Wind chill advisory, storm misses New England Friday night

Today will be another very cold day, and with the wind exposed skin will be susceptible to frostbite. You would have to be outside for more than a few minutes before frostbite set in, but if you are going to spend an extended period of time in the cold, be sure to cover as much of your skin as possible, noses and cheeks can be particularly hard to protect against frostbite.

Winds, while not terribly strong, will continue to blow steady all day. This means that wind chills will be below zero most of the day. While it is certainly uncomfortable, wind chills readings need to be under 20 below zero before frostbite becomes what is termed “dangerous”. At those levels skin can freeze in under 15 minutes. Of course this doesn’t mean you can’t get frostbite above these levels, it will just take a longer.

Friday night snow
Cold snaps often end with snow. The reason for this is that as the cold dry air is replaced with milder air precipitation develops. Friday night a small storm will be shunted out to sea south of New England. The northern edge of the snow shield will make it as far north as southern New England. As you know, we use computer models to help forecast these storms. The computer models are continuing to keep this storm too far from our area to give us a snowstorm. I do expect snow to fall, but any accumulation will be light. The best chance for a few inches will be the south coast of New England and Cape Cod. I will be reviewing the models later today and tomorrow to see if anything changes, but right now this looks like a non-event.

After the storm passes our weather will continue cold for the weekend. While it won’t be as cold as the past two days, temperatures will remain under 32F and the nights will be in the teens and some single numbers. Finally, next week a milder flow of southwest air will intrude into New England. Temperatures will rise above freezing and a few 40s will show up for afternoon highs. Looking even further ahead, it looks like there are two more cold snaps to come in early February. While I don’t expect these to be as cold as this one, it will be close.

Gardening this week
All the dry air associated with the cold isn't good for our indoor houseplants. Recently, I took a trip to greenhouse and saw how they care for their plants in winter. Hopefully, some of the tips help to keep your plants healthy until spring. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this blog or any others. Please follow me on Twitter at @growingwisdom and check out my latest videos at GrowingWisdom.com