Bottom Really Drops Out Of Temperatures This Morning

Dawn breaks on a frigid Vermont March morning today,
as this webcam view from Nashville, Vermont depicts.
Temperatures were 0 to 20 below across the
region this morning. 

Brrr!

As expected, this Sunday morning was very January-like, and even colder than some forecasts indicated.

Blame Arctic air, clear skies, and a deep snowpack.

There usually isn't this much deep snow in northern New England this time of year, at least in the valleys. Deep, fresh snowcover tends to make cold snaps worse when dry, cold Arctic air arrives from Canada.

That was certainly the case this morning.  Just before dawn, it was 21 below in Saranac Lake, New York and Whitefield, New Hampshire. A 20 below reading was reported from Island Pond, Vermont. Montgomery, Vermont was at 16 below.

These temperatures might have gone down a degree or two from these frigid levels before the sun came up. I don't have the final stats yet.

At last report even "tropical" Burlington Vermont was down to 1 below, the first time it's gotten that cold since February 3.

The forecast hasn't changed any since last night, so if you like the Arctic cold, you'll love the forecast.

All these temperatures are approaching record lows, most of them on this date set in 1956. March, 1956 was another time we had three snowy March nor'easters.

Temperatures will only modify very slightly today and Monday. We might actually get to a little above 20 degrees this afternoon and the mid 20s Monday -- still far, far colder than normal this time of year.

Tonight's lows will be within a few degrees of zero again, with cold mountain hollows getting well below zero.

At least the wind won't be as bad as Saturday. During the morning and early afternoon, winds gusted as high as 45 mph in Burlington, and many other locations around the North Country. This, while temperatures were in the teens, so wind chills were below zero. The wind did manage to die down somewhat in the mid to late afternoon, which I suppose helped a bit.

I see no signs of any springlike weather for more than a week. Ugh.

As I expected, forecast models are starting to nudge that mid to late week nor'easter a bit closer to the coast. So far, the trend isn't bringing it close enough to give Vermont any snow, but we'll still have to keep an eye on it. As it stands now, coastal New England could get a bit of snow and gusty winds and maybe some more coastal flooding out of it.

We'll continue to monitor.