Should New England Really Be Prepping For a Rumored Incoming Arctic Freeze?

New England Weather Forecast

New England is known for many things: beautiful mountain views, incredible fall foliage, the most delicious seafood in the country, and that's barely scraping the surface. But what we're probably most recognized for?

Unpredictable weather.

New England can effortlessly go from feeling like summer one day to having a foot of snow dumped on it the next -- that's the double-edged sword of living in quite possibly one of, if not THE, best place in the world.

But that's what we expect living in New England. We're built different and going from beach weather one day to subzero the next is literally just another day that ends in "Y" for us -- we'll be sipping our iced coffees through it all.

Including during the frigid weather event rumored to be on the way at the end of January.

January Arctic Freeze

Rumors of an arctic freeze hitting not just New England, but the entire country, began on New Year's Day when a post from a Facebook user identified as a digital creator posted a picture of a weather map generated from PivotalWeather.com showing frigid and subzero temperatures expected for most of the country.

The post almost immediately went viral, and at the time of this writing has been shared over 26,000 times -- including to certified meteorologist James Spann, who decided to address the entire situation and offer a professional opinion on this rumored incoming arctic freeze.

So… this person clearly doesn’t understand how the atmosphere works…. pulling a 672 hour forecast (yep, 28 days) from a NOAA CFS (Climate Forecast System) run on December 27. The map is valid for January 24.

Continuing on with his scathing response to the rumored arctic freeze, James mentioned that there is really no skill to a weather forecast that looks beyond 7-10 days, while including a forecast map for the end of January provided by WeatherBell Maps that shows above-average temperatures.

Interestingly enough, this is the weather map pulled at the time of this writing from PivotalWeather.com for the same day and time that started this whole debate, which doesn't necessarily show above-average temperatures but also not quite an arctic freeze, either. Instead, it looks like a typical January weather day.

Maine Weather Forecast

As of this writing, no New England meteorologist is looking beyond a 7-10 day forecast to determine whether or not an arctic freeze is on the way at the end of the month, instead focusing on the incoming two snowstorms that are expected within the next week.

And although weather can be insanely unpredictable, especially in our region of the country, it seems safe to assume we'll see typical weather for January in New England at the end of the month, and not snot-freezing-to-your-face temperatures.

Then again, let's just wait a week or two and let the highly-educated expert New England meteorologists tell us what to expect at the end of the month.