82 inches. Another snowstorm on January 12 left an additional water content of 0.69 inches. That was a lot of water ready for what would happen next.

Up here in Vermont, though that big blizzard missed. A few inches of snow dusted the far southern end of the state, but that's about it.

Nevertheless, we were pretty much buried in snow, too.  December in the Green Mountain State was among the snowiest on record.  Both Burlington and Montpelier had nearly four feet of snow in the last month of 1995. There were pretty much no thaws between early December, 1995 and mid-January, 1996. Much of the state had more than two feet of snow on the ground by mid-January.

The water content of that snow was quite high. I can remember pine trees and forests sagging dangerously under the weight of the snow in late December and early January that winter. 

Throughout the Northeast, the water locked in the snowpack amounted the equivalent of two to five inches of rain. Here and up and down the ridges in the Northeast. 

Then the weather made a complete and dramatic turnaround, with horrific results. 

HEAT WAVE/FLOOD

An intense storm on January 18 moved up through the central Plains into the western Great Lakes. A major blizzard struck west of the storm track.

In the Plains states, in places like Nebraska, the wind was strong enough to blow out store windows, damage grain bins, snap trees and cut power. On the east side of the storm a broad, deep flow of warm, humid air pulled direct from the Gulf of Mexico. 

Temperatures throughout the northeast rose into the mid 50s to upper 60s. The humidity was around 90 percent. The higher the humidity,, the more rapid the snowmelt.

As AccuWeather describes the event, some Pennsylvania residents went to bed on January 18 with over a foot of snow on the ground and waking up on the 19th to find bare ground.   

Then on the 19th, the storm's strong cold front began moving into the Northeast. It wrung out the moisture in that warm, humid air, dumping 1 to 3 inches of rain, with locally higher amounts. Almost all the rain came within a six-hour period in any given location, so the runoff was intense. 

The Delaware River reached its highest state since Hurricanes Connie and Diane in 1955. The Hudson River reached its highest level since 1977. The Ohio River at Pittsburgh, the Susquehanna River at Wilkes-Barre and the Potomac River at Little Falls, Virginia crested at its highest level since the epic Hurricane Agnes floods of 1972, notes the National Weather Service.

Countless small streams and rivers blasted down slopes in the central and northern Appalachians. 

The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. Flood crests from the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers reached Pittsburgh at the same time, resulting in one the highest and one of the fastest flood crests in that city's history. 

People who parked their cars on streets well above water in the morning found them submerged in the afternoon.  

The floods claimed 33 lives and caused $1.5 billion in 1996 dollars, which is nearly $3.2 billion in today's dollars

In Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Basin alone, there were 14 deaths and more than half a million dollars in damage. Ten deaths occurred in New York, mostly in and near the Catskills. . 

 VERMONT FLOOD

Temperatures on January 18 and especially the 19th soared to record levels across Vermont.   Burlington's temperature rose to 65 degrees, which would have been a record for the entire month of January had the record of 66 degrees not been set almost exactly a year earlier.

St. Johnsbury and Rutland reached 60 degrees, St. Albans reached 62 degrees. 

Water in Vermont's rivers were running high and beginning to flood in some areas by early afternoon, January 19.  Snow that had been one to more than 2.5 feet deep was down to a few inches by mid-afternoon of the 19th. .

Then, in the late afternoon and evening, the storm's cold front arrived with torrential downpours. Small streams and brooks became torrential the evening darkness. Roads were blocked as smaller rivers, then the main ones, quickly burst their banks. 

The flood turned to tragedy in Franklin County. According to accounts in the Burlington Free Press, David Ryan, 50 was driving with his two teenage daughters on West Street, a rural dirt road in Fairfield. A raging brook caught the car and sent it more than 500 feet downstream. 

Ryan was trapped inside the car. Both teenagers tried to pull their father from the car, but one of them fell into the water and drowned.  The other teenager was somehow able to escape the water and debris and sought help at a nearby home. Ryan was rescued, but his hypothermia was so severe he died two days later. The surviving teen suffered minor injuries. 

In the end 11 of Vermont's 14 counties were declared disaster areas. 

There's surprisingly little information online about the flood in Vermont,  possibly because it was overshadowed by more dramatic and bigger floods in 1997, 2011, 2023 and 2024.

The weather in Vermont finally settled down toward the end of January after a wild few weeks. Another warm rainstorm hit on January 27. More than an inch of rain fell on Burlington. But with little snow left to melt in Vermont, no real flooding hit in this second rainy episode.

The weather in February, 1996 in Vermont was blessedly unremarkable. 

Winters have certainly turned more variable in Vermont under the effects of climate change. We still get strong cold waves, but also springlike warmups. Snow still quickly accumulates, but dissolves in oddly warm nights. 

Winter storms are dumping deeper snows and heavier rains. 

All this is to say that January, 1996 was as extreme a winter month as we've had. But the bad news is, under the influence of climate change, we could have a repeat of January, 1996. Or something even worse. 

 

Another Summer Of Fires And Floods Looming? We're Off To A Bad Start

Satellite photo shows two smoke plumes from large
fires in northeast Minnesota merging into a cloud of
smoke crossing the border into Canada. 

Fire and flood. 

I guess it's going to be that kind of summer. Again.  

As of yesterday, forest fires were raging Minnesota, Arizona, and up in Canada.

Our neighbors to the north were experiencing large fires in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we start seeing the smoke here in Vermont. 

Meanwhile, destructive and dangerous flash floods hit Tuesday in Maryland and West Virginia.  

Lately, probably in part due to climate change our summers in the United States are either under water or on fire.  Hot, dry weather is hotter and drier, so wildfires can burn more easily. 

Meanwhile those of us who get storminess experience especially heavy rains and flooding. Remember, warmer air can hold more moisture, so if conditions are right, that humid air can dump extra heavy rain. 

It's already been a bad year for both wildfires and floods in the United States.  Summer is the peak season for both, so put on your seat belts, it's going to be a rough ride. 

Here are some specific trouble spots currently

NORTHERN US/SOUTHERN CANADA

The hot dry, weather continued unabated in the northern Plains and adjacent Canada. Normally frigid Grand Forks, North Dakota "endured" its coldest day since Saturday. It only got to 96 degrees Tuesday, obviously shattering another record high for the date.

Normally it's in the low to mid 60s there this time of year.

Winnipeg and Carman, Manitoba, Canada reached 98 degrees Tuesday. 

The arid weather and high winds have really fueled wildfires on both sides of the border. 

In Minnesota, the North Woods is a vast stretch of trees dotted with vacation homes and cabins. So far, an estimated 140 structures have been destroyed in the huge fires burning in these woods.  The word "unprecedented" keeps coming up in Minnesota.

Unprecedented heat.  Unprecedented fires spreading in unprecedented ways.

As KARE reports, a typical year in Minnesota brings total of 1,190 mostly small wildfires that burn about 12,000 acres.

Just five months into 2025, 970 wildfires have burned 37,000 acres.  The acreage scorched will increase rapidly, as the largest fires were still 0 percent contained as of last night. Today will be another hot, dry, windy day in Minnesota.

The good news is rain and colder temperatures will sweep into the Northern Plains, including Minnesota starting tomorrow and continuing through Friday night. 

Meanwhile evacuations were ongoing in southeastern Manitoba, Canada as forest fires spread in the province.

Fires were burning in Canada from British Columbia to Quebec, raising the specter and fears like the incredibly destructive and - here's that word again - unprecedented Canadian wildfire year of 2023.

SOUTHWEST US

Meanwhile, the fire danger has gotten critical in the United States southwest, especially in New Mexico and eastern Arizona.

A new wildfire started near Greer, Arizona, forcing evacuations of much of that town and reportedly destroying several homes.

FLASH FLOODS

Flash flooding in western Maryland Tuesday. 

Parts of the Mid-Atlantic states had the opposite problem: Flash flooding created a lot of damage and hasty evacuations on Tuesday,.

A flash flood emergency was declared in western Maryland, where students in two elementary schools had to be evacuated by boat after water quickly rose around the schools.  All students ended up being reported safe after the evacuations.  

Video showed cars bobbing in deep floodwaters in the school parking lot while a rushing river raced down streets in Westernport, Maryland.

Destructive flash floods also hit parts of West Virginia Tuesday.  Southern Pennsylvania was also hit by flash flooding Tuesday, flooding streets and homes and forcing evacuations in Meyersdale. 

More flooding is possible in scattered areas of the United States for the next week as several storm systems pass through. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Here in the Green Mountain State, we're still having Goldilocks weather, at least compared to everybody else. 

Warm but not hot weather so far this week will continue through Saturday before a cool down hits. 

It will also turn rainier on Friday and the weekend, with showers and thunderstorm likely, though so far, it looks like the rain won't be heavy enough to cause flooding. That will have to be watched, though, as the air will turn humid Friday and Saturday, opening the door for local downpours and thunderstorms. 

 

Gobsmacked By Incredible Gulf Coast Snow; Dangerous, All-Time Record Cold This Morning, Travel Paralyzed In Region.

Screen grab of web cam showing snowball fights and
dogs playing on snowy Bourbon Street, New Orleans.

The incredible snowstorm that hit the Gulf Coast Tuesday is easily one of the most incredible weather events I've ever seen. 

Snowfall records were shattered as near blizzard conditions swept what are normally balmy, palm tree-lined beaches. 

New Orleans was buried beneath an official eight inches of snow, its largest snowstorm on record. Some sections of the city had more. Photos of a measurement in New Orleans' Garden District showed a solid foot of new snow. 

The Washington Post was as gobsmacked as I was when I saw these weather observations out of New Orleans.   

"A late morning observation from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reported a temperature of 27 degrees, heavy snow, 1/8 mile visibility - and three inches of snow on the ground. Two inches fell in one hour."

For at least seven consecutive hours heavy snow fell on New Orleans.

I saw one video showing a highway with zero visibility in snow and blowing snow.  I thought I was watching one of those lake effect blizzards in Buffalo. It was a highway in southwest Louisiana.  

Milton, Florida, not far from Pensacola, had 8.8 inches of snow, more than doubling the old record for largest snowstorm in Florida history. (The old record was four inches, also set in Milton). Pensacola, Florida and Baton Rouge, Louisiana each had 7.6 inches.  Mobile, Alabama clocked in with 7.5 inches. 

These shattered all-time records for snowfall in those cities. 

For comparison, the 24 hour snowfall in Milton, Florida of 8.8 inches is much more than double   the largest 24-hour snowfall in Milton, Vermont so far this winter, which was just 3.4 inches. 

Many northern parts of the United States have had less snow this winter than parts of the Gulf Coast, which is insane. 

Sioux Falls, South Dakota has had 6.2 inches of snow this entire winter so far, less than many Gulf Coast beach towns. Since December 1, Anchorage, Alaska has had 3.8 inches of snow (though to be fair, Anchorage did have some hefty snowfalls in late October)

DANGEROUS AFTERMATH

The Gulf Coast and Southeast snow zone is massive, running through most of the Texas coast, all the way through northern Florida and up into coastal Georgia and South and North Carolina. 

Somebody's Florida vacation photo
from Tuesday. 

The storm was departing and the last of the snow was departing the Southeast Coast, but the Gulf Coast is not out of trouble.

Tuesday was the fun day for most, as big and festive snowball fights broke out on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Airboats that normally cruise through marshlands were pressed into service as snowmobiles. 

Families marveled at a snowstorm that they've never seen before and probably never will again unless they move north. 

But all that snow is now sitting there.  You can't drive anywhere. The Gulf Coast has elaborate and detailed emergency plans on what to do if a hurricane hits. Not so much with a snowstorm. 

It's obviously seriously cold on the Gulf Coast, and they're not equipped to handle it. What if there's a fire or medical emergency? How will ambulances and fire trucks get to the scene?

As of last night, a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 10 was closed. New Orleans borrowed 14 snow plows from an Indiana company.  Bucket loaders that normally shove sand off roads after hurricane storm surges were also pressed into service as snow plows in the region. 

The snow is not going to immediately melt much.  The forecast high temperature today in New Orleans today is 31 degrees. Clear skies, lighter winds and a snow covered ground brought the temperature in Mobile, Alabama down to a record-shattering 11 degrees this morning, with an expected "high" temperature today of 32 degrees. 

Even more extreme, Lake Charles, in southwestern Louisiana was down to just 6 degrees above zero this morning.  The previous record low for the date there was 18 degrees, so that's just incredible for them. 

Lafayette, Louisiana, where nine inches of snow fell yesterday, was at just 4 degrees above zero early this morning.  That is the coldest temperature on record for any date in Lafayette. New Iberia, Louisiana also set its all-time record low temperature at 3 degrees. So far, Beaumont, Texas has tied its all time low at 10 degrees. 

That's what a clear night sky with snow cover will do to you. That's never happened before in these cities, hence the extreme cold. 

Already, four deaths have been reported in the cold wave and snow, and I'm afraid that toll will rise. 

Temperatures are forecast to rise into the low to mid 40s across the Gulf Coast Thursday and Friday, which will melt some of the snow. But streets will still be in rough shape with overnight freezes.

Finally, temperatures this weekend will be back in the normal upper 50s and 60s, which should make the last of the snow disappear. 

WHY IT HAPPENED

You really need an exacting setup for this kind of weather event and it just so happened this time. 

Big Arctic cold blasts come all the way down to the Gulf Coast from time to time. But usually. that frigid air crosses the coastline and enters well into the Gulf of Mexico. Any storms that try to form on the leading edge of the cold air usually are too far south to bring any kind of precipitation to places like New Orleans.

Or, the cold air stops just short of the Gulf Coast, so it's warm enough for rain, not snow. 

This time, the leading edge of the frigid air stopped a short distance south of the Gulf Coast. As is often the case, a storm formed along the leading edge of the cold.  The storm pumped humid air northward over the frigid air near the surface in just perfect alignment with the coastline. 

The best moisture aloft and the best cold, moist air along the coast aligned perfectly to set up the snow. 

I won't blame climate change for this.  It was all probably a fluke. But some scientists say climate change does make the jet stream meander more, which can sometimes bring cold air oddly south, like in this case.  

Also, the Gulf of Mexico waters are still unusually warm, which can be blamed on climate change. The warmer waters probably boosted the amount of moisture available to the storm, which increased the amount of snow that could fall. 

Videos:

Blowing and drifting snow on the beaches of Louisiana and Texas, along with road havoc in the region. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

The music doesn't stop in New Orleans just because it snows. Here's a trumpet player in the city's blizzard. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

Roswell, New Mexico Latest Victim Of Epic Flooding

 The latest victim of an extreme rain storm and flood is Roswell, New Mexico.

Scary scenes in Roswell, New Mexico Sunday after extreme
flash floods overwhelmed the city. 

The intense downpours Saturday sent the Spring River channel blasting through downtown Roswell and other neighborhoods in town. At least two people have died.  

Video taken Sunday of the flood aftermath shows cars and trucks strewn like toys thrown around by a toddler having a temper tantrum.

 The force of the water pulled pavement from streets and knocked down sturdy metal fences and barriers. 

At least 300 people were rescued from the floodwaters and 38 of them were taken to hospitals. 

Roswell, population of about 48,000 is of course famous for an alleged UFO crash there in 1947. 

A storm dumped 5.78 inches of rain on Roswell Saturday, the most for any day on record there. The old record was 5.65 inches on November 1, 1901.  Up to nine inches of rain fell in some areas near the city. 

Most of that rain came in just six hours, and was almost half Roswell's normal annual rainfall. 

The flood came right after the end of a heat wave that broke all kinds of records for intensity, longevity and how late in the season it was.

That heat ended as an upper level storm system drew tropical air northward into the mountains and hills of the Southwest.  Large high pressure in the southeastern United States directed moisture toward New Mexico, where atmospheric moisture reached two to three times normal levels.

The most intense storms developed in eastern New Mexico, especially in and around Roswell. 

The Roswell flood is the latest in a long, frequent series of record floods this year in the United States and around the world. 

Though it sometimes is difficult to pin a particular weather event on climate change, what happened in Roswell is consistent with the global problem. 

A warmer atmosphere holds more water than a drier one, so under the right conditions, rainfall will be heavier than it would have been in a cooler world.

This is also the second time this year parts of New Mexico have endured an extreme flood.

Back in the spring, wildfires denuded the hills and mountains surrounding Ruidoso, New Mexico. Then in the late spring and summer, torrential storms hit those hills, sending destructive flash floods and debris flows into Ruidoso, causing extensive damage.  

Introducing "Dzuds" An Example Of How Climate Change Can Make Things Colder, More Disastrous

Climate change is a likely cause of some severe,
dangerous and tragic weather in Mongolia. 

 I'm reluctant to blame every single weather event on climate change.

After all, we've always had extremes of heat, cold, rain, snow and other weather calamities. 

It's just that climate change has made most if not all of these events more likely. And sometimes more extreme than before. 

Severe cold and snow are - as you'd expect - are particularly tricky to blame on climate change. If the world is warming, why are you blaming that cold snap, that blizzard on humans belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere?

However, scientists know that occasionally, climate change can make the jet stream do strange, loopy things, like sending a batch of super chilled Arctic air down into the mid-latitudes. Storms tend to produce heavier precipitation under a climate change regime. It can still be cold enough to snow, so every once in awhile an ultra wet storm can literally snow a region under.

This can happen anywhere, really.  Sooner or later, somebody gets ridiculously hot, ridiculously cold, or snowy or blizzardy or just plain weird. You can find case studies in a lot of places, at least in recent years. 

Which is why I'm bringing up Mongolia. And Dzuds. 

A dzud is a period of extreme cold, heavy snow and powerful winds in Mongolia.  As you'd expect, these things are dangerous 

Yale Environment 360 explains:

"Cold winters are typical in Mongolia. Livestock survive by moving, growing thick coats of fur and pawing through snow and ice to grasses. But this winter, herds are struggling through both a 'white' dzud, in which very deep snow hinders their access to grass, and an 'iron dzud, in which a brief thaw is followed by a rapid, hard freeze, locking pastures in ice."

In the past, a dzud would hit Mongolia about once a decade. But in the past decade, six of 10 years have had them. This is the second year in a row with a severe dzud. 

Yale Environment 360 again:

"As of the last week of February, the number of dead animals reached more than 2.1 million, rising from 600,000 two weeks earlier. Snowstorms have killed at least one people, including one child."

The deceased animals are a matter of life and death for Mongolians. The 65 million or so domesticated animals provide meat, milk and sources of fuel.  Herders sell animal hides, wool and cashmere4 to buy food and pay for their childrens' education. 

This winter's weather has plunged thousands of Mongolians into poverty. 

The reason we're talking about distant Mongolia is to illustrate the point that climate change isn't just about record breaking warmth and huge rainstorms.  The warming atmosphere can really screw up things in surprising, difficult ways, and can affect the population of a whole nation. Or nations.  

Here's how climate change is thought to be contributing to this mess:

The amount of yearly precipitation in Mongolia is about the same as it's always been, but its seasonal distribution has changed.  Summer droughts have become more likely, and those summers have become hotter. All this weakens livestock ahead of winter because they don't eat enough to store reserves for the harsh winters.

Wintertime snowfall has increased. As we mentioned, that makes it harder for animals to graze. The deeper, more persistent snow cover also refrigerates the air, making Mongolia's Arctic winters even more frigid.

Deep snow can make a routine Arctic outbreak anything but routine. For examples, check back here in Vermont. Almost all of our most intense historic winter cold snaps occurred with deep, fresh snow on the ground. 

Nobody knows for sure if this era of frequent dzuds in Mongolia will fade, or worsen.  As always, though, climate change brings added uncertainty to the table. 

 In Mongolia, that fact just brought some tragic results.  

Sunday In Vermont: Snow Squalls Are Today's Hazard, But Unlike Rest Of U.S. Wet Get Break From Extreme Weather

A snow squall approaching St. Albans, Vermont in
February 2022 looked like a wall of snow
approaching. Similar scenes are possibly today
in parts of Vermont. 

 In the "It's always something" department, Vermont has one more hazardous day to get through today with the weather. 

The danger today will be out on the roads.

One cold front has come through. It's breezy and chillier, with snow showers around. Nothing wild .A second cold front is coming through Vermont today, and that looks like it has enough oomph to set off some snow squalls. 

Snow squall warnings were already in effect for parts of Pennsylvania this morning. 

There's a decent chance parts of Vermont might go under such warnings late this morning and afternoon. The snow squalls can be quite powerful. There's a low but not zero chance that some of the squalls today could create lightning and relatively rare thundersnow in parts of the Green Mountain State.

Snow squalls are dangerous because they abruptly turn visibility on the roads from just fine to zero. Road conditions also go from just fine to awful. That's a recipe for highway crashes. Some of the worst pileups on U.S. Interstate highways have been in snow squalls. 

If you're out driving today and go you hear a snow squall warning, and if you can, just find a way to get off the Interstate or busy highway and wait it out. Snow squalls rarely last longer than a half hour. Of course the roads will be iffy after the squall passes, but at least you won't be driving blind.

Or better yet, just stay home today. 

A February, 2022 snow squall in St. Albans,
Vermont cuts visibility to near zero. About 20 seconds
before this photo was taken, visibility was fine,
showing how quickly snow squalls can change things.

These squalls won't cause a huge amount of accumulation - probably a half inch to three inches at most. 

Another interesting thing going on this morning is that one of those lake effect snow bands coming off Lake Ontario is so powerful that it made it all the way into far northern Vermont and to the southeastern corner of Quebec.

Here in St. Albans, I caught the edge of it briefly and got one inch of snow. The snow band has since moved north. 

EXTREME WEATHER

That powerful snow squall from Lake Ontario I mentioned is part of a continuation of the extreme weather much of the United States s either dealing with or picking up the pieces in the aftermath.

Vermont is more in the picking up the pieces mode than bracing for extreme weather. The real bad stuff appears like it wants to give Vermont a break for awhile. 

As of 8:30 a.m. Sunday, about 3,000 homes and businesses were without power in Vermont, mostly in Rutland County.  Perhaps the most dramatic instance of damage yesterday came in Richmond, where the metal roof of a house blew off.

Neighbors swarmed the house during the day and pretty much replaced it by nightfall for the elderly woman living there, WPTZ reported. 

Video of the strong winds near Richmond, Vermont is at the bottom of this post.

Although today will be gusty, we won't have any winds strong enough to cause further damage. 

Saturday's storm was far more destructive in New Hampshire and Maine. Serious flooding hit Hampton Beach, New Hampshire for the second time in a week, and structures were destroyed by pounding waves and high tides in Maine. 

Blasts of Arctic air - belatedly the first real cold outbreak of the winter - is causing the continued extreme conditions this week. But not really here in Vermont

The frigid air is taking what the I, and the National Weather Service office in South Burlington call the "scenic route."  

Radar from the National Weather Service office
in South Burlington this morning shows a lake
effect snow band extending all the way from
Lake Ontario across northwest Vermont and 
southern Quebec.

It plunged southward into Montana and North Dakota, and kept going south and east, freezing the southern United States - or is about to.  

One cold blast has already hit, dropping temperatures into the 40s below zero in Montana and siccing a blizzard in the Midwest. 

Then that cold air heads northeastward from the Midwest towards us. This indirect route gives the Arctic air a chance to warm up a little bit. By the time it gets here, we end up being kinda cold, but not OH MY GOD awful.

This arrangement is also helping to create strong west to southwest winds off of Lakes Erie and Ontario, which is why western New York is getting slammed by those lake effect storms. 

The path of the cold air seems to want to suppress storms to our south this week. One on Tuesday will go out to sea well south of Vermont, but a separate system will give us light snow that day.

Another storm Friday could hit us, but early indications are that one, too will go out to sea.

Meanwhile, those storms will unleash cold, snow and ice on parts of the South this week. 

Back here in Vermont, the coldest weather looks like it will arrive by next weekend, and we might see our first subzero cold on the winter. A very late start to that idea.

The cold across the nation looks like it will be rather short-lived, too.  A warmup is about to start in the Rockies, and that should slowly move eastward across the U.S. reaching us here in New England in perhaps seven or eight days. 

VIDEO

Strong winds sweep through the Jonesville section of Richmond, Vermont Saturday.  The downslope winds can erode clouds near the mountain slopes where they originate. It happened during this storm, creating a rainbow amid the chaos. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.