A few months ago we took a look through the Farmer’s Almanac as well as a few reliable weather sources and decided this was going to be a fairly mild winter. In fact, much of the northeast was expecting a huge departure from the chilling temps and constant snow of last year. But, after spending much of the last week bundled in our warmest scarves (kidding, you all know we didn’t even leave the house) and wondering what happened to that warmer weather we did a little digging and found that things might be on a much different track.

Do you remember hearing about the polar vortex in winters passed? It’s the air mass responsible for some of the most frigid temps and its thrown weather forecasters for a loop!
pavdw / Flickr
This low pressure system responsible for cold weather broke apart in January, which should seem like a good thing. No cold weather, right? Wrong. The upset has changed all forecasts for the next 2 months, which means the cold weather we’ve been experiencing isn’t going to dissipate for a while.
chiotsrun / Flickr
Normally the polar vortex means freezing temps are kept hidden away in the atmosphere above the North Pole, but they’re now heading south towards the Midwest and the East Coast.
pavdw / Flickr
With the change to the polar vortex it seems that many of the states east of the Rockies will be experiencing cold temps - many of them below average for the season.
dennisredfield / Flickr

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Here in Maine, things will start off cold with February expected to bring "well below average" temperatures. You can expect to see more of what we’ve been seeing the last week. Look for temperatures in the single digits with an actual feel of negative two digits.
Jay Parker / Flickr
There is some good news, though! While the mid-atlantic is expected to see below average temps until spring, Maine and other parts of New England are looking at only "near or slightly below average."
pavdw / Flickr
It might not be ideal, but the good news is that we may finally see more snow! And, as much as we might complain about it we all know that winter in Maine isn’t complete without each town’s own "snow mountain" in a local parking lot.
coreytempleton / Flickr
This means that while February will be well-below average, March and April will be slightly warmer. Think "below average" instead of "well-below average."
pavdw / Flickr

Are you looking forward to a traditionally cold Maine winter or would you prefer to see things warm up?

While we’re a bit nervous for this new weather expectation, we do prefer to look on the bright side. In the spirit of optimism let’s celebrate the wonder of Westbrook – the giant spinning ice disk that’s reached celebrity status in the Presumpscot River.

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