Following a cold snap Tuesday, Vermonters can expect statewide windchills below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit Friday night into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. The northern part of the state may experience chills closer to minus 45.
“This is much more of a widespread event” than is typical, said Scott Whittier, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Burlington. He expects statewide windchills five degrees colder than Tuesday’s lows. Windchills below negative 20 occur annually, he said, but Saturday will be colder.
The National Weather Service declared an extreme threat of excessive cold risk in all 14 Vermont counties except Windham, in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday. At the expected temperatures, the weather service warns that frostbite can begin in less than 10 minutes.
The combination of a cold air mass from Canada to the north and an ocean storm to the east combined to generate the elevated risk, Whittier said. The National Weather Service expects the worst of the weather in the northern Champlain Valley and the Northeast Kingdom, where temperatures may drop below minus 15 degrees.
“In a situation like this, when we don’t have a lot of time to prepare, we’re sort of encouraging people to help us,” said Megan Moir, director of water resources at the Burlington Public Works Department. Residents should make sure the area around their water meter stays warm, she said. “They don’t realize that temperatures might be dropping below freezing in their basement.”
The public works department suspects the repeated freezing and thawing cycles of this winter — and other recent winters — would damage water mains, Moir said, but they don’t yet have empirical data on this climate change-related phenomenon.
Unsheltered Vermonters can face sickness or even death during cold weather, said Chloe Viner Collins, executive director of the Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless. She recently worked with a shelter guest who wound up in the ICU after contracting pneumonia out in the cold.
The Committee on Temporary Shelter operates a day shelter in Burlington where people can warm up and receive warm socks, jackets, hand warmers and other tools to stay safe outdoors.
“Typically, we see an influx of people when it’s super cold,” said Rebecca Mott, the committee’s development and communications director. However, she said, Covid has necessitated decreased shelter capacity.
“We have to keep everybody safe from the weather, but also from the pandemic,” Mott said.
During Friday night and Saturday, state troopers will be “on the lookout for any disabled vehicles and motorists who might need assistance,” Vermont State Police spokesperson Adam Silverman said.
“The absolute deadliest conditions would be during overnight” Friday, said Whittier, the meteorologist. “For people who travel in this weather and could be abandoned on a road because of one reason or another, make sure that they’ve got plenty of blankets, they’ve got plenty of extra clothing and some sort of snack pack.”
