Vermont May Freeze Is One For The Record Books, Crop, Garden Damage Assessments Begin

UPDATE 5 PM THURSDAY

Frosted and half wilted plants in my St. Albans, Vermont
gardens this morning. Record cold throughout the state.

Some remarkably cold temperature reports continued to stream in today from this morning's record cold temperatures.

I saw an unconfirmed report of 14 degrees in Enosburg Falls, though another warmer part of that town, which is huge in area, reported 21 degrees.

North Troy, Vermont got down to a stunning 17 degrees. Lyndonville reported 20 degrees. Waitsfield and South Lincoln came in at 21 degrees.

Even southern Vermont got into the frigid act. It was 22 degrees in Bethel. West Rutland reported 25 degrees. 

I was lucky in St. Albans in which my pretty big gardens only suffered light damage here and there. It's about 90 to 95 percent intact. Phew!

Many other places aren't so lucky.  I didn't get a chance to travel far and wide today, but I did see some noticeable garden damage when I ventured into Williston, Vermont, which reported 25 degrees. 

As is typical in these freeze situations, lower valleys tended to fare worse, while hillsides were a bit warmer and places near Lake Champlain were fine. Killington reported a not-bad 30 degrees. Near Lake Champlain, South Hero bottomed out any 35, while Burton Island State Park had a balmy low of 38 degrees.  

The fact that I live up on a St. Albans hillside is probably what saved my gardens. 

This was a magnolia bloom in Williston, Vermont 
before last night's freeze decimated it 

There's still a chance of frost early next week, but the forecast continues to indicate that one won't be nearly as cold or as widespread as the one we just endured. 

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

The intense cold wave for this time of year is a big record breaker, as all kinds of new temperature marks were set yesterday and this morning. There was even a new snow record! 

Let's start by going through a preliminary list of records. Do note that as of early this morning, I might not have captured the coldest readings, as not all the reports were in as of 7 a.m. But here goes:

Burlington managed to experience its snowiest May 17 on record Wednesday. True, only a handful of snowflakes drifted down. But this is the first May 17 in data going back to the 1880s on which is snowed on this date.

It wasn't the latest snow flurry on record, though. On May 31, 1945, snow briefly mixed with a cold rain  on a notable cold day. 

Burlington's high temperature Wednesday of 48 degrees ties the record for the coldest high temperature for May 17.  Montpelier only made it to a high of 43 degrees on Wednesday, its chilliest high temperature for the date. 

Before midnight, Saranac Lake, New York was already down to 21 degrees, setting a record low of 21 degrees. That notorious Adirondacks cold spot eventually got down to 16 degrees this morning, which is whopping and also of course a record. And, it was 17 degrees there for at least three consecutive hours!

Burlington got to at least 29 degrees, cold enough to tie the record low for the date set in 1983. Montpelier got down to 24 degrees, smashing the record low for the date by three degrees.  

Crabapple blooms in Williston, Vermont  showing 
damage from this morning's freeze.

Across Vermont, temperatures were shockingly low for May 18.  The coldest I've seen so far are 19 degrees in Island Pond a Gallup Mills, both up in the Northeast Kingdom. It was 22 degrees in Morrisville and 23 in Lebanon, New Hampshire, so I assume White River Junction was just as cold.

The chill extend through southern Vermont. Bennington and Springfield both reached 26 degrees. 

DAMAGE

It's too soon to say how much damage this cold wave caused. As I write this at 7 a.m., it was still below freezing in most places, so any harm isn't really apparent yet. I'm sure orchardists and others will be assessing their plants and crops during the day today. 

Lake Champlain did its job and held temperatures to 32 degrees or a little higher in most of the Champlain Islands, which is great. 

I noticed Plattsburgh, with a little hint of a breeze off the water, stayed above freezing until 6 a.m., when it briefly touched 32 degrees there. 

Frost on garden plants this morning, St. Albans, Vermont.

The freeze is of course disheartening to gardeners and nature lovers, but many plants have a remarkable capacity to recover. This will all be forgotten by June at the latest.  

A potentially depressing sight among many will be the coldest areas of Vermont where leaves had appeared on trees. You'll see patches of brown or wilted leaves in forested areas for awhile until trees can sprout new growth. 

Most Vermont forests can withstand temperatures down to the mid-20s for brief periods, so if you stayed at, say, 26 degrees, most if not all of your trees should stay green.  Flowers on those trees might turn brown, though. 

Lilacs are in full bloom in many areas. Those bushes are tough old birds, so I've got my fingers crossed the blossoms will do OK, except where it got especially cold. My lilacs, so far, look OK, but I'll have to take another look once it warms up. At that point any harm will become apparent. 

RECORD LOWS NOW RARE 

As we well know, cold snaps, even record cold, is still very possible in the age of global warming.  It's just now, the dice are loaded. Roll the weather dice these days and you're more likely to hit a record high. But every once in awhile, that roll of the dice will give you a real chill, like today. 

A frosty leaf in a St. Albans,
Vermont garden this morning. 

Burlington's data really shows that. Checking back this morning, I discovered that before today, the last time the city broke or tied a record low was on November 11, 2019. 

In the time since frigid November day in 2019, Burlington tied or broke 29 daily record highs. Two of those - in May, 2020 and November, 2022 -  were hottest ever for those entire months. 

CLIMATE CHANGE INFLUENCE

I hate to blame climate change on every instance of weird weather. Still, this cold wave could possibly, maybe have some relation to climate change. 

An enormous "heat dome" a massive area of warm high pressure has set up over western Canada and the northwestern United States.  Heat records are being shattered in western Canada because of this. 

This heat dome has steered the jet stream way north into northwestern Canada and the Arctic northeast of Alaska. The huge northward excursion of the jet stream set up a corresponding major dip in the jet stream that roared southeastward from the Arctic toward Quebec and New England. 

This arrangement grabbed some frigid air from the still-frozen Arctic and slammed it down on us. At least briefly. Some scientists suspect these huge heat ridges, and corresponding dips in the jet stream, have become more likely with climate change. 

The newly erratic jet stream, if verified by scientists, would mean that overall, we're warming up, which helps explains what was until now a rather warm spring in Vermont. But that snaking jet stream can create nasty cold spells that briefly interrupt the overall warming trend. t 

Of course, there are consequences to this. Everything bloomed early this spring, making plants, trees, crops and gardens all the more susceptible to a late frost. 

This big ridge ridge of high pressure out west will plop another cold snap on us early next week, but that one won't be quite as bad as the one we experienced yesterday, overnight and this morning. Still, there's a very real risk of frost and local freezes in at least some parts of the state, probably Monday night. 

After that, a change in the weather pattern will flatten that western ridge and help push warmer air into our neck of the wood, This new pattern would also block any other bowling balls of cold air to smash their way south into New England to further ruin our spring

Midwest, South Autumn Cold Snap Is Really One For The Record Books

The scene in Gwinn, Michigan yesterday
after 13 inches of early snow. Photo by
Mindy Olvera via MLive. 

 An intense cold spell hitting the Midwest and South is not your ordinary autumn frostiness. This is turning out to be among the most intense October cold waves on record. 

Yesterday, snow fell as far south as the Kentucky/Tennessee border. Up to 18 inches of snow buried some spots in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In northern Indiana, up to four inches of snow combined with wind gusts of over 40 mph brought down tree limbs that are still in leaf. 

Widespread freezes damaged crops remaining autumn crops across the South. Freeze warnings were in effect all the way down to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Alabama. 

Yesterday, Omaha, Nebraska reached 16 degrees, easily the coldest for so early in the season.  Same story this morning in Springfield, Missouri, where the 21 degree reading was also the coldest for so early in autumn. 

Birmingham, Alabama reached 32 degrees this morning, so they received their earliest freeze on record. Birmingham had a freeze earlier this autumn than in normally chilly places like Billings, Montana and Burlington, Vermont. 

Even some single digit temperatures showed up.  It was 7 degrees in Spencer, Iowa yesterday and 9 degrees in Huron, South Dakota. 

Daytimes have been cold, too.  In Atlanta, Georgia, the high temperature Tuesday was 54 degrees, which is the normal high temperature there in January. And, again, it was colder than Burlington, Vermont's Tuesday high of 58 degrees).   

The shot of cold air was directed from north of the Arctic Circle right down into the middle of the nation.  Since the main push of cold went by to the west of Vermont, we are escaping the worst of it. Temperatures will be a little cooler than average in the Green Mountain State for the next couple of days, but it's nothing out of the ordinary for October.

Overall, the weather pattern is changing so that by the end of the week, much warmer air will envelop the big freeze zone. That warmer air will come into Vermont starting this weekend. 

For you wags out there saying "whatever happened to global warming?"  do note that as usual, most of the world is experiencing above normal temperatures.  An intense old wave in one corner of the world does not "cancel" climate change. 

Vermont Once Again Sits Out U.S./Canadian Weather Extremes

Pretty clouds and some fall foliage in South Burlington,
Vermont on Sunday. Extreme weather around the 
United States this week is avoiding Vermont

 We here in Vermont are facing a relatively cool October week, but nothing that out of the ordinary for the third week in October.  We're a bit of a rare exception.  

The weather is much more interesting almost everywhere else in the nation as temperature and precipitation extremes reign supreme.  Record cold, record heat, flooding and even a snowstorm are in the cards for many areas. 

A sharp cold snap for this time of year is unleashing Canadian air on a vast section of the nation's south and middle. Freeze warnings and frost advisories extend from Colorado to southern Ohio and on down to Alabama and Mississippi.

Quite a few record low temperature record will be set in this area over the next few days.  High temperatures will be near record low levels, too. Normally, it's in the upper 60s his time of year in St.Louis. They'll be lucky to get to the upper 40s today.

There's a decent chance Birmingham, Alabama could hit 32 degrees Wednesday morning. If it does, it will be the earliest freeze there in 109 years. 

Eastern Kentucky faces three consecutive mornings with temperatures in the 20s, definitely a rarity for them in October.

Way further north, there's actually a winter storm warning in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Lake effect snows there are dumping up to six inches of wet snow.  Winds are also gusting as high as 50 mph in that mess. 

Widespread record cold in the United States has been becoming increasingly rare with climate change.  Most months, we have far more record highs in the U.S. than record lows.  In July, August and September, there were at least ten times more daily record highs than record lows in the U.S.  That's the first time we had three consecutive months with that ratio since at least 1890. 

And, despite the cold week in the Midwest and South, there's still record heat to be found. In the Pacific Northwest and parts of western and northern Canada, the issue is record heat.  On Sunday, Seattle, reached 88 degrees, by far the hottest on record for so late in the season. Before Sunday, it had never been warmer than that after October 1. 

In Juneau, Alaska on Sunday, it was 62 degrees. Like the situation in Seattle, this was by far the latest in the season it has been so warm there. 

On Saturday Salem, Oregon reached a summery 92 degrees by far the warmest on record for so late in the season there, too.  Portland reached 87 degrees, breaking the record high for the date by seven degrees.

It's been at least 80 degrees in Portland eleven times so far this October.  Portland typically reaches 80 degrees in less than  half of all Octobers. 

Record heat has also been reported across British Columbia, Canada. 

Meanwhile, eastern Maine is bracing for the risk of flooding tomorrow.

The reason for all this chaos is what is known as an "amplified" jet stream. That means the usual bulges northward, and the dips southward in this jet stream are larger than normal. There's been a big ridge in western North America contributing to the heat.

On the front side that ridge, the jet stream takes a big dip into the middle of the United States. That explains all the cold weather there, since that dip is pulling cold air down from northern Canada.

Then, the jet stream takes a big northward swing off the East Coast. That brings tropical moisture northward. It'll miss most of the U.S., but clip eastern Maine, which explains the flood watch.

Here in Vermont, we're kind of in a sweet spot, though that doesn't necessarily mean glorious weather. We're a little too far east to get that cold blast directly. By the time the chilly air rounds the bend and starts coming at us from the southwest this week, the chill will modify into something that is just sort of cold.

A cold front will come through today and this evening with some light rain. A storm will form along that front and grab that Atlantic moisture I mentioned. But that will all be too far east to give Vermont all that much rain. It'll target eastern Maine instead. 

The jet stream is still showing signs of wanting to flip to a new arrangement toward next weekend and next week.  Signs are suggesting a northward bulge over the eastern United States, which would steer warmer than average and probably drier than average weather into our neck of the woods.

 

Anniversary Of America's Worst Cold Wave - Way Back In 1899

A snowball fight on the steps of the Florida
Statehouse Tallahassee, February 13, 1899
during the worst cold spell in American 
history. 

 If you think it's cold today - and it is - be glad you weren't around in 1899.  

The second week in February that year brought the worst cold wave in American history.  This was the winter that brought actual temperatures  - not wind chills - ranging from 61 below in Montana to 2 below in Tallahassee, Florida. Yes, Florida. 

This is the only known time that temperatures fell below zero in Florida.

Come to think of it, though, it is about as cold in Vermont today as it was during that cold spell in 1899.  

That's because the bulk of the 1899 blast  hit to our west and south, running from the Pacific Northwest, into the Rocky Mountains, then the Plains, through the Midwest and down to the Gulf Coast and Southeast. 

Northern New England got a break in that one. 

The coldest air in the 1899  outbreak came through Vermont on February 10-12 and it really wasn't that bad. Low temperatures those three days in Burlington were minus 6, minus 10 and minus 8.

Incredibly on February 13, Burlington, Vermont was a full 13 degrees warmer than Tallahassee.  The low temperature that day in Burlington was for us, close to average for the season, at  11 degrees above zero. 

Other cold readings outside of Vermont on February 13, 1899 seem impossible by today's standards. It was 28 below in Springfield, Missouri; 6 above in Galveston, Texas; minus 4 in Shreveport, Louisiana and 7 above in New Orleans. 

For comparison, the worst cold wave in the South in recent years, which  happened last February, seems tame by comparison. Last February, the coldest it got in Galveston was 20 degrees. New Orleans last February bottomed out at 25 degrees and Shreveport was 1 above zero.

The cold wave incredibly created ice in the entire Mississippi River. Ice floes floated past New Orleans and emptied out into the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Weather Bureau, the predecessor to the current-day National Weather Service, actually did an amazing job forecasting this cold wave, especially given the limited knowledge and technology of the time. 

Places in the path of the cold wave were given a one or two day advance warning of the frigid air, allowing people to protect themselves and property from the cold.  About 100 people died in the cold wave, which is a very low death toll given the magnitude of the event.

There was nothing anybody could do to protect crops in the far southern United States. The nascent Florida citrus industry took a terrible blow.  The cold was intense enough to not just wreck that year's crop but to kill orange trees in many locations.

Cold waves often spawn snowstorms on the southern and eastern edges of the brutal chill, and 1899 was no exception.  The Arctic blast generated a storm that dusted Fort Myers and Tampa, Florida with snow on February 12.

The storm then roared up the Eastern Seaboard.  Intense cold accompanied blinding snow. The storm dumped 20 inches of snow on Washington DC, and 34 inches on Cape May, New Jersey, a part of that state on the Atlantic Coast that often avoids the worst of the frigid nor'easters that sometime lumber their way up the East Coast.

Once again, the snowstorm wasn't that bad in Vermont, at least in the northwestern part of the state.  Five inches of snow fell on Burlington, Vermont, raising the snow cover on the ground to a foot of snow. As we know, those figures are absolutely no big deal for Vermont. 

A high pressure system from the Arctic with near record high barometric pressures caused this cold wave. If you get such a high pressure system with very high pressure - over 31 inches - you're very likely to experience record cold.

Brutal cold waves are always very possible in the United States during the winter.  As I've already noted, the Midwest and South suffered such an Arctic blast last February. 

However, I'd say that climate change has rendered anything on the level of February, 1899 pretty much impossible. 

 

Tuesday Evening Update: Vermont Escaping The Real Rough Weather; New Storm Adding Misery To Nation

The wall of snow outside my door in St. Albans, Vermont,
gets a tiny bit of additional height as a snow showers passes
through.  A little more snow at the end of the week?

The storm that swept past Vermont overnight and this morning was something of an under-performer for us. 

A fair amount of sleet mixed in with the snow statewide, so amounts fell well short of the eight to 12 inches across the north. 

Totals were more like three to six inches. Plus, many valley locations, and even some mid-elevations south, had a sort of mini-thaw as temperatures briefly climbed into the mid 30s.

Careful out there driving this evening. A cold front of sorts has created a line of brief but relatively hefty snow showers along with falling temperatures. It's moving west to east, and especially hitting northern and central New York. 

Roads are rapidly becoming ice covered as temperatures go below freezing, and the snow is making it worse. The snow won't amount to much, but it will make things challenging. 

Tomorrow and most of Thursday will be pretty quiet and sort of cold, but nothing outlandish, like what's happening in the Midwest and South. 

Everybody is still watching a new developing winter storm that's producing a new round of unwanted heavy snow and severe icing in the South 

As advertised, that storm is heading toward New England, and winter storm watches are already up for most of central and southern New England later Thursday and Friday. Heavy snow and ice are anticipated there. 

Forecasts for this late week storm have been all over the place, but keep trending further and further east.  If this holds, we might not get all that much snow, except maybe in southern Vermont. 

We'll have to watch the trends to see if they keep pushing this thing east, or reverse themselves.

It's looking like it'll warm up next week, and we might start having a few more above freezing afternoons. It's getting toward the end of winter, so thawing should slowly become more common as we head toward and into March. 

NATIONAL NEWS

The winter siege continues unabated the middle of the nation and South

Places like Dallas and Oklahoma City had their coldest morning in more than 100 years today, with a 14 below reported in OKC and 2 below in Dallas.  The average temperature for the entire state of Oklahoma was a bit below zero yesterday, the first time on record that has happened

Now, they're getting another snowstorm. 

A section of Interstate 35 in Austin, Texas Monday morning.
Locals say this stretch of road would normally be jam packed
with morning commuters at the time this photo was taken

Usually, when there's a record low, it exceeds the old record by only a couple or few degrees. This time, the record lows completely obliterated the old records. Shreveport, Louisiana got down to 1 degree above zero, breaking the old record by 19 degrees!

Tyler, Texas reported 6 below, beating the old record low for the date of 17 above.

There must be hundreds of thousands of homes, at least, with frozen pipes, especially considering all those long lasting power outages in Texas and Oklahoma. Power in some spots might not come back on until later in the week. 

In some spots, like Oregon and the Chicago area, accumulated snow and ice has led to some building collapses.

In Utah, up to four feet of snow in the mountains this week fell on unstable snow, leading to an extreme avalanche risk. 

In the Northern Plains, things are finally getting much better. Tonight will be the eleventh in a row with temperatures in the teens or 20s below in Grand Forks, North Dakota, but by early next week, afternoon readings are forecast to go above freezing. 

 

Historic Winter Storms Still Slamming Nation; Vermont To Get Involved

I have to show an updated National Weather Service map for
today. All that pink is winter storm warnings. I've never
seen such a large are of the nation under a winter storm
warning and I've never seen so much of the South
under a warning too.

Before I get into what we can now expect from the winter storms in Vermont, I have to say how amazed I am by the breadth of the winter weather in the nation. 

This is turning out to be one of the Top 10 most extreme winter weather events for the nation in my lifetime (58 years if you must know).  

I've never seen such a huge area covered by a winter storm warning, and how far south it goes.  This warning extends across the South from New Mexico to Alabama.  All of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and virtually all of Texas is under this warning. 

This warning extends northward to Ohio, and will soon go even further north to Maine 

Even Brownsville, on the far southern tip of Texas, is under a winter storm warning. There, normal temperatures are like Vermont in early June - low 70s for highs, low 50s for lows.  Instead, they're expecting freezing rain with temperatures around 32 degrees. 

Other normally balmy cities under weird winter storm warnings include Houston, Texas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi. 

I'm also still stunned by how widespread damaging freezing rain has been, and how,  these destructive ice storms will expand and worsen. 

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Saturday as ice - in some places more than a half inch thick, cut power to at least 270,000 people in the state, including in areas around Portland and Salem. 

Further north, Seattle had one of its top 10 biggest snowstorms Saturday with 11 inches. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also declared a state of emergency due to the ice, and anticipated extreme, record cold.  Even in places that don't get much ice in Texas, there are concerns the electrical grid won't hold up to incredibly high demand as wind chills dive below zero in most of the state. 

A damaging ice storm also hit the area around Greensboro, North Carolina and much of Virginia Saturday. 

Ice storms that will hinder travel and damage trees and power lines will continue for the next few days from Texas, through the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and up the Appalachian chain from North Carolina to New England. 

VERMONT IMPACTS

While we here in Vermont won't suffer the worst of the extremes out of this, this will still be a challenging week. We'll face snow, and very likely freezing rain and sleet, along with all the hazards that come with these winter storms. 

We'll have two main storms to deal with: One focused on Tuesday, the other on Thursday and Friday. 

Let's deal with the storm for Monday night and Tuesday first:  

The winter storm watch last night only extended as far north as Route 2 in Vermont, but now covers the whole state.  Latest forecasts put pretty much the entire state in the sweet spot for snow, though mixed precipitation is a risk in the south. 

The warning goes from Monday evening through Tuesday evening.  The heaviest precipitation will come down between the pre-dawn hours Monday and noon Tuesday. Snow will start Monday afternoon and its intensity will pick up later on at night. 

Tuesday morning, sleet and freezing rain could get as far north as Route 4, but should mostly stay further south than that. 

At this point, if mixed precipitation does come into southern Vermont, it looks like it will be more sleet than freezing rain. That's good, because sleet doesn't weigh down trees like freezing rain does.

There is the risk of damaging freezing rain with this first storm further south into the Catskills of New York and southern New England. This is especially a nasty risk because of what might happen with that next storm. 

That storm, on Thursday and Friday, will have a lot of moisture with it, but will track further west than Tuesday's system. 

That means it'll be a warmer storm, putting mixed precipitation in play for all of Vermont. 

The late week storm will probably start as a good burst of snow, then go over to a mix. Or even rain. That depends on a lot of factors. 

If the storm that will go off to our west tries to spin up a subsidiary storm in New England, that would lock the colder air over the region, and a lot of freezing rain could result. If there's already a lot of ice on trees from Tuesday's storm in southern and central New England, more freezing rain would be a disaster. 

That's just one of many scenarios that could play out with the weekend storm. We really don't yet know what types and how much stuff will come out of the sky with the storm at the end of the week. Just expect a storm. 

We'll get through Tuesday's storm, then try to figure out how the second system will screw up our lives. 

After that second storm, the overall weather pattern will start to untangle itself, so the extreme weather in the nation will wane and the South will warm up.  

We in Vermont will probably end up with calmer weather after this week's excitement as well. 

 

Winter's Grip Intensifies In Nation, Including Here In Vermont

I can't remember the last time I saw so much of the nation
covered in winter warnings and advisories. Notice the
huge area of Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas under 
as winter storm warning (pink color) 

 Yesterday I illustrated this blog thingy with the National Weather Service home page which showed all those blue winter weather warnings.  

I'm doing the same today because I don't remember the last time so much of the nation was covered by winter storm warnings, watches and advisories, and will chill warnings and advisories. If you eyeball it, I'd say 70 percent of the nation is under the above alerts. 

You can see we here in Vermont are conspicuously outside those alerts, but that will change as the week goes on. 

Those future Vermont advisories won't include wind chill alerts, but it was still freakin' cold out there this morning. Not nearly as cold as it can possibly get in February, but chilly enough. In northern Vermont outside the Champlain Valley, pretty much everybody was in the teens below zero. 

That's not nearly as bad as the 30s and 40s below zero weather that is surely delighting the denizens on parts of places like North Dakota and Minnesota, so we'll take it 

Plus, for us, the breeze wasn't blowing much this morning, so wind chills aren't excruciating. Plus we're in for a warming trend around here. Which is nice, but the weather will get quite a bit more active. All those winter storms slamming most of the United States won't stay away forever.  

WHAT'S IN STORE

It'll stay cold in Vermont today as the Arctic air remains in place.  It'll only be a couple degrees warmer than yesterday as afternoon clouds increase. 

A nothing burger little disturbance, starved for moisture, will come through late tonight, tossing down a handful of flakes ( dusting to an inch valleys, up to 2 inches mountains).

That'll zip on out of here in time for us to enjoy a Sunday afternoon, partly sunny heat wave - highs in the 20s! 

Remember, though, I've been touting that bending jet stream all week, and how it will orient itself southwest to northeast over the Eastern Seaboard.

That is indeed setting up. It'll bring moisture up from the south, so more light snow will break out by Monday afternoon. It won't amount to a whole lot, but enough to sweep or shovel away. 

Then that next touted storm comes along Tuesday.  That one looks to be a little too far south to give us a huge dump, but close enough to give at least some of us a few inches of snow  anyway.  Especially in southern Vermont.  This is when we'll start to share in those winter alerts from the National Weather Service. If this forecast holds, I'm sure they'll issue winter weather advisories for snow, at least in southern Vermont. 

After a break with dry weather and just slightly cooler than average weather midweek, the forecast is still calling for a bigger, wetter storm for us Green Mountain Boys and Girls. 

Hard to tell if we're in for snow, a mix or even rain at this point but the potential is there for a lot of something to fall from the sky. 

STUNNING NATIONAL PICTURE

This weekend and the first part of the upcoming week are turning out to be pretty historic in the weather department, especially across the South. 

A glimmer of hope. Long range forecasts for the end of 
February indicate chances of above normal temperatures
in the northern Plains, Texas and Oklahoma, the areas
being hardest hit by the current spate of winter weather. 

All of Oklahoma is under a winter storm warning.  Virtually all of Texas and most of Louisiana is also under winter storm watches, warnings and/or wind chill alerts, which is pretty remarkable. 

One of the most memorable aspects of this siege of winter weather is how much ice - freezing rain and sleet - has come with this and will continue to come. 

I've noted that horrible ice-related wreck in Fort Worth the other day and that ice storm that damaged trees and power lines and caused too many vehicle crashes to count in Kentucky and Arkansas.

Vast parts of Texas were being hit again by ice this morning. Freezing drizzle, freezing rain and sleet will continue in large parts of Texas, all the way down through what is normally pretty tropical Houston. 

Temperatures in the South during and after this storm will be extreme to say the least. Monday afternoon temperatures in Dallas could well be at or below the record low for the date of 13 degrees. 

This whole thing in Texas is especially dangerous as widespread power failures are likely as temperatures fall into the single numbers at night through most of the state Sunday and Monday.  Pipes will freeze in countless buildings. Travel will be all but impossible probably in more than half of Texas come Sunday and Monday. 

Crop damage in the southern half of Texas will be massive.  I also hope people take their pets indoors during this. The National Weather Service in Brownsville, in the southern tip of the state, just issued their first winter storm watch in a decade. 

As the National Weather Service in Houston warns residents: "Remember the 4 P's: Pipes, people, pets and plants."

A second winter storm of freezing rain and sleet is expected in Texas Wednesday. 

Oklahoma is facing some of its most intense winter weather in history.  The temperature there fell to 20 degrees this past Monday and won't get above that level again until Thursday.  That's at least nine consecutive days at or under 20 degrees in a city whose normal highs are in the mid 50s this time of year. 

 That freezing rain is extending, and will cover many areas of the East in the next few days. Already, an ice storm was underway this morning in Virginia. Power outages were already occurring there, and will get worse as the freezing rain continues all day.

Off and on freezing rain and sleet is likely from the Mid-Atlantic States today through Tuesday. 

In the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, where trees and power lines are laden with ice already, a snowstorm is coming Sunday and Monday followed by more snow and freezing rain later in the week. It seemingly doesn't end. 

It's even hitting the West Coast. At least 266,000 homes and businesses in Oregon were without power after a big ice storm hit Portland and surrounding areas yesterday and overnight. 

Perhaps we in Vermont are missing out on this extreme weather. Thank goodness! This siege of winter weather has killed at least a dozen people in the United States since midweek.  I'm afraid this will prove fatal to many more, since vast areas that aren't used to winter weather are getting nailed. There's already also been a lot of property damage, and a lot more of is coming to homes, businesses, farms and crops throughout much of the South, Midwest and East. 

You'll see a LOT of rough winter headlines in the news in the coming few days.