We Might Have The Coldest Thanksgiving On Record

ABC News gives us this forecast for wind chills on
Thanksgiving Day. Ugh. 

People might associate the words "cold turkey" with quitting smoking.

But this Thanksgiving, all you will want to do in New England is quit being outdoors.

We're setting up for what looks like the coldest Thanksgiving on record. Data is slightly hard to come by, because Thanksgiving comes on a different date every year. But people have compiled some of this, and it looks like it will at the very least be brutal.

Add in some gusty northwest winds, and it will be awful. By the way, if you're silly enough to be going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York, expect temperatures at parade time to be around 20 degrees.

Yeah, better watch that one on TV.

Nighttime lows might not a huge number of records over Thanksgiving as but daytime "highs" might.

For instance, here's what the The Weather Channel has forecast:

CITY                        FORECAST HIGH               RECORD LOWEST HIGH
New York                          26                                                26 -- 11/28/1901
Boston                               22                                                24 -- 11/28/1901
Providence, RI                  22                                                28 -- 11/28/1996
Philadelphia                      28                                                30 -- 11/28/1996
Burlington, VT                 17                                                19  -- 11/24/1938


In some areas in the far north, say the Adirondacks, the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, northern New Hampshire and northern Maine, high temperatures might not crack 10 degrees.

By the way, for comparison's sake, the normal high temperature in Burlington this time of year is in the low 40s. In mid-January, in the depths of winter, normal highs are in the mid to upper 20s.

Before we get to the cold, we've got snowy Thanksgiving travel trouble to talk about. In most places, snow accumulations won't be all that much, but the snow will probably put a monkey wrench in some holiday travel.

Today, it's snowing lightly through much of New England, except in the far south, where a cold rain is coming down. A few places in areas like southern New Hampshire might get as much as four inches of new snow.

On Wednesday, the cold front that will bring in the brutal Thanksgiving cold will also touch off some snow squalls. Snow squalls are particularly dangerous on roads, where there will be a lot of traffic as people rush to get to their destinations.

Visibilities in snow squalls drop to nothing in an instant, and roads ice up just as quickly. I worry about the risk of some of those big pileups you see on the news when snow squalls hit. This risk is in effect throughout much of the Northeast tomorrow. That includes here in Vermont, folks.

The best guess for the timing of the snow squalls at this point is noon to 2 p.m. in the Champlain Valley and 2 to 5 p.m. in central and eastern Vermont.

Chances are we'll get a bit of a break from this winter siege toward Saturday and especially Sunday and Monday. The weather won't exactly be nice, and in fact will barely rise to normal levels. Conditions will also be unsettled Sunday and Monday, with a risk of rain and wet snow.