Serious Flooding/Storms Continue In South. Here In Vermont, Active, Windy, Weather Whiplash

Severe flooding in Nashville and much of the rest of 
Tennessee as a rough spring weather pattern continues.

Dangerous weather struck parts of the nation again with tornadoes, severe flooding high winds and more as an active spring weather pattern continues to cause trouble for many of us. 

As if the United States had enough problems without continued bad weather. 

Here in Vermont, Friday's tornado notwithstanding, we don't have much super scary weather coming, but we can expect a lot of wind, some whiplash back and forth between seasons and possible a nasty April Fool's Day surprise. 

I'll get to more of the Green Mountain State outlook in a bit, but let's look at the ongoing weather issues, especially in the South. 

SOUTH HIT AGAIN

The storms yesterday and last night unleashed at least 16 tornadoes from Texas to Tennessee and unleashed the worst flooding around Nashville since the epic, catastrophic floods of May, 2010.

Nashville recorded seven inches of rain in 24 hours, flooding swaths of the city.  Emergency responders spend last night pulling dozens of people from flooded cars, homes and apartment buildings. At least one death has already been reported.

Video from Live Storms Media showed fast moving water in a Nashville area commercial area, including a Walmart that appeared to be badly flooded. 

The serious flooding extended across most of Tennessee and parts of eastern Kentucky, which was hit hard by flooding last month. 

The storms are forecast to move into the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic States today, bringing with them the risk of some tornadoes, and likely lots of severe thunderstorms with strong, damaging straight line winds. 

Meanwhile, a huge area from Washington State through the northern Rockies into the Dakotas and Nebraska are anticipating strong winds today.  Gusts will be in the 60 to 70 mph range.

Additionally, most of these areas are in drought.  Today's winds are dry and warm, so wildfires are a concern, especially in Montana and the Dakotas.

The national weather pattern looks like it will calm down somewhat after Thursday's storm departs New England, which will be a welcome break.

VERMONT IMPACTS

Today will be a pretty good stay inside kind of day as gusty winds and frequent rain showers breeze through.

This storm isn't super strong, but it's going to bring a fair amount of wind to the region, something we've had to get used to in recent week.  Winds have gusted past 30 mph in Burlington on 14 days so far this month, and it looks like we'll get a couple more.  

It's been so warm around my house in St. Albans, Vermont
that some of the daffodils are forming flower buds, the
earliest in the season I've ever seen them do that. Hope
they survive a brutal blast of winter at the end of the week!

South winds will channel up the Champlain Valley today, with gusts over 30 mph.  Downslope winds along the western slopes of the Green Mountains will gust over 40 mph. Winds are even stronger aloft, but a temperature inversion will help keep the strongest winds from reaching the surface. 

So despite somewhat above normal temperatures today, it will feel raw and stormy. The heaviest rain will probably come through along and just ahead of a cold front late this afternoon and evening.

As the departing storm strengthens over southeast Canada, northwest winds will really pick up, especially later tonight and the first half of Monday.  Wind advisories are up for much of Vermont.  In eastern Vermont, winds flowing down the slopes of the Green Mountains will pick up momentum, so gusts will be strongest there - up to 55 mph.

Expect a few issues with power lines and tree limbs down.

Colder air coming will change rain showers to snow showers overnight, and we could get a dusting here and there. Monday will be cold and blustery, with temperatures staying at or below 40 degrees.

On Tuesday and Wednesday - here goes the whiplash again - we'll abruptly turn warm again. Tuesday will be a spring beauty with sunshine and temperatures sneaking above 60 degrees again.

Wednesday will be just as warm, but showers will start to move in. 

Which introduces us to a wild card. 

A cold front will come through later Wednesday or Wednesday night, and a storm is expected to develop along the New England coast. 

Much colder air will be rushing in.  Will that cold air rush in fast enough to change the rain to snow before the air mass dries up? Or, will that coastal low bring deep moisture back inland, giving Vermont a surprise snowstorm on April Fool's Day. 

Right now, computer models seem to be all over the place between "No Big Deal" to "A Huge Dump of Snow.

What's somewhat more certain is we're likely going to see another quick shot of winter weather Friday, kind of like those brief shots we've seen all month during an otherwise warm March. And yes, we can expect another blast of strong winds from this one. 

Friday's high temperatures could end up staying entirely below freezing.  Very chilly for early April!