Happy New Year! Now Bundle Up. Or Better Yet, Hibernate

Happy New Year!

I was away for the Ice Storm of 2013 and thick ice
accumulated on my truck while I was gone. I got
around to hacking into the truck on New Year's Eve.
Looks like I will be sweeping snow off the vehicle
several times over the next week.  

As dawn breaks on 2014, it's really not that bad out in Vermont, at least in terms of the weather. (I can't evaluate whether you have a hangover, and if so, how bad)

Temperatures are in the teens across most of Vermont, but that's about as nice as it will get for the next few days as winter really asserts itself.

It won't get any warmer today as Arctic air bleeds in, and starting late this afternoon, it won't get above ten degrees until Saturday.

Also, some of us, but not all of the North Country, is in for a very cold snowstorm.

Winter storm warnings are flying for the southern four counties of Vermont, the Capitol District of New York and southern New Hampshire.

A strengthening storm is going to scoot south and east of New England, and will drop a stripe of heavy snow across the southern half of New England.

Like the storm last Sunday, precipitation amounts will be heavy in the south, and taper off to next to nothing in the north. Rutland and Windsor counties in Vermont could see up to nine inches of snow, and the southern extreme of Vermont could pick up a foot.

Meanwhile, up near the Canadian border, expect nothing more than a dusting, maybe up to an inch or two if you get lucky.

Unlike Sunday's storm, this one is going to be frigid. No wet snow with this one. It will be powdery. As it's snowing, temperatures won't get above ten degrees. Some places will stay near 0.

After the storm goes by, the cold will deepen. Many communities in the North Country will never rise above zero Friday afternoon, and it will be in the teens and 20s below zero at night. Ugh.

It will warm up quite a bit Sunday and Monday, but another storm is looming then. It's too soon to say how much snow we'll get out of that one, or whether it will mix with rain or sleet.

After that, there are signs we might get a really, really intense cold wave next week.  It's possible it could be the worst cold wave in years, but don't count on that yet. Just stay tuned.

And hibernate.