Thursday Afternoon Update: After Today's Hints Of Spring, Vermont Braces For Tomorrow's Snow'

Updated storm total map for tomorrow's storm.
Orange areas get eight inches or more Blue areas
are five inches or less. Expect some changes to
the forecast by tomorrow. The storm might end up
seeming worse than these totals suggest because
the initial surge of snow will come down hard. 

I hope you enjoyed our hints of spring this afternoon. Winter still looks like it will return with a vengeance tomorrow. 

Under strong sunshine, most places got into the mid 30s to around 40 today. An exception was right along the Canadian border, especially in the far northern Champlain Valley where temperatures held near 32 degrees. 

Now for our Thursday evening storm update:

If anything, the amount of snow we'll get has ticked up just a little since this morning's forecast. 

The storm responsible for all this is in the Midwest. It's quite vigorous, judging from the tornado watch in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky this afternoon.  The storm has prompted some flood watch in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, too. 

The storm will be weakened some by the time it gets closer to us, but it will still pack a punch when it arrives. 

 The snow will come at us from southwest to northeast, hitting the Bennington area first early in the afternoon. By 4 p.m give or take it will be along and south and west of Interstate 89. The snow will then fill in toward the Northeast Kingdom by dark or so. Stay tuned for updates as the timing might change a little.

The storm will be more intense than the predicted snow totals suggest. Once the snow arrives, it'll very quickly go from flurries to very heavy snow, piling up at a rate of an inch or more per hour. It still looks it might start off mixed with rain in the lower valleys but will quickly go to snow.

You won't want to be on the roads when this arrives. The initial burst of heavy snow will be wet an heavy. That kind of snow compacts under car tires to create a particularly slick variety of ice. I anticipate big tie ups on the Interstate with a lot of slide offs and potential crashes once this hits.Like I said this morning, if you can work from home tomorrow instead of going into the office, do that. 

As expected, the National Weather Service has updated all the winter alerts for Friday The southeastern quarter of Vermont and the Green Mountains from the Massachusetts border north to about Sugarbush are under a winter storm warning from late Friday morning to Saturday morning. 

The southeastern Adirondacks of New York and southern New Hampshire are also under a winter storm warning. Everybody under the warning should get a storm total of 6 to 10 inches 

Winter storm warnings are usually issued when there's an expectation of at least six inches of snow. The rest of the region is under a winter weather advisory for four to seven inches of snow. (Forecaster think some areas will see six inches of snow in the advisory area, but not everyone will. 

The initial burst of heavy, wet snow will account for most of the accumulation with this thing.  You will be shoveling wet cement when it comes time to clear sidewalks and driveways. 

Overnight Friday and into Saturday, our storm will weaken rapidly as a new storm gets going along the New England coast and then goes quickly out to sea. Light snow will continue into Saturday, mostly in the north and mountains. The consistency of the snow overnight Friday and into Saturday will be nice and fluffy. That will give us a bit of a break, anyway. 

There's no great surge of frigid air coming in after this storm for a change. Highs Saturday will approach 30. Under partly cloudy skies Sunday, we should make it into the mid-30s.

That nor'easter  I mentioned this morning for Monday still looks like a miss for Vermont. 

 

Southeast Reels After Big Snowy Nor'easter, Extreme Florida Freeze

The scene in New Bern, on the North Carolina coast this
morning. Photo from Storm Chaser Stephen Jones/Facebook

The second weird, extreme southern winter storm in a week is heading out to sea this afternoon, leaving some pretty incredibly winter scenes in the Carolinas. Meanwhile Florida is shivering in record cold.  
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The Southeastern United States is having a classic New England winter day, with deep snow on the ground, sunshine overhead with the storm headed away cold gusty northwest winds and temperatures in the 20s,  In Florida, morning lows were in the 20s. 

This is the second year in a row that an extreme snowstorm and record shattering cold hit the far south of the Lower 48. 

In January, 2025, an unprecedented snowstorm brought near blizzard conditions from New Orleans to Pensacola.   Florida set its all time record deepest snowstorm with 8.8 inches. Temperatures fell to all time lows of just 3 above not far from the coast in southwest Louisiana. 

This weekend's storm wasn't quite as extreme as last year's in the south. But it was close. 

SNOWY CAROLINAS

Visible satellite shows snow covering all of North 
Carolina and much of South Carolina today.
Those streaky clouds around Florida are caused
by frigid air flowing over warm water. It's the
same as lake effect snow clouds in the Great Lakes.
Flurries were seen as far south as Sarasota, Florida.

In North Carolina, 17.7 inches of snow fell in Longwood, which is near the coast. A foot of snow fell on Lake View, South Carolina, which is a a little north of and slightly inland from Myrtle Beach. 

In the Carolinas, the only two snowstorms that in memory that were bigger than this weekend's were  one that hit in December, 1989 and another in March, 1980. 

As skies cleared Sunday, satellite photos showed the rarity of snow covering all of North Carolina much of South Carolina and parts of eastern Georgia. 

Snow fell as far west as Atlanta, Georgia and the eastern half of Tennessee.

The storm caused a pileup involving up to 100 cars along Interstate 85 in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Traffic was snarled across the state as people who did venture out quickly got stuck. 

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, one house fell into the ocean during the storm in Buxton. That's the 17th house to fall into the eroding shores in Buxton and Rodanthe, North Carolina since this past September. 

Video showed full blizzard conditions in Nags Head, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina last night. 

To add to the Outer Banks weather chaos, a large fire broke out at an unoccupied home in Nags Head. At last report the fire was largely contained. 

On the bright side, recovery from the storm in North Carolina will be easier than it was in places like Mississippi and Tennessee last week, which were hit by an extreme ice storm. The ice was followed bye days of subfreezing temperatures that did little to melt the mess. 

In the eastern Carolinas, temperatures should go a little above freezing tomorrow, and then highs for the rest of the week will be in the 40s to around 50. Not exactly warm for them, but it should help anyone trying to drive anywhere. 

FLORIDA

Snow flurries were seen as far as Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Other flurries were seen in and around Jacksonville. 

The main story was the cold. In Orlando at 7 a.m, it was 25 degrees with a wind chill of 13. Miami was down to a record low for the date of 35 degrees with a wind chill of 26.  

The Florida freeze is part of a weather pattern that has brought oddly mild air to parts of the Arctic while shoving cold air far southward to where is almost never goes. Wind trajectory maps show the air made a straight shot from the North Pole to Miami.

Here's a great demonstration of how warm (for the Arctic) high pressure is making parts of the far northern part of the world warm, while frigid weather blasts places much further south. 

Orlando, Florida suffered through a record low temperature of 24 degrees this morning. Jacksonville, Florida hit 23 degrees and Tallahassee reached 21. Meanwhile, this morning's low in Nuuk, Greenland was 26.

 Orlando's records go back as far as 1892.

Other cities whose records don't go back as far as Orlando's set records for coldest for the entire month of February. Those include Daytona Beach, with 23 degrees, which broke the old February record of 24 degrees. Melbourne got to 25, breaking the mark for the entire month of February, which was 27. Vero Beach reached 26 degrees, breaking the old record low for the month of February, which had been 28 degrees.  

Florida homes are built to keep the hot air out, not the cold air. I'm sure there's going to be lots of trouble with frozen pipes, and people shivering in homes with inside temperatures in the 50s, 40s or worse. 

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson has already sent a request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking a disaster declaration for what will surely be crop damage from the deep freeze.

You'll probably see higher produce prices at the grocery store due to the Florida freeze. The state sends crops like avocados, bell peppers, broccoli, celery, corn, cucumbers, radishes, strawberries, cabbage and citrus products to much of the nation during the winter.

Farmers have been trying to spray farm fields to cover everything with a light coating of ice. The ice actually protects plants from the frigid temperatures. Other farm fields were hidden from the cold by massive row covers. 

However, at one farm, the sprinklers malfunctioned in a field of blueberry bushes, crushing many of the plants under six inches or more of ice. 

Another hard freeze is due tonight across Florida. After that, things should get a little better. The upcoming week will be cooler than average, but far from record-breaking cold.  

Videos Show Severity, Destructive Power And Incredible Snows From Recent Winter Storm

The wild images kept coming out of the South today.
This is Interstate 55 in Mississippi about 40 miles
south of Memphis this morning. Freezing fog,
and the highway turned horribly rutted along with
frozen over tied up people trying to drive and
return to a sense of normalcy Trees are still sagging'
under the ice, too. Photo by Mark Shadlow/Facebook

Everybody has a camera in their pocket nowadays, and there's also a ton of professional videographers out now.  Technology has made the process easier and faster.  

In the past decade or so, we've really seen incredible amount of wild images and video of weather disasters. The widespread winter storm this week brought us a lot of impressive scenes.

One big problem that has cropped up in the past couple years is AI. Many videos are fake, generated by AI.  A lot of it is garbage and you can tell right away it's manufactured slop. But some of it fools even the most skeptical eye. 

That said, I've collected some of the more impressive videos of the ice and snow that have no AI in them. 

So enjoy the real videos below. 

Here's Live Storms Media patrolling Alcom County, Mississippi. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on the arrow with the red background. 

Live Storms Media found even more destruction around Burnsville, Mississippi, with collapsed buildings, trees ahah utilities. As a repeat, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

Another look at Oxford Mississippi. This stretch of road proved too much for some people who tried to venture out despite the fact their community was entirely encased in ice. Hat tip to Storm Chaser Aaron Rigby. The broken record strikes again. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that. 

Further north, it was of course a ridiculous amount of snow. StormChasingVideo brought us the scenes from in and around Dayton, Ohio. As always, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on the arrow.

It looked even rougher in New York City.  The following video by Scott McPartland shows strong winds funneling between the buildings during the height of the storm. Slippery underfoot, too, judging by how many people fell. You can also hear in the video sleet mixing with the snow. My critique: Many people in the video had dodgy footwear for such a storm, and how are umbrellas going to help in that weather?

In any event, click on this link to watch McPartland's wild Manhattan video, or if you see the image below click on the arrow. 

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration got generally high marks for snow removal in the city, but they had to put the snow somewhere. The snowbanks have really walled in cars and snowbanks. CBS New York has the scoop if you click on this link, or if you see the image below, click on the arrow

Don't want to brave the cold to clear the snow? Well, a brave new world is coming in the world of driveway snow removal. Check out this guy's robot who did all the work for him. Note that the robot owner says it does take an incredible amount of patience to set up the snow blowing robot. Once again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on the arrow

 

New York Mayor Gets High Marks For Handling Snowstorm; Politicians In History, Not So Much

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, right
seen shoveling snow during this week's winter
storm. Many mayors have gotten in trouble
through inept handling of such storms, but
Mamdani got high marks in how he managed
his first big winter storm as mayor. 

 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hasn't been in office for quite a month yet. And he's already faced down a problem that has quickly ended or at least trashed the careers of many big city mayors: A winter storm. 

John Lindsay, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill DeBlasio all caught heat, so to speak, for their handling of New York City snowstorms. Mayors of other cities have flailed in the snow, too.     

This weekend's storm dumped nearly a foot of snow and sleet on the Big Apple 

It looks like the brand new mayor of the Big Apple survived his first test. 

Mamdani is a master of communication, judging for a video he released to social media on Saturday, the day before the storm. 

There he was in a sanitation department garage, with all the garbage trucks all retrofitted to become snow trucks. The video was professional produced, complete with optimistic background music, and skillful editing. 

The city deployed 2,000 workers on 12 hours shifts. The city sent out 700 salt spreaders and over 2,000 plows 

Mamdani also made sure he was seen in public monitoring the storm, even helping people shovel out on occasion. He held press conferences to provide updates. He made sure he was the public face of the New York storm, and messaged that he was on top of it. 

Stateandcityny.com tells us

"From the early hours of Sunday morning to well into the evening, Mamdani traversed the city, shoveling snow, greeting and thanking sanitation workers, posing for photo ops, providing updates via television interviews and hosting a news conference."

The New York Times headline was "Mamdani Clears Early Hurdles as Storm Bears Down On New York."

Even Republicans admitted Mamdami did a good job. "The city did well. There was an abnormal amount of snow and the markets opened up the trains are running, ad the DSNY is rocking and rolling," former Republic City Council Member Joe Borelli said. 

It wasn't perfect. The storm was even colder than most that hit New York City. Temperatures were in the teens to around 20 during the storm, with gusty winds. That made things especially dangerous, especially for people who are unhoused. 

About 170 people were taken off the streets and into shelter prior to and during the storm. However, seven people in New York City died, some of whom had been in homeless shelters in the past. However, it wasn't immediately clear whether the deaths were caused by the cold weather. 

Another less serious issue that had some New Yorkers disliking Mamdani's actions during the storm. They were school children. Instead of canceling school on Monday, the mayor said there would be remote learning from home. 

He said kids could throw snowballs at him if they wanted. 

Another criticism Mamdani received: He was not wearing a hat like he should have in such weather.

So no playing in the snow. But, then again, the snow is still on the ground and will be for quite awhile, as more frigid weather is in the New York City forecast. 

MAYORS SINK IN SNOW

Other mayors saw their careers set back or even destroyed by how they dealt with a winter storm. 

John Lindsay dealt with a February, 1969 storm that was supposed to be mostly rain, but turned into 15 inches of snow. An unprepared and disorganized Lindsay administration couldn't even get major highways open, the subways running and schools open for two days. The storm killed 42 New Yorkers. 

Lindsay lost the next Republican mayoral primary, but ran as a third party candidate and barely won. 

In 2010 Mayor Michael Bloomberg got in trouble for being in Bermuda during a big New York blizzard.  He also blithely said, "This city is going on. It's a day lie every other day," and suggested people go out and shop or enjoy a broadway show. 

This as highways were blocked, subways barely worked and more than 20 inches of snow piled into drifts several feet tall. 

Bloomberg did better with subsequent storms, though. And he wasn't the only politician who got in trouble for going to warming climes when the Arctic invaded the United States.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is still getting ribbed for fleeing to Cancun when a deadly winter storm and freeze hit Texas in 2021. During the storm last weekend, Cruz was seen on a flight bound for Laguna Beach. Cruz said it was a work trip and he's be back in time for the storm. No word if that can to pass. Cruz was also away in Greece when horrific floods hit Texas last July. 

Anyway, back to mayors. 

Sometimes, they can't win. A record deep snowstorm was predicted for New York in January, 2015. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was bracing for a snowstorm "the likes of which we have never seen before." 

Instead the deep snow stayed on Long Island, and New York City got a measly six inches of new snow, and de Blasio was criticized for hyping things up too much.  He responded by humorously reading aloud for reporters a mocking Onion story with the headline "NYC Mayor: Reconcile Yourselves With Your Good, For All Will Perish In The Tempest."

Other cities have certainly seen mayors lose to snowstorms too. In January, 1979, Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic botched the effort to clear streets after a 20-inch blizzard. Because of that, he later that month lost the Democratic primary election for mayor to Jane Byrne, who went to to become the first female mayor of major American city. 

Last winter, St. Louis officials came under fierce criticism after a January 5 snow and ice storm left the city's streets resembling skating rinks through the month. City leaders got some redemption with their competent handling of the aftermath of a large, deadly tornado that cut right through St. Louis. 

After this week's far-ranging snowstorm, some mayors are taking the kind of heat they wish could melt the snow instead. Residents of Providence, Rhode Island, Paterson, New Jersey and even to some extent Buffalo, New York are complaining about a slow cleanup.  

Death Toll Rising From Winter Storm; Stubborn Deep Cold Raising The Stakes

The city of Oxford, Mississippi continues to post
photos of the ice storm destruction. Another example.

The death toll from the massive winter storm has risen to at least 34 in 14 states as the severe lingering effects of the snow and ice barrage continues to threaten more lives. 

As of mid-morning today, more than a half million homes and businesses remained without power, mainly in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. This, as temperatures reached record cold levels in the region this morning. 

In devastated northern Mississippi, temperatures are forecast to rise into the still-colder than average low 40s. At least that will melt some of the us. But a new, intense cold snap is set to hit by the end of the week, sending overnight temperatures back down into the single digits. 

Ice storm damage in Mississippi was even worse than in a historic 1994 storm. In 1994, it took 23 days for power to be fully restored. Officials said modernization could somewhat shorten the repair timeline this time, but probably not by all that much. 

In Tennessee, Nashville residents were told some parts of the city could remain without power for a week. Outlying areas will probably wait even longer. 

While the electricity is off in and around Nashville, the frigid weather continues, which is bad news for the thousands of people shivering without heat. High temperatures in Nashville should only reach the 20s and 30s through next Monday. This is a city where afternoon temperatures are normally around 50 degrees this time of year. 

Later on, the question of where to put the debris from millions of shattered trees in hundreds of communities in the South.  Right now, mountains of tree debris lines roads and streets. In some of the hardest hit cities, it looked like nearly every tree sustained at least a little damage. A lot of those trees are entirely destroyed. 

Roads in northern Mississippi are still coated in
thick layers of ice and snow even
though the storm ended late Sunday. 
They're not equipped to remove snow and
the thaws that usually follow winter storms
in the region have failed to arrive.

North of the ice zone, people are still clearing snow from a massive area from New Mexico to Maine and Canada. 

On Monday. 56 percent of the Lower 48 of the United States was covered in snow. At least a foot of snow fell in 18 states, including here in Vermont. Toronto, Canada endured its largest single day snowfall with about 22 inches of new snow. 

Travel problems continue to reverberate even after the storm has passed. 

American Airlines said this was their most disruptive storm in the company's 100-year history. American canceled 9,000 flights in the storm.  More cancelations and delays are possible over the next couple of days. 

Flight Aware showed about 2,300 flight canceled today, even after the storm has passed. Lingering ice and snow on the ground, and the disarray caused by the tens of thousands of cancellations during the actual storm, are helping to cause the problem.

In much of the South, highways are today still covered by thick layers of snow and ice. They don't have the equipment down there to remove all that ice. Usually, southerners wait for it to melt. Normally the melt doesn't' take long. This time, it is. 

The weird, extended Arctic weather is affecting most places east of the Rockies. 

Usually - at least in recent years and decades -  a severe winter cold wave lasts only a few days, and then it's largely over.   

This time, the frigid air is staying put. 

In Minneapolis, all but one of the past 11 days have gotten below zero. The next above zero daily low temperature is not expected until this coming Sunday.   

The cold weather pattern is forecast to last well into February. New York City's longest streak of consecutive below freezing days is 16, set in 1961. Given the forecasts, that record could be broken. 

Even Florida is enduring the chill. They've already had a couple hard freezes this winter and another is due tonight. Another, strong cold wave is forecast later this week. Temperatures could get down into the low and mid 20s around Orland and mid-30s as far south as Miami. 

Even worse, a nor'easter is expected to form off the East Coast. It's still unclear whether the storm will come close enough to shore to cause a blizzard. But even if the storm misses, it's almost certain to reinforce the cold air over the eastern United States.  

 

Deadly U.S. Winter Storm Winding Down; Cleanup To Take Weeks In Some Areas

Road blocked by fallen trees in Nashville.
From Meteorologist Tyler Barker, via Facebook

The enormous, deadly winter storm that has been thrashing the United States since Friday is finally on its way out,  swiping New England today with lingering snows before heading out to sea. 

At least 16 people have died so far, and that doesn't include seven deaths in Bangor, Maine from a plane crash. The incident happened in snowy weather, but investigators haven't yet announced whether this was due to the weather. 

I'm afraid that toll will go up as ice storm victims who will be without power for days or weeks endure frigid temperatures.

People will come down with hypothermia in frigid homes or apartments, succumb to fires or fumes due to improperly installed generators or space heaters, or they will be injured or even killed in accidents while clearing fallen trees and branches. 

This will surely be an incredibly expensive storm, too. I expect total damage will make this the first weather disaster of 2026 to cause more than $1 billion in losses.

As of noon today, at least 776,000 homes and businesses were still without power in the Southeast. Most of the outages were in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, which were hardest hit by the ice storm. 

My social media feed this morning was full of images and videos of iced-over trees and branches snapping with a sound of a gunshot, the crashing to the ground in cacophony of shattering ice and wood crunching into the ground. 

Those expected temperatures in the ice storm zone are incredibly low. Extreme cold warnings extend from southern Texas to Pennsylvania. 

Some of the hardest hit towns are dealing with this incredible chill. One of the hardest hit cities, Oxford, Mississippi, is expecting a high today in the low 20s with a low tonight in the upper single numbers. Normal highs and lows this time of year in Oxford are in the low 50s and low 30s. 

Nashville was also hard hit. It's been in the teens there since 5 p.m. yesterday and won't get above that level until tomorrow. The expected low tonight in Nashville is 0 degrees. The city won't get any warmer than the low 30s through the week. 

The cold not only endangers people with the threat of hypothermia and frostbite, it also means a lot of the ice won't melt anytime soon. That means the risk of more collapsing trees and power lines, and even building damage. 

Oxford, Mississippi after the ice storm. 

Some houses and businesses have been hit by falling trees A few have succumbed to the weight of the ice.  

Several buildings and other structures have collapsed under the weight of ice along the Texas-Oklahoma border.  

A large horse barn in Hernando, Mississippi collapsed, but all the horses inside somehow managed to survive. At least one building fell down in Arkansas. 

One news crew almost got hit by a falling tree while talking about the storm with a family in Tennessee.

As in most disasters, the change in everyone's surroundings can feel surreal and shocking

In Mississippi, a WREG reporter in Oxford, Mississippi  said the air smells like pine from all the broken trees, and he has to keep his head on a swivel because of all the trees still falling, or at least threatening to. 

"It's complete devastation. It looks like a tornado went down every street. There is no safe means of travel on the roads right now," Oxford Mississippi Mayor Robyn Tannehill said. 

Speaking of tornadoes, a likely twister touched down in Geneva, in southeast Alabama, causing damage. There were also other reports of wind damage from strong thunderstorms in that part of Alabama and northwest Florida. 

Well to the north, the news was heavy snow. At least 16 states, including here in Vermont saw snow accumulations reach a foot or more. Reports of up to 22 inches of new snow came from central and eastern Massachusetts, the lower Hudson Valley and Catskills in New York, and at a couple spots in Pennsylvania

Boston ended a 1,430 day period in which they never saw a snowstorm of greater than six inches. That's their second longest snow drought in history, noted Jonathan Petralma in a YouTube video

The snowy weather extended into Canada. Toronto set a single-day record for snowfall with 23 inches.  The city has seen 34.7 inches of snow so far in January,  making this Toronto's snowiest month on record. 

Travel is still messed up today, as you might guess. More than 5,400 flights were canceled today, according to Flight Aware. This brings the total number of canceled flights to nearly 24,000 since the storm began Friday. That's the most since the Covid pandemic. 

A new nor'easter next Sunday or Monday might affect parts of the East Coast around next Sunday or Monday but it's too soon to tell if it will hit and where. Colder than normal weather is likely to continue in much of the northern and eastern United States at least into mid-February.  

Widespread, Serious U.S. Damage From Winter Storm; Nice Big Vermont Thump Of Snow Just Starting

Oxford, Mississippi today. Photo by
Meteorologist Eric Graves via Facebook

Editors note: Vermont-specific storm info is further down in this post. National news summary is first.

Tales of how dreadful our giant winter storm has been in so much of the United States have been emerging all afternoon. And for many, it'll keep going overnight.  

As of mid-afternoon, five people had so far died in the storm and frigid weather, and that toll is almost surely going to rise. Two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana and three apparently homeless people were found dead in New York. 

Over one million homes and businesses across the South had no electricity as of mid-afternoon. 

I'm terribly worried about people in the South who won't have power for days. In general, houses aren't really insulated against frigid weather. 

Temperatures are likely to fall to 10 degrees or lower in western Mississippi, which has been hard hit by the ice storm. Readings won't get above freezing there until Tuesday afternoon, and even then, just barely. 

Hard-hit Nashville expects temperatures in the single digits tonight and possible as low as 0 tomorrow night. As of mid-afternoon, 203,302 homes and businesses in Davidson County, Tennessee, which includes Nashville, had no power. That represents 92 percent of the customers there. 

Some people in the county, and throughout the South, won't have electricity back for days, perhaps weeks in a few instances. 

A similarly bad ice storm struck the Nashville in February, 1994, but it didn't get nearly cold after the storm as it will this time. 

It's not just trees and power lines collapsing. At least two buildings collapsed in Gainesville, Texas, near the Oklahoma border due the heavy weight of sleet on roofs. A large race car and classic car shop in northern Mississippi also collapsed due to the ice. 

In Dallas at around 1 a.m today, traffic snarled as 19,000 people left American Airlines Center after a Mavericks game and tried to get home on freeways covered in snow and sleet. A hill on the Woodall Rogers Freeway was too much for many cars. 

Nashville today. Via Mark Fairless/Facebook

In St. Louis, for the second time this winter, traffic came to a standstill because of many crashes on the freeways around the city.

Reed Timmer's video of Oxford, Mississippi showed massive destruction to the city's trees. It reminded me very much of the tree carnage here in northwest Vermont during the Great Ice Storm of 1998. 

Similar scenes are playing out in northern Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. It was beginning to get that bad in the Carolinas this afternoon. 

 Snowfall totals are starting to get impressive. Examples include 16.6 inches in Davis, West Virginia, and more than 13 inches at sites in Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

Even greater snow totals are likely by the time the storm ends, especially in parts of Pennsylvania, much of New York and New England. Up to 30 inches of snow could fall in New York's Catskills. 

Areas south of the ice and snow zone have their own troubles. At one point this afternoon, the National Weather Service had the southeast corner of Alabama under a tornado warning, severe thunderstorm warning, tornado watch, freeze warning, cold weather advisory, extreme cold watch, and a wind advisory. 

Air travel is still hopelessly snarled. By midafternoon, 11,727 flights had been canceled today, according to Flight Aware. Already, more than 2,600 flights tomorrow are scrubbed

As darkness fell, most, but not all of the precipitation was confined to the Appalachians, East Coast and eastern Great Lakes. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Anyone who looks out the window can tell our storm is here. As expected, snowfall this afternoon has been quite a bit heavier in southern Vermont than in the north. 

National Weather Service storm prediction map hasn't
changed much since this morning. They might have
added an inch or two to Northeast Kingdom totals. 

Unlike in the rest of the nation, the storm here in Vermont is arguably doing more good than harm. It's definitely boosting the winter sports industry. 

The exceptionally cold air is keeping the snowflakes tiny, especially in the north, and that has also cut back on total accumulation. For now at least. 

I don't think I've seen a snowstorm this cold since February, 2015. At 4 p.m., Montpelier reported moderate snow and a temperature of 1 below. It doesn't appear any place in Vermont was warmer than 6 above late this afternoon. 

Temperatures should hold steady or grudgingly rise overnight, but not by much. It might be 10 degree or so by dawn, and make it into the mid and upper teens in the afternoon. Not great, but an improvement over the past couple of days, I guess. 

It was really snowing in southern Vermont as of 5 p.m. and snowfall rates were picking up in the north, and that trend will continue into the evening. 

The snow will keep cranking overnight, but tend to taper off in the early morning hours. In some areas, it might not be snowing at all at dawn. This might annoy some people, because a ton of school closings have already been announced for tomorrow. 

But maybe the school closings are a good idea, since the snow will pick up again during the day. 

The main storm will be heading out to sea early tomorrow, which is why we're going to temporarily lose the snow. But the huge system's upper atmospheric support will come through during the day, which will create lift in the atmosphere. Lift means snow at these temperatures. 

The snow is quite dry and is blowing off the roads fairly easily. At least at first. Road crews might have a little trouble keeping up with it is snowing hardest. Plus, salt does not work well at all when it snows at such low temperatures. 

Traffic cam grab shortly after 4 p.m. today caught
Vermont State highway crews clearing snow 
from Route 9 in Searsburg. 

Even during the lull in the snow tomorrow morning, I can't imagine road conditions will be all that great. Since it'll pretty much snow all day, the roads will stay snowy and slick all day, too. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington hasn't change the expected accumulations much since this morning. 

They've added an inch or two maybe to the Northeast Kingdom, and now they're more or less calling for a foot of snow up there. 

The southern Green Mountains are still looking like the big winners, with an expected 18 to 24 inches. This type of storm sometimes over-performs in the southern Greens, so it's possible they could get more. No promises, though. 

After this storm goes by, I still don't see any signs any new big storms for at least ten days. But we are locked in a cold weather pattern.  If we're lucky, the weather might modify to something just seasonal chilly in about a week. 

But that just gets us up into the 20s during the afternoons. Not exactly warm. But at least the sunsets are getting later.  This coming Saturday will bring us the first 5 p.m. sunset of the year.  

Climate Change CAN Worsen Winter Storms. But It's Complicated

Upper level forecast shows how cold weather
in eastern U.S will last into early Februarty.
Green lines depict the jet stream. Note how
wavy it is and how it heads southeastward
into the United States. Those red dotted
areas indicate areas of high pressure and warm
air for the region. That so much of the red
dots mean there's an Arctic amplification,
which means cold air is being squashed 
southward toward us. Scientists are 
studying whether climate change is making
weather patterns like this more likely. 

I suppose I can't blame President Trump for wondering where global warming went. 

There's massive amounts of ice and snow from New Mexico to southeast Canada. The South is locked in ice after a bunch of freezing rain. People are shivering in their homes without electricity. 

Dozens of daily record low high temperatures and record low overnight temperatures have already been set this weekend, mostly in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.  More records will fall in the next few days, mostly across the South and southeastern parts of the U.S.  

Whether this storm, or any other extreme winter event in recent years can be tied to climate change is iffy. But there are some picky scientific details that suggest the warming world can paradoxically helping create these epic winter storms and cold snaps. 

As Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli explains, climate change can during relatively brief periods enhance the cold in places like the United States.

Sometimes - and this is occurring now - blocking high pressure settles over the Arctic, especially near or over Greenland - making them warm. At least warm compared to the insane cold you should expect up there. 

This setup shoves the cold air down into places like the United States and western Europe. 

Meanwhile, the Arctic overall is warming at a pace up to four times greater than most of the rest of the world.  That's called Arctic amplification. In fact, right now it's super warm for the season in parts of Greenland. In Nuuk, on the relatively mild southwest coast of Greenland, normal highs this time of year are around 20 degrees with a low of about 12.

The Weather Channel says Nuuk will have a high temperature of 42 degrees today, and it probably won't go below freezing tonight. 

Berardelli notes that the extra warming from climate change amplifies the blocking high pressure over the Arctic or Greenland.  That, in turn even more firmly pushes the cold air toward the United States and other mid-latitude places .

The air coming down from the Arctic because of this pattern isn't any colder than it used to be. In fact it's somewhat warmer. Punches of frigid air that have always blasted into the Upper Midwest are generally a bit milder than the were a generation or two ago. 

For instance, one study by Climate Central noted that the lowest temperature of the year has increased by 12 degrees since 1970. 

But when these Arctic air masses get pulled all the way down into the southern half of the United States, big trouble ensues. Like the winter storm we're having this weekend. 

There's at least circumstantial evidence that a wavier jet stream has started to occasionally send at times unprecedented blasts of Arctic air far south, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

We had the big Texas freeze and utility collapse in 2021, the one that killed nearly 250 people. Last January, an unprecedented snowstorm swept the Gulf Coast, burying places from New Orleans to Pensacola, Florida in more than six inches of snow. New Orleans was actually under a blizzard warning in that event. 

Just last week, it snowed again in northwest Florida. Now this storm. 

The Arctic and Greenland blocking helps make the jet stream wavier, which helps explain why there's such a harsh cold spell going on now.  When jet stream plunges south from northern Canada, it's going to be horribly, miserable cold.

There's still a lot of debate in the scientific community on whether climate change itself is making the jet stream much wavier, especially in the winter. 

When that happens, we could see bigger southward dips in the jet stream, like we're seeing now. 

There's at least circumstantial evidence that a wavier jet stream occasional has started  sending at times unprecedented blasts of Arctic air far south, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Per Grist:

"'The problem is that it's really hard to show whether or not that's happening,' said Jacob Chalif, who studies the phenomenon at Dartmouth College. 'Arctic amplification started really kicking off in the '90s, and we only have really solid record of the jet stream going back to 1979.'"

That leaves about a decade of records to help determine whether what's going on now is something new. 

Dartmouth researchers are now using machine learning to get a picture of jet stream patterns during the  the entire 20th century. There's evidence there were even wilder swings in the jet stream between 1900 and 1979. 

So, the jury is still out as to whether a warmer Arctic is increasing the chances that the U.S. will have terrible winter storms due to whacked-out jet streams. 

Another factor is the polar vortex. It's that big whirl of absolutely ridiculous frigid air that roams the high latitudes. When it's in Canada, closer to the United States, chances are at least part of the nation will be on the cold side.

Sometimes, the polar vortex stretches, and becomes more oblong. if it stretches toward the U.S., we get frigid and fast.

Some science suggests that the polar vortex is stretching more frequently than it used to

Per CNN

"Judah Cohen, a research scientist at MIT, said the stretching of the vortex is tied in part to sea ice loss in parts of the Arctic from human-caused climate change. He also said above average snowfall in parts of Siberia raises the likelihood of such stretching events, and this too is influenced by a paucity of sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas in the Atlantic Ocean."

'"On the southern flanks of the polar vortex, over the U.S. and Asia, an under that where that stretching is happening, there's been an increase in severe winter weather,' Cohen said. 'I'm not saying any one weather event is attributed to climate change,' he said. 'But I do think it loaded the dice here.'"

Even if you ignore the polar vortex and the Greenland Block and the wonky jet stream, the fact of the matter is it's winter. Sure, the climate is warmer, hut that doesn't mean winter is canceled. It can still get brutal out there.

We're living that out right now.  

 

Freezing Rain Nightmare Across The South, Snow In Vermont Starting Soon, Up To 2 Feet S. Greens

Ice storm damage in Oxford, Mississippi. Photo by
Desmond Nugent, via Facebook. 

The big winter storm in the U.S grinds on, pretty much peaking today in terms of snowfall, ice, power outages and other disruptions.  As I've been doing, I'll give a national overview, then, below, you'll see some snowy Vermont specifics. 

The area under the gun is huge. As of early this morning, precipitation was just tapering off in Texas, while snow was entering New England. 

As has been the case throughout this episode, freezing rain has been the worst aspect of this mess. As of around 8:30 this morning eastern time, more than 643,000 American homes and businesses were without power. 

Tennessee had the most with about 197,000 outages. The Nashville area is especially hit hard. 

In Davidson County, Tennessee, where Nashville is located, more than 65,000 homes and businesses were without power early today. That's more than 40% of the customers tracked in the area, according to CNN.

This will be one of the worst power outages the U.S. has seen in awhile. "I think this has the potential to rank up as one of the more consequential storms we've seen in the last five or six years," said Jim Robb, president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, according to the Washington Post. 

In addition to the trees and power lines snapping under the weight of ice, many homes in the South are not built for long stretches of cold weather. Heating is inefficient in these houses, so people use more electricity, and that puts more stress on the electrical grid. 

The bulk of the freezing rain is shifting to the Carolinas and northern Georgia today. Freezing rain was already falling in places like Atlanta, Georgia, Columbia, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina as of 8:30 a.m. today. 

Heavy snow was falling across the Ohio Valley and into the Northeast. The storm is unusually cold. As of 9 a.m., it was snowing fairly heavily in New York's Central Park and the temperature there was only 11 degrees. Washington DC was only at 16 degrees. 

In Charlottesville, Virginia, the snow had changed to freezing rain as of 9 a.m. and the temperature was only 13 degrees. It's very rare to have freezing rain with temperatures lower than the mid-20s. 

On top of all this, there's still a risk of severe thunderstorms and maybe a couple tornadoes in and near the Florida Panhandle today. 

This whole mess has completely gummed up the nation's airlines. 

The number of flights canceled Saturday ended up at 4,616, according to Flight Aware. As of 7:30 a.m. the number of flight cancellations had reached a whopping total of more than 10,200.

After the storm, roughly 110 million Americans will endure subzero cold in the coming days. If there's a fresh snowpack, nights can be much colder than they would be with little or no snow. Since Arctic air is still feeding down from Canada and there is now a huge snowpack in the U.S., the frigid air will only get worse. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

The bright blue sky we had yesterday has been replaced by a dull gray as our big snowstorm comes in for a landing today. 

Burlington got down to 8 below shortly before midnight, and that's the coldest temperature we've had so far this winter, the temperatures started to slowly rise after midnight as the clouds rolled in.

Almost everybody else in Vermont started "warming up," if you can call it that after midnight. Before that started happening, Montpelier reached 15 below, St. Johnsbury hit minus 17, and Morrisville hit a frigid 20 below. Lake Eden made it to at least 26 below, which makes me wonder whether anybody in the Northeast Kingdom hit minus 30. More data should come in later to answer that question. 

The Snow

Latest snow accumulation forecast from the National
Weather Service/South Burlington. Storm totals
have increased to 18 inches or more in the 
central and southern Green Mountains. (red shading)

Overall, expected snow totals have increased some in southern Vermont and stayed roughly the same north since last night's forecast. 

Places north of Route 2, should see about a foot, with maybe a little less than that near the Canadian border.

 There's one caveat in that the initial push of heavy snow tonight might not make it as far north as thought. If that happens, snow totals north of Route 2 might go down. But for now, count on a foot or so.

Central Vermont should be in the 12 to 15 inch range. 

Much of southern Vermont should be close to 18 inches or so. Exceptions might be along the immediate western slopes of the Green Mountains. Places like Rutland might "only" get a foot. 

East facing slopes of the Green Mountains, places like Ludlow, could get 18 inches to as much as two feet of snow. Even on valley floors in southeastern Vermont, there could close to two feet. Current projects for Brattleboro give them 21 inches. 

As of 8:30 a.m. radar appeared to show snow starting to move into far southern Vermont. But that was just snow beginning to fall from the clouds and evaporating in the dry air. For awhile this morning, you'll see snow pretty much covering Vermont, but none hitting the ground.

Once the snow up above moistens the air enough, then it will start snowing. I'll mention again you can watch that process happen today.   You'll see the mountain tops blur first as snow starts up there. At first, the snow will evaporate in the dry air up around three or four thousand feet in elevations. 

But the evaporating snow will moisten the air, and you will see the "blurriness" head down the slopes until it's snowing in the valleys. 

Get your supply runs done this morning. Forecasters have slightly moved up the time when the snow wills start falling. The snow should start coming down between noon and 2 p.m south and west of Interstate 89, and between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. elsewhere. Way up in the Northeast Kingdom it could hold off until  5 .. 

The initial burst of snow will come in hard this evening, especially in central and southern Vermont. Snowfall rates could go up to an inch or more an hour. 

According to the National Weather Service, it seems there might be a bit of a lull in the snowfall early Monday morning. By around 7 a.m., about five to eight inches of new snow will cover the ground north, while southern Vermont might have 8 to 15 inches of fresh, fluffy snow. 

Road conditions for the morning commute will not be great, so try to work at home if you can. If not, plan to spend a lot of time cleaning snow from your car and driving slowly. Since this is a fluffy snow, passing cars and trucks on the highway will really stir up the snow on ground, leaving you blinded at times on the highways. 

At this point, it appears snowfall will pick up steam again in the afternoon. It won't come down as hard as it will tonight, but it will fall heavily enough. The National Weather Service is expecting three to seven inches of new snow during the day tomorrow, give or take. If you do head into work Monday, you're going to have a tricky drive back home, too. 

The snow will finally dwindle off tomorrow night. 

AFTER THE STORM

Plenty of frigid Canadian air will be in place to keep us cold all week. Daily high temperatures should be mostly in the teens. 

Nighttime lows are forecast to be mostly in the single numbers below zero, with maybe the warmer spots staying just above zero.

But remember, we'll have a lot of fresh snow on the ground. In the past, I've been surprised by how cold it gets just after a snowstorm. I wouldn't be surprised if Vermont sees a couple nights in the teens or even 20s below zero in some spots. 

I'm also not seeing any signs of milder weather at least through mid-February. 

We won't see much additional snow for awhile after this storm goes by, either. Maybe just scattered light snow showers occasionally during the next 10 days or so as weak disturbance keep coming through to reinforce the cold air. 

Through yesterday, Burlington has had 38 inches of snow so far this season. That's about four inches behind where we should be this time of year. This storm will put us ahead of normal, but we might end up falling behind again if forecasts for a lack of additional storms comes true. 

 Before the upcoming storm, snow cover wasn't all that impressive in low and some mid elevations in Vermont. An exception is in and near the northern Green Mountains,.  Greensboro had 28 inches of snow on the ground on Saturday and Westfied had 23. It'll be interesting to see what their snow cover looks like after this storm. 

 

Saturday Evening Update: Damage In South Ramping Up In Big Winter Storm. Little Change In Vermont Snow Dump Outlook

Tree damage from freezing rain already starting to show
up in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in this video screen
grab from Meteorologist Jock Williams, via Facebook

Our big winter storm continues to plow on, with varying forms of precipitation falling as of late this afternoon from New Mexico to North Carolina. 

At least 22 states are now under states of emergency due to the storm. About 55 percent of the nation's population, or 190 million people are under weather alerts related to this mess. These warnings and advisories cover 37 states, including here in Vermont. 

Power outages continued to increase through the day, and it will get a lot worse tonight and tomorrow. As of 5 p.m. eastern time, more than 56,000 homes and businesses were without power in Texas. The outages in Louisiana were nearing 48,000

Flight Aware was showing almost 4,300 flights canceled today, and at least 9,200 canceled tomorrow. for a total of about 15,000.

 The previous worst day in the past year for canceled flights was on November 9, when 1,900 flights were scrubbed due to the U.S. government shutdown, CNN reported.

Across the winter storm area, where snow, sleet and freezing rain was falling, cities looked like ghost towns.

For instance, video from Live Storms Media showed snow and ice-covered highways aroundMemphis almost free of traffic. Most of the few vehicles on Memphis area highways were tractor trailers hauling goods to, gawd knows where.

This storm will no doubt disrupt shipping. At the very least, don't be surprised if your Amazon package is late. 

Freezing rain continues to be the biggest danger with this storm, though the heavy snow is no slouch in this either. Parts of the storm are turning out to be pretty electric, so some places in the South are dealing with thunder and lightning combined with the freezing rain and sleet. 

That state of affairs should continue into the night at least. 

An ice storm is really bad news wherever it might hit. The fact that the South is getting the bulk of the freezing rain is even worse. I've mentioned before the region is heavily forested. Because the South has infrequent winter storms, they don't cut tree limbs away from power lines as utilities in the northern United States do.  

Which means it's more likely that falling trees or branches would hit power lines in the South instead of falling harmlessly away from the wires. 

In many areas in the ice zone, the freezing rain is falling lightly. Or at least tapers off to a lighter rain at times. That's actually bad news. As Matthew Cappucci explains in the Washington Post, when a raindrop freezes, it released a teeny amount of latent heat. If it's really pouring that latent heat can add up, and could bring temperatures above freezing. Or at least bring nearby raindrops above freezing. 

A freezing sprinkle doesn't release much heat. So it adds up on trees and power lines, causing chaos. 

A new storm hazard has appeared. It looks like the systems warm front will get into the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and extreme southwest Georgia. These areas will turn briefly warm and humid overnight and part of tomorrow. That is until the storm's cold front approaches. 

These areas could see severe thunderstorms and maybe even a few tornadoes before temperatures fall sharply later tomorrow. Interestingly, the area under the tornado threat is the same are that had some very rare for them snow last Sunday

The snow and some sleet will send up slowing  travel from New Mexico to New Brunswick and beyond. In the United States, everybody in a wide band between about Roswell, New Mexico to Eastport, Maine will end up with at least six inches of snow. Many spots in this vast zone of snow will end up shoveling more than a foot of snow. In some places, sleet mixed in will make the chore especially onerous. 

As the storm closed in, panic buying continued, as people stripped grocery shelves of water, milk, bread, eggs and whatever else  people thought they needed.

"I know people want to be ready, but calm down, you don't need to buy all the toilet paper in Virginia," Kim Lee told WWBT "Some of the things I wanted to make sure I have, I do not have." 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Well, I guess we can say today was sunny for a change. It's been such a gloomy winter that any sunshine is a blessing. 

No panic buying in Vermont, apparently. The bread aisle
in a Colchester supermarket looks well stocked today. 

Even if it's near or below zero. You know it's cold when most of the cars on the highways have little piggy tails of steam coming out of their tail pipes. 

Not many people were out today, at least as far as I saw when I was out doing errands. The only knots of activity were at grocery stores. But unlike the panic buying elsewhere, the store shelves I saw seemed well stocked.  

It did manage to get above zero in Burlington this afternoon, keeping a usually long streak going. The last time Burlington had a high temperature of just 0 degrees was on January 15, 2022. The last time we had a subzero high temperature was January 6, 2018. 

Subzero high temperatures used to be quite a bit more frequent than they are now. 

As late afternoon arrived, I could see high, thin clouds on the southern horizon. That's the first sign of our storm. 

The temperature will drop like a rock for the first half of tonight as skies remain mostly clear for awhile.  It'll actually be a bit colder than earlier forecasts hinted at. The "warmer" valleys will probably make its the upper single numbers below zero. Most of Vermont will be in the teens below zero, and the Northeast Kingdom could get as low as 25 below. 

The increasing clouds late tonight will keep temperatures from really bottoming out. Readings should level off after midnight, and maybe even rise a bit toward morning. 

THE STORM

The forecast really hasn't changed much since this morning. Within 24 hours or so before a storm, the computer models can start looking at picky details.

It's looking like the initial thump of snow tomorrow evening will come down quite hard, especially in southern Vermont.  Late at night, the snow could lighten up somewhat. 

Then, during the day Monday, the storm might form a little trough or extension northwestward into Vermont. I say 'might" because meteorologists aren't entirely sure yet. But it's likely, and that would make snowfall heavier for a few to several hours near wherever it might set up.  Preliminary guesses have it setting up somewhere in central Vermont. 

This evening's updated snowfall prediction map for
Vermont and surround areas is little changed from this
morning. Source: NWS/South Burlington

Not sure, so we'll keep an eye on that. 

The forecast for total snowfall hasn't changed much. The National Weather Service is still going with 8 to 16 inches by Monday night, with locally higher amounts maybe in the southern Green Mountains. Or where and if that trough sets up for several hours somewhere in Vermont. 

The snow will still probably start tomorrow afternoon. So if you have some supplies to nab, do it in the morning. The roads will be bad from Sunday afternoon on through Monday.

 Sure, it's going to be a fluffy snow, but visibility will be poor, and some of that snow will compact into ice on the roads. 

A saving grace is it won't be all that windy during the storm, so blowing snow won't make the visibility even worse. The snow should finally peter out Monday evening. 

The upcoming week also continues to look quite chilly, but not nearly as bad as today. Still, every night in the coming week starting Monday night around the Northeast Kingdom will probably go below zero.

After this storm blows through, it still looks like very little if any snow will fall Tuesday through at least next Saturday. Or even later than that. 

 

FEMA Struggling With How To Keep ICE Out of Ice In Winter Storm Messaging

That now-famous image of an ICE agent slipping
and falling on the ice in Minneapolis earlier this
month. FEMA officials have reportedly been
banned from using the word "ice" when 
referring to the giant winter storm now in
progress because the word could generate
mockery of ICE agents. They have a point. 

 Our government has gotten tragically, absurdly silly, and we have the latest examples, thanks in part to our latest winter storm. 

The biggest danger with this storm is ice. Freezing rain is or will be coating trees and power lines from Texas to Georgia to Virginia. 

This will lead to power outages, tree destruction, blocked roads and carbon monoxide deaths from poorly placed or maintained generators.  

The problem is all that ice out there - as in frozen water - and all that ICE out there - the gestapo-like storm troopers terrorizing people in places like Minnesota and Maine - are ripe for social media ridicule if you put them all together.  

Here's the silliness, as CNN explains:

"Homeland Security officials have urged disaster response staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to avoid using the word 'ice' in public messaging about the massive winter storm barreling toward much of the United States, according to two sources familiar with the directive."

CNN says that officials should reference "freezing rain" and not "ice" in their public statements. The fear is using the word "ice" to describe the storm will sow confusion or online mockery.

All I can say to that is, "Oh, honey, there's going to be mockery no matter what you do."

I can agree with Homeland Security officials who think that if FEMA released innocuous statements like "Keep off the roads if you see ice." it would lead on social media to lots of laughs and giggles and pointed arguments and anger toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.  o 

Whether or not FEMA uses the word "ice," I bet there will be memes galore about ICE agents in winter weather, if they're not there already. Mockery is one of the best weapons against tyranny.  I imagine that widely circulated photo and video of that ICE agent slipping and falling on Minneapolis ice earlier this month will get a lot of traction, pardon the pun. 

A FEMA spokesperson denied the "freezing rain" directive and said CNN's reporting is "a desperate ploy for clickbait."

Still, early indications are that FEMA is avoiding saying the dreaded "i" word in their public messages regarding the storm.

Since Thursday, FEMA has posted several statements and pieces of advice regarding the storm on the social media platform X.  None that I could find used the word "ice." However, FEMA did repost a National Weather Service statement that referenced "widespread heavy snow & dangerous ice accumulations."

If only one kind of ice, the kind that falls from the sky or freezes on the ground, was the worst thing we were facing this winter.