Quiet Weather Now Will Change To Wintry Risks

Very few colors and splotches on the National Weather 
Service national map this morning. That means there's 
lots of quiet, unthreatening weather around. This being
November, that will surely change soon.

The whole nation yesterday and today has been remarkably quiet for November.  

The National Weather Service home page has a color coded map of the United States that shows all the weather warnings, watches and advisories everywhere. 

A colorful map is bad news. That means there's a lot of rough weather out there. A largely blank map means clear sailing. 

This morning, this map is decidedly bland. 

 A small section of Washington State was under a freezing fog advisory. There were alerts for minor coastal flooding and rip currents along Florida's east coast.

And there were a smattering of dense fog advisories here and there. That's it. Nothing major at all. Pretty remarkable for November. 

This being November, though, this quiet map will change fairly quickly.  Storms and wind and other hazards will bring more weather alerts and advisories in the coming days to make the national map a little more "colorful." We here in Vermont will be affected, too.

Don't worry. There's nothing extreme in the offing. But this being late November, you're going to have to get used to the fact that most storm systems - small and large - will carry the risk of wintry weather here in the Green Mountain State. 

This starts Sunday evening. A relatively small storm zipping by will produce some mixed precipitation pretty much over much of the state. In the Champlain Valley, it looks like any snow or sleet will change quickly to a cold rain, so there won't be much accumulation.  

There will probably be a dusting to up to three inches of accumulation, though, in the mountains and in northeastern Vermont. 

It also looks like some snow or mixed precipitation might swing through Wednesday night.  Again, this will fall SO far short of storm of the century.  It'll be more like storm of the day. 

This, though, is all a reminder that, yes, we've had a gentle late autumn and approach to winter so far.  It doesn't look like it's going to get super wintry in the near future.  

Long range forecasts call for warmer than normal temperatures on most days into early December. Even so, benign weather this time of year in Vermont will inevitably involve snow or mixed precipitation from time to time. 

Deal with it.