Saving The Biggest Blasts Of Winter For The End

This Dave Granlund cartoon pretty much sums
up the state of affairs in New England.  

Normally by now, the first vague hints of spring are starting to appear in much of the nation. In the far south, a few things are turning green, there's maybe a few buds.

Up north, it's still usually hard core winter right now, but at least the sun feels warmer, the cold has relaxed a bit, and the snow melts in sunny corners just a little bit.

Not this year. Pretty much the roughest weather of the winter is hitting most of the United States right now. Weather conditions will change quite a bit in many areas as we go day to day through the weekend.

That' doesn't mean it will get better, though.

Right now, wind chill advisories and warnings extend over most of the eastern United States, from Minnesota right down to Florida, and from Missouri to Massachusetts.

A few dozen record lows were set this morning from Minnesota all the way down to the Florida panhandle.

This record cold air that came from Siberia went up and over the North Pole, then raced southward into the eastern half of the United States.

Let's break it down regionally:

NEW ENGLAND:

Yep, the snow nightmare continues there, as it was indeed snowing over  most of that region Friday morning. In southern New England, it hasn't been all that bad, with just a few inches at most.

Western New England, including Vermont, is mostly getting light snow, with one to four inches of expected accumulation, though closer to six or seven in the state's northeast corner.

In Maine and northern New Hampshire, they're getting socked again, though. Winter storm warnings are up for all of Maine and northeastern parts of New Hampshire today.

As of 7 a.m., 11 inches of snow had already piled up in Pinkham Notch and Gorham, in northern New Hampshire, and 7 inches in Limington, Maine. Three to five inch totals were common in the region, and snow is likely to keep piling up all day.

The snow will wind down by Friday morning, but there's no rest for the weary. Another storm is due Saturday night and Sunday in New England.

Before today's snow, more than 40 inches of snow (in pink)
covered parts of Massachusetts and Maine.  

This one is tricky. It will produce a burst of snow in the region Saturday night, probably amountin gto a few inches in most areas including already hard hit areas of eastern New England.

Then, during the day Sunday, enough warm, or warm-ish air might well get dragged along with the storm to cause sleet, freezing rain or even plain rain. This mix could get as far north as much of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Of course, there's several problems with this scenario. For one, the additional snow, ice and rain will add to the weight on roofs that have not been cleared off, so more structural failures are likely.

The ice will make for a travel nightmare, too. This next piece is very important: Even if temperatures get a little above freezing and precipitation goes over to plain rain for a time Sunday, roads will still get very icy.

It's been so cold, so that even if it rains when the air temperature is, say 34 or 35 degrees, the pavement is still chilled to below freezing from the previous subzero cold. So the rain, it if occures, will freeze.

Before we get to Sunday's storm, it will get brutally cold again in New England later today, tonight, Friday and Friday night and wind chill advisories are out.

On the bright side, the cold will be only about as intense as that earlier this week, maybe even a bit less so in northern New England. Some record lows will be challenged in the Northeast for sure, but the temperature won't be quite as far below normal to end this week as it will in parts of the Midwest and Ohio Valley.


MIDWEST/OHIO VALLEY/MID ATLANTIC STATES

A number of cities and towns will no doubt report record low temperatures today and tomorrow. In fact, it could get down to near 20 below tonight in places like Michigan, southern Ohio, Indiana Kentucky and West Virginia says Capital Weather Gang.

Such lows are extremely rare for that part of the country. Even more so for the third week in February, when temperatures are usually starting an upswing toward spring.

All time record lows, not just the coldest for the date, or even coldest for February, but coldest of any day on record, are possible in Cincinnati, Ohio, Knoxville, Tennessee, Roanoke, Virginia and Charleston, West Virginia, says the Weather Channel

Temperatures were cold enough as it is this morning.

The Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune reported lows of 42 below in Cotton, Minnesota and 41 below in Embarrass, Minnesotal. Also, it was 36 below in Crane Lake, Minnesota, 32 below in Land o Lakes, Wisconsin and 30 below in Bemidji, Minnesota.

The frigid air engulfed places much to the south of that, as evidenced by the minus 4 reading in Indianapolis.

The cold will ease a little bit later Friday just in time for the next big winter problem. A storm system will gather in Texas and start heading toward the Northeast. (This is the storm I told you about that's supposed to hit New England Saturday night and Sunday.

Places in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys that got a nasty ice storm, (with snow a bit further north) re in for....wait for it..... another ice storm!

Not everybody in Tennessee has their power back from Monday's ice, and here we go again. This could bring down more trees and power lines, and of course the ice Friday night and Saturday will make travel impossible again.

Winter storm warnings are already up in Arkansas due to the expected mixed precipitation and ice tonight and Friday morning.

The ice will probably change to plain rain in much of the region Saturday, but cold surface temperatures will keep some roads and sidewalks very, very, icy.

Then another Arctic cold blast arrives later in the weekend and early next week to freeze everything solid again and keep the misery index way high in the Midwest and Mid-South.


GULF COAST AND SOUTHEAST

This region has largely escaped the worst of this winter until now. Wind chill advisories are up for the entire area today, all the way down to the southern tip of Florida

Hard freeze warnings are up for places like Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. Freeze warnings extend southward down the length of Florida to below Miami.

Forecasts of possible record cold in Florida tonight.   

I have a feeling we're going to hear quite a bit about crop damage in Florida over the next few days, and possibly higher food prices for the rest of us.

Just to add insult to injury, the cold, dry, windy air blasting through Florida is elevating the risk of wildfires there today.

Temperatures will warm up some over the weekend, but then get colder again in the Southeast early next week.

The chill next week in the Southeast won't be as bad as it is today, but temperatures then will still be a good 10 to 20 degrees colder than normal.

The wait for spring is going to last longer than usual for all you southern Belles, that's for sure.

SOUTHEASTERN CANADA

Eastern Canada is not escaping this wild weather. Environment Canada has issued extreme cold warnings for sizeable chunks of Ontario, Quebec and other parts of the country.

It's snowing again today in parts of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia today. Those areas are even more buried in drifts than Maine and Massachusetts from all these East Coast storms.

That storm system that's expected to hit the eastern United States over the weekend is expected to dump more potentially heavy snow on parts of the Atlantic Maritime provinces Sunday.

Here's a video of a recent morning a guy named Kevin McGrath in Dieppe, New Brunswick recently took of his efforts to get out of the house. Insane!