A Brief, Semi-Break From Our Early Winter?

Subzero cold this morning created frost on my side view
mirror, so visibility was bad there until I scraped it.

It was damn cold across the North Country once again this morning, with most areas in the northern half of Vermont, plus New York and New Hampshire dipping below zero.

I saw reports of 19 below zero in Saranac Lake, New York, 20 below in Lake Eden, Vermont and a bone-numbing 21 below in Island Pond, Vermont early this morning. The "warm" spots near Lake Champlain were just above zero.

There are uncertain hints that we might get a brief reprieve from our early cold and snowy winter, but it may not last long. Plus we're going to have to wait awhile for this alleged warmer air to get here.

We don't expect it to be as cold as this morning for the next week, but temperatures will remain generally below normal through about next Thursday. That means highs in the 20s and lows in the single numbers to low teens most days through then. (Tomorrow might be "mild" with highs near 30.)

The New England snow machine has finally been temporarily turned off as well, so we can give our aching backs a rest. Aside from some light snow showers Saturday night that will drop an inch or less of new snow, it'll be mostly dry through Thursday.

Places like North Carolina still look like they're going to get dumped on with snow and ice this weekend, but that storm will stay far south of us and out of our hair.

And sun! Did I mention sun? It came out yesterday afternoon! Yes, it was pretty chilly, but at least it was bright. More sun will grace the skies on most days between tomorrow and Thursday. Some sun looks likely this morning, but it will cloud up this afternoon. Oh, well. Still, it's been so cloudy lately that any glimpses of blue sky are a bonus.

That anticipated warm up, if it comes, looks to hit starting next Friday and into next weekend. A storm looks to travel to the west of us. The good news is temperatures might get a little above  normal for a few days for a change. The bad news is we might end up getting mixed precipitation, rain and wind from this system. Stay tuned.

It's too late for Indian Summer, and it's going to be a long winter, so we'll take any breaths of mild air we can get.