FIRST ALERT: Region Braces for Record Cold; More Snow Up North
By Tim Kelley ••
Today (Tuesday): Patchy black ice north. Rain showers end as a dusting to 1″ of afternoon snow, some PM black ice possible. Highs in the 40s, falling fast late.
Tuesday Night: Gradual clearing. Temperatures drop into the teens to around 20.
Wednesday: Numbing-record cold. Highs below freezing, gusts up to 30 mph with wind chills in the single digits and teens.
A winter storm that began in northern New England Monday is rapidly spreading south and east Tuesday morning.
Snowplows were out all night around Burlington, Vermont and points north and east, where we have more than a half a foot of new snow — and it's still coming down.
There’s a winter storm warning in the northern third of New England. South of the snow, we have many communities reporting light rain drizzle with sub-freezing temperatures. That means icy roads, too. At the same time, parts of southern New England are still in the 50s and it has not rained or snowed yet. But this is all going to change rapidly.
Intensifying low pressure moving to the Maine seacoast will cause the wind to shift.
So areas that are warm Tuesday morning with wind from the south will rapidly cool as the wind comes in from the northwest in the afternoon.
We’ll have a bit of rain in southern New England that precedes the chill and may cause a quick buildup of icy conditions on side roads and sidewalks as we change briefly to snow, but the temperature falls to freezing.
Timing the transition from rain to snow is roughly around noon time for places like Hartford, Connecticut and Worcester, Massachusetts. In places like Boston and Providence, it may be around 1 or 2 p.m. then a little later on Cape Cod.
We are all vulnerable to at least a coating of snow and ice, which should mostly be done by the evening commute. But when schools let out, we may be right in the zone ice up. After sunset we all share the deep freeze for about 36 hours. Low temperature tonight in the 10s north, to 20s south.
Wednesday will be a lot like last Friday, with sunshine and snow flurries possible. But this time, the temperature may not even reach 32 degrees.
Wind Tuesday night and Wednesday will be gusting past 30 mph creating a wind chill factor of single numbers above and below zero. The wind chill factor will ease Wednesday afternoon as the wind subsides toward sunset.
Caltrans via AP
Cars and trucks are seen stopped traffic on Interstate 5 near Dunsmuir, California, in this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019, provided by Caltrans. A "bomb cyclone," which triggers a rapid drop in air pressure, brought snow to the mountains and wind and rain along the California and Oregon coasts. Drivers on Interstate 5 near the Oregon-California border spent 17 hours or more in stopped traffic as blizzard conditions whirled outside. Some slept in their vehicles.
Jeffrey McWhorter/AP
Matt Younger, right, a pastor at Northway Church, embraces facilities associate Robert Lusk in their church's severely damaged sanctuary on Oct. 20, 2019, after a tornado tore through North Dallas. The twister knocked out power for tens of thousands of customers and destroyed buildings in North Texas, including the front of Floors Masters building that collapsed.
Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images
A man walks through the flooded feeder roads off of highway 69 North on Sept. 19, 2019, in Houston, Texas. Imelda dumped over 40 inches of rain in southeast Texas over the week.
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department via AP
A family is rescued via fan boat by a member of the Texas Parks & Wildlife department from the flood waters of Tropical Depression Imelda near Beaumont, Texas, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019.
Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images
Cars pull to the side of the freeway of highway 69 North to get by the flood waters on Sept. 19, 2019, in Houston, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has declared much of Southeast Texas disaster areas after heavy rain and flooding from the remnants of Tropical Depression Imelda dumped more than two feet of water across some areas.
Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images
A man tries to direct a school bus on the Imelda-flooded Hopper Road on Sept. 19, 2019, in Houston, Texas.
David J. Phillip/AP
Angel Marshman wades through floodwaters from Tropical Depression Imelda after trying to start his flooded car, Sept. 18, 2019, in Galveston, Texas.
Martin Meissner/AP
Nanook the polar bear dives into the water during an extreme hot summer day at the zoo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, July 24, 2019. A second heat wave moving through Europe has cities in France, the United Kingdom, Germany and more bracing for soaring temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Geilenkirchen recorded its all-time record high at 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, with even higher temperatures predicted for Thursday.
Getty Images
Lifeguard Luke Orot of Anchorage watches over beachgoers at Jewel Lake on July 4, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska is bracing for record warm temperatures and dry conditions in parts of the state.
Lance King/Getty Images
A welcome sign at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport shows 86 degrees weather at 3:07 pm on July 4, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska is bracing for record warm temperatures and dry conditions in parts of the state.
Ulises Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images
A policeman stands next to vehicles buried in hail in the eastern area of Guadalajara, Jalisco state, Mexico, on June 30, 2019. - The accumulation of hail in the streets of Guadalajara buried vehicles and damaged homes.
Charlie Riedel/AP
Cleanup continues at a destroyed home, May 30, 2019, after a tornado tore through the countryside near Linwood, Kansas. The National Weather Service say they received 934 tornado reports for 2019 alone, up from the annual average of 743.
John Minchillo/AP
Storm damaged homes remain on May 28, 2019, after tornadoes passed through Indiana and Ohio on Memorial Day evening in Brookville, Ohio.
Savannah Weingart/Tornado Adventures
A tornado rips through McCook, Nebraska, on May 17, 2019. A string of severe weather swept Midwest states from Nebraska to Texas, bringing along floods, hailstorms and tornadoes across the region.
Salvatore Allegra/AP
Mount Etna spews lava during an eruption on May 30, 2019. Sicily's Mount Etna has roared back into spectacular volcanic action from Thursday morning, sending up plumes of ash and spewing lava.
Saviano Abreu/United Nation OCHA via AP
Mozambique's Macomia district is badly damaged, with some houses totally collapsed, in the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth on April 27, 2019. Approximately 160,000 people in Mozambique were at risk from Cyclone Kenneth, which swept the area six weeks after Cyclone Idai killed 600 people in central Mozambique.
Caroline Haga/IFRC via AP
Floodwater drench the port city of Beira, Mozambique, on March 18, 2019. The Red Cross says that as much as 90 percent of Mozambique's central port city of Beira has been damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Idai. Mozambique's President, Filipe Nyusi, say more than 1,000 people may be dead.
Nebraska Sen. Sasse and Gov. Ricketts
Photos shared by Nebraska Sen. Sasse and Gov. Ricketts show the devastation being left by severe flooding, which includes massive ice chunks.
AP
Canada geese battle choppy water as a late winter storm packing hurricane-force winds and snow sweeps on March 13, 2019, in Denver. A bomb cyclone slammed into the Midwest on Wednesday, cutting power lines, grounding flights and stranding motorists on the road.
Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire
A severe storm made its way over Santa Barbara, California, on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Santa Barbara County Fire's Mike Eliason caught some of the lightning strikes over Santa Barbara as numerous thunderstorms made their way through the region.
John LocherAP
Snow accumulates on a median along the Las Vegas Strip at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, Feb. 21, 2019, in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is getting a rare taste of real winter weather, with significant snowfall across the metro area in the first event of its kind since record keeping started back in 1937.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
People play in the snow in Las Vegas, Feb. 21, 2019, during a rare winter snowstorm. The rare event dumped up to eight inches of snow in some parts of the city.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A view of the roof of a home that was swept down a hill by a mudslide during a rain storm on Feb. 14, 2019, in Sausalito, California. Fifty homes in the town of Sausalito were evacuated after a mudslide struck homes and sent at least one sliding 75 yards down a hill.
Lance Endo via AP
Snow gathers at the Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area in Maui, Hawaii, Feb. 10, 2019. A strong storm that hit Hawaii knocked out power, brought down tree branches, flooded coastal roads — and even brought snow. Snow is not unheard of in mountainous parts of the tropical island chain, but officials say the coating at 6,200 feet at a state park on Maui could mark the lowest-elevation snowfall ever recorded in the state.
Brent Edwards via AP
Snow dusts black volcanic cinders at the Polipoli State Recreation area on the slopes of Haleakala near Kula on Maui, Hawaii, Feb. 11, 2019. A strong storm hitting Hawaii has knocked out power, brought down tree branches, flooded coastal roads — and even brought snow.
Kiichiro Sato/AP
Commuters wait for a train as snow falls on Jan. 28, 2019, in Chicago. "Possibly life threatening" wind chills could dip to negative 55 degrees in northern Illinois throughout the week - low temperatures not seen in the last quarter century. Cities in the northeast are seeing temperatures dip from a mid-week blast of cold Arctic air moving south. Some southern states like Mississippi and Alabama are even expected to see snow.
Courtesy Inge Groot
Extreme temperatures froze parts of the Niagara Falls at the Canada-U.S. border, as seen in this photo taken on Jan. 22, 2019.
High pressure brings us another cold night Wednesday night with a low temperature again in the teens and 20s, but some of the areas that got snow make it down to 0 degrees. There’s potential for record cold for Tuesday and Friday night. And during the day Wednesday, we may set records for low high temperatures.
A warm front north of New England Thursday will be generating a lot of clouds and maybe a few flurries north and west. Temperatures should recover back to near 40 degrees in southern New England.
We are in the warmer air briefly Friday, with temperatures getting back in the lower 50s for a few spots, most of us in the 40s.
But a new front may generate some snow squalls in northern New England late in the day, and bring a batch of new cold from Canada here for our weekend. With a good amount of sunshine on Saturday, we are probably will back into the 30s again. Then maybe less cold next week- as seen here in our First Alert 10-Day Forecast.
