January In March Will Freeze Your Tush. Starting Tonight.

Snow in southern New England Friday, marking the start
of a very wintry next week or so for the entire region.

There's an old weather saw in New England that says if you get March weather in January or February, you'll get January weather in March.

Given the forecast, you'd better believe it!

We thought that spell of Arctic weather last weekend was impressive, what with those record low high temperatures on Saturday.

This is going to be worse.

It's already started.

A quick storm this morning and early afternoon dumped a few inches of snow on southern New England. Snow fell as far south today as the Washington DC area,.

Meanwhile, an Arctic front is sinking south from Canada, threatening to make a mess of our evening commute home here in Vermont this afternoon with likely snow showers, squalls and wind.

This will mark the start of a cold wave even worse than last weekend's, one that will last most of the upcoming week and threaten some more records.

Nighttime lows in northern New England probably won't break records, but it will be plenty cold with readings near or below zero and a stiff north wind.

Record low high temperatures are likely Saturday, with highs across the northern half of New England remaining in the single numbers, to maybe low teens if we're lucky. Gusty north winds will keep wind chills below zero.

If you're going to the big Mardi Gras parade in Burlington, Vermont Saturday, dress in lots of layers and be ready to go to a warm building if you get chilled, which could easily happen.

The wind will relax somewhat Sunday and Monday, but the cold really won't. Overnight lows will keep going to zero, and daytime highs will only be in the teens.

Normally, we have lows in the 20s this time of year with highs near 40.

Here's more wintry news: Watch out for Tuesday!

It looks like a strong nor'easter will spread a lot of snow across parts of the Northeast. It's still too soon to say how much snow will fall. It will depend on the exact track of the storm.

But there's the potential for some areas, including Vermont to get TONS of snow, like a foot or more of it.

That's still very iffy and might not happen,, but it's something to watch.

After that, no rest for the weary. That strong nor'easter, no matter what it does in New England, will pull a reinforcing shot of very cold air down on us during the middle of next week.

Put those spring dreams away and grab those ear muffs and those snow shovels.

Looks like we didn't skip winter this year after all. It just arrived unfashionably late.