BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Saturday and Sunday are First Alert Weather Days due to dangerously cold wind chills and the associated risks of hypothermia and frostbite. More information about all of the hazards we’re tracking this weekend including the snow forecast Friday night into Saturday can be found here.
Wind chills will be as low as low as -20 to -40 degrees, which means frostbite and hypothermia can develop in as little as 10 to 20 minutes. Knowing just when conditions deteriorate can make the difference between staying warm, safe and comfortable and being caught unprepared in a potentially dangerous situation.
Late tonight into early Saturday morning, that arctic air mass begins filtering into Vermont and the North Country. While it will be frigid tonight, the more dangerous subzero wind chills begin moving west to east starting just after midnight.
Most of us will wake up to wind chills already below zero degrees, but the farther east you are, the more likely you are to experience a small window in the morning before the dangerous wind chills develop.
The North Country sees wind chills subzero between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.; the Champlain Valley and Southern Vermont (west of the Green Mtns.) sees wind chills subzero between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.; Southern Vermont (east of the Green Mtns.), the Upper Valley and the Northeast Kingdom see wind chills subzero between 9 a.m. and noon; and everywhere east of the Connecticut River sees wind chills become subzero after noon.
Town-by-town wind chill forecast
Click through the galleries below to see the coldest wind chills forecast for each town early Sunday morning.
Vermont
New York
New Hampshire
The coldest temperatures and wind chills will occur Saturday night into early Sunday morning. Plan for actual temperatures between -5° and -15° early Sunday, locally as cold as -20°. Wind chills during that time will range from -15° to -35° in most places. Wind chills could drop to -40° or colder in the mountains.
