Wind chills are forecast to reach between minus-50 and minus-65 in northern and western Maine and could even drop below minus-100 at New England's highest point, the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. By early Friday night, the wind chills had already dropped minus-107 on Mount Washingtonthe lowest on record, around minus-50 in and within northern and western Maine minus-40 in Upstate New York.
The National Weather Service warned Such wind chills are “life-threatening” and could cause frostbite in just five minutes.
Actual air temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing across much of New England and the interior Northeast Friday night. In Boston, it is predicted to be the colder than 2016.
While the wind chill will flirt with the discs, especially in western and northern New England, the piercing cold brought by this polar vortex lobe invader is mercifully on the back burner by the end of the weekend.
The most abnormal cold on earth
A huge swath of temperatures about 30 to 40 degrees below normal will blanket New England and much of southeastern Canada by Friday night. Absolute temperatures may be somewhat colder in northern Siberia, but the cold in northeastern North America is much more erratic.
Friday night's low of about -17 degrees in Burlington, Vt., is 26 degrees below normal, while Boston's forecast low of minus -6 degrees is 27 degrees below normal. Atop Mount Washington, the forecast low of minus-46 degrees is about 40 degrees below normal.
Chills are forecast to drop to -20 degrees or lower across most of New England by early Saturday. Many of the minimum wind chill forecasts from the Weather Service are actually extreme and could be the lowest in at least 50 years in some locations.
Mount Washington is projected to see a minimum wind chill of minus-105.4 degrees, which would surpass the record of minus-102.7 degrees set in 2004. Winds at the observatory crew are forecast to gust up to 101 mph sustained, with gusts around at 128 mph.
Out in the mountains, the central Maine city of Greenville is expecting a wind chill of minus -62.6 degrees. Berlin in northern New Hampshire could drop to minus -53 degrees. Saranac Lake in upstate New York could drop to -49.3 degrees.
Caribou in northern Maine is forecast to see a wind chill of minus -54 degrees, near a record minus -58.6 degrees. Montpelier, Vt., is expected to hit a wind chill of minus -41 degrees, compared to a record low of minus -52.3 in 1981. Boston is expecting a minimum wind chill of minus -31 degrees. The record there is minus -38.6 degrees, set in 1957.
This cold is made much worse by strong winds. Winds will peak in most areas Friday night into Saturday, with sustained levels of 20 to 35 mph common, and perhaps as high as hurricane force sustained in the mountains of northern New England.
Blizzard warnings have been issued for northern Maine, where winds are expected to reach around 45 to 55 mph. Although there won't be much new snow, precipitation may cause temporary patches of falling flakes. There is also lots of snow on the ground waiting to blow up and drop visibility.
Winds of 40 mph or higher should visit most places north of the Mason-Dixon line. Parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut may also see gusts up to 50 mph. The New England mountain ranges will see gusts approaching or exceeding 100 mph.
A taste of the stratosphere
In addition to the potential for minus 100 degree wind chills, Mount Washington may be in the stratosphere Friday night as a lobe of the polar vortex barrels to the south. The atmosphere becomes more compressed as it cools, meaning that the boundary separating its two lowest layers, the troposphere and stratosphere, known as the tropopause, will sink in altitude.
“An unusual phenomenon for our region is possible [Friday] night, with guidance indicating the tropopause could dip below the summit of Mount Washington. the Weather Service wrote office in Gray, Maine. “Although extremely rare, the impact of this is that winds are likely to increase [as it passes].”
Intrepid observers at the top can even smell the ozone layer, as it lies low in the stratosphere.
Quick in and quick out
Almost as quickly as this arctic outbreak arrives, it disappears.
The polar vortex lobes tend to move quickly. And in this case, it will be gone in about 36 hours.
But in the meantime, historically cold air is expected. Numerous record high temperatures are forecast in the Northeast on Friday and Saturday, along with several record lows Saturday morning:
- Boston is expected to drop to minus 6 degrees Saturday morning, which would surpass the record low of minus 2 degrees set on February 4th.
- New York will fall near record lows, with prices close to 10 degrees.
- Newcomb, in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York, is forecast to drop to minus-25 degrees, surpassing its Feb. 4 record of minus-23 degrees.
But starting next week, temperatures of about 10 to 15 degrees above normal are possible across much of the same region, a return to the milder-than-average weather that has prevailed for much of the winter.
