FXWX

-13.4 here.. pretty uniform once above 1,000'

-6 here in Burlington with a light coating of snow. Couple of DPW crews out treating in a couple of towns...

There is a tremendous amount of coordination that takes place between NWS, private sector mets, towns and school districts during events like this... Very strongly worded discussions have been distributed by NWS folks in all the warning and advisory areas. But there is only so much you can do. In the end, if comes down to parental guidance and the willingness of the folks to heed the advise. Elementary kids usually are actually pretty well prepared by the parents; high school kids are a whole different animal. The Boston situation (lots of walkers) is all predicated on the timing of the true arctic air arrival & increasing wind speeds; the morning is no big deal, but the elementary kids head home in the 3:30 to 4:30 pm period and by then it is going to be nasty. They are trying to protect the mid / late afternoon period.

Exactly...

Actually, many of my heating fuel clients watch those numbers (wintertime mins) with far more interest than they do daily maxes. They see the trend!

Given a full warning in place, most districts would be wary of bucking the strong wording in the warning. Opens the door for criticism if something bad happens...

Overnight mins have been the story for several winters now... Used to be very common to fall into low to mid teens years ago... Now it's a challenge for consistent overnight lows in the teens across SNE...

Agree... I would be recommending cancelations up north...

Agree

I deal with lots of CT districts and the morning numbers Friday are driving the decision not to cancel. I think across northern New England it should be an easy cancelation call. As for the afternoon period, unless they have lots of walkers the concern is not high. But there are some large city districts that are contemplating it given the number of walkers. The afternoon bus deal is a drop off and quick short walk into your house or a waiting car. Mornings that feature kids standing around for a bus to arrive is are different story. If Saturday was a school day, lots of delays and closures would be in play for CT.

It has been stated a few times already, but it was just a constant mild day after mild day setup. Nothing excessively warm, but always above normal. Many Januarys feature a thaw period with max temps that beat anything we saw this past January. BDL has a top January 2023 temp of 56... Most good old fashioned January thaws would beat that...

At least in CT, my advice has been no need for cancelling or delaying. Friday will start out a a pretty "normal" bitter cold morning with temps in the teens so there is no need delay. In a normal winter we would usually experience quite a few mornings like Friday. There should be no concern for buses not starting. Also the vast majority of students do not walk so the potential for any widespread issues after school during the afternoon as the temps fall and wind chills ramp is limited. Email Notices always go out about proper clothing for families with walkers. If Saturday was a school day there would likely be consideration for delays. Unless we are dealing with a true Wind Chill Warning with chill numbers minus 20 or lower cancellations are hard to sell...

Here's my street after that storm...

3.0 here in Burlington at ~1,100 ft

33 here at 1100 ft in Burlington; roads covered...

Some Litchfield County districts have decided to close given uncertainty about trying to have early dismissals during the transition period, as well as the most active snow period. Local DPW crews want no part of trying to work around bus routes during late morning to mid-afternoon period. Many times it is not about how much is going to fall; almost always about timing.

Variety of items are allowing or allowed this to occur; moist / damp near surface air layer; no meaningful drying late yesterday or overnight; apparent condensation frost / dew on some roads; hard to detect drizzle / light rain producing processes and borderline cold road surfaces? Tremendous variations in road surfaces across relatively short distances which gave many drivers a false sense of security... Last night's RGEM did suggest some possible troubles, but had literally no other model support...

A positive move... as I stated earlier, I'm a very minor poster and not trying to tell anybody how to run a forum. But there is often wonderful insight from some posters, both mets and hobbyists, that can and often does get lost in overwhelming number of meaningless posts. If folks want to moan and whine that is fine with me, but it should stay out of the main threads, at least not to the degree it currently is... I'm not a kill joy either and there is room for some snarky back and forth, but it appears to be dominating what I consider the main threads...

Agree Will... I'm in no way a significant poster on here, so maybe I shouldn't comment, but it is becoming unreadable. The # of constructive post v the # of whinning, non meteorology post has become stunning. Maybe each thread should have 2 sections; a serious section and non serious / bullshit section. Scrolling through a threat looking for serious posts has gotten tedious...

"Fantasy"

While many, if most, on here try to make SNE winter climate something it never or rarely was/is, your post is spot on!!! So many live in a fancy SNE winterland... When one of those relatively rare long pack winters come along, it skews some brains into thinking they should be or ever were common.

0.5 degrees here

I'll give through Jan 7... After that I expect a slow but steady transition into near normal conditions and becoming active heading into Jan 10-15 period.

Always stumps me why this has to be the case. The DOT / DPW crews have been alerted to this potential for days. The DPW crews I deal with are already to go with a treatment just prior to the temp collapse... Not too tough to time and be ahead of the situation... Just a lack of coordination with lots of town and state crews...

That would have been fine, but the rain and shower activity is lingering much longer than first anticipated. It appeared earlier that there would be several hours of mostly dry weather leading up to the cold surge. That is not going to be the case...