Changeable Week In Vermont: Early Snow, Fire Risk, Showers, Temperature Swings

It's ba-a-ack! A little dusting of snow on my St. Albans, 
Vermont deck this morning. Despite that bit of overnight
moisture, strong winds and dry air will create a fire
hazard today in Vermont/New England. 

 On Mondays, I like to set the tone for the week.  

However, here in Vermont, there's no tone today, at least in the weather forecasting department. Expect a little of everything. 

Showers yesterday and last evening didn't amount to all that much.  It got abruptly colder overnight, and that four-letter "S" word made a reappearance. 

here was a dusting of it on my decks early this morning before it quickly, mercifully melted away. 

Despite the light showers and those flakes of snow, there's a fire weather hazard today, believe it or not. 

Like I said, it didn't rain much, so what moisture there is will quickly disappear off last year's old, dead stuff out in the fields and forests. Despite the spring green up, last year's dry stuff is still there, noticeable and ready to catch fire given the right conditions. , 

Dry, gusty winds were already blowing as dawn broke today, and those winds were bringing in some arid air.

The combination of low humidity this afternoon - at or below 20 percent - and winds gusting as high as 35 mph will make the risk of hard to control brush fires pretty high this afternoon in much of New England.  

There's a red flag warning in effect today for the southern half of New Hampshire and southwestern Maine. The warning is an alert for high fire risk. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington went with a special weather statement for all of Vermont noting the worries about brush fires today.  "If any fires were to start, the weather and fuel conditions could cause the fires to quickly get out of control and be difficult to contain," the special weather statement says. 

Today is NOT the day to get rid of that brush pile in your yard with a fire.  I doubt many town fire wardens would be issuing burn permits today, anyway.

Fire weather concerns will probably continue tomorrow, but at least it won't be as windy then. 

Of course, we still need the rain and it looks like some is on the way later this week. How much rain is an open question.

The forecast for later in the week has changed from some of the ones I saw late last week. Rather than a strong ridge of high pressure giving us very warm and dry conditions, the ridge is weak and weather fronts will be draped over Vermont, or at least nearby Tuesday night into Friday.  

Weather disturbances will be moving along and through these fronts, so the combination makes us ripe for showers. Timing and intensity of the showers is a big question mark. For now, expect just a general risk of on and off rain from midweek on.

It'll start off kind of mild Wednesday and Thursday, and then get nippy again by Friday and especially Saturday.  Nothing bone chilling, but by Saturday, the expected high temperatures in the low 50s are about ten degrees cooler than average.

It's later in the spring now, so cool spells are losing their intensity, thank goodness.  There's a huge difference between the beginning of April and the end of the month.