Frigid Vermont Weekend, But Some Parts Get Drought Relief. Snow, Too!

Traffic cam from relatively high elevation Searsburg in 
southern Vermont fortunately shows rain, not snow, but
it's going to be a remarkably chilly, damp weekend 
and Memorial Day, especially in the southern 
half of the state

UPDATE:

While it's nice and sunny this morning way up where I am in St. Albans, Vermont, I can confirm snow HAS fallen on parts of Vermont. 

It was nearing 60 degrees by mid morning in St. Albans. It's actually turning into a nicer, warmer day than first though in the northwest corner of the state.

But web cam images from the summit of Stratton Mountain, in southern Vermont, showed snow falling this morning and a slushy accumulation on the ground. 

Mid-mountain cams showed a slushy coating on the ground at Stratton at 2,275 feet of elevation. Just before 11 a.m., it was snowing pretty hard and it looked like there was at least a couple inches of snow on the ground at the Stratton summit, at 3,875 feet above sea level

Video by @VermonsterWx  on Twitter showed snow flakes mixing with the raindrops this morning at his high elevation home not far from Readsboro.

Awfully late for snow in Vermont even at high elevations, but not unprecedented. 

On May 25-26 2013, a whopping two feet of snow piled up on Whiteface Mountain, New York and Jay Peak, Vermont got 18 inches. Elevations of just 900 to 1,800 feet above sea level got two to six inches of snow in that episode.

Nothing nearly like that is in store with this episode. 

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Boy, the Vermont forecast for the rest of the weekend just keeps going downhill, especially those who like warm sunshine. 

On the bright side, some parts of the state are now in for some drought relief. 

Screen grab from live video atop Stratton Mountain, Vermont
shows a full-blown snowstorm in progress shortly 
before 11 a.m. today. 

A few days ago, the outlook for this weekend was lots of sunshine and cool temperatures. Good for the mood, but the then-anticipated super dry air would make the drought worse and the forest fire danger rise. 

Now, nearly stalled storms in the upper atmosphere and near the surface are bringing clouds, very cold weather for this time of year and rain to at least parts of Vermont and surrounding areas.

The veil of high clouds over northern Vermont prompted a spectacular sunset last evening, but that's basically it for brightness for the rest of the weekend. 

In northern Vermont, there actually be an OK amount of sun today, and it will be a really a nice enogh day. 

With the sun peaking through, we'll manage highs north of Route 2 in the low 60s.  That's still cool for this time of year, but still ten degrees warmer than yesterday and far better than what's going on in southern Vermont. 

There, clouds will hang pretty tough today.  In some mid and high elevation along and south of Route 4, temperatures didn't make it past the upper 40s yesterday afternoon and won't crack 50 degrees until Monday at the earliest.

That's almost as bad for sensitive garden plants as frost. Tomatoes, cucumbers and the like crave sunshine, warmth and humidity, so this weather will stunt things for awhile. On the bright side, earlier forecasts of frosty mornings this weekend are now off the table.  

Rain will move south to north across Vermont on Sunday, with the day being a miserable washout in the south. 

The rain, or the risk of it, anyway, will continue Sunday night and well into Monday.  It looks like southern and eastern Vermont will get a nice, slow batch of soaking rain, maybe up to an inch or more of it in some spots 

This slow, gradual rain is better for drought busting that harsh, quick downpours, which tend to run off and not soak into the ground. 

It seems like northwestern Vermont, where I live, might well be screwed out of this needed rain once again. There's still a lot of questions as to how much rain will make it into the northern Champlain Valley, but early indications are not much.  We could get less than a tenth of an inch of rain, which isn't really helpful. 

There's still some hope some of the good rains will push a little further northwest. Let's hope so 

Earlier forecasts had said Monday would turn brighter and warmer, but no. Turns out we'll still be stuck under thick clouds and unseasonably cold daytime readings. Highs will be in the 50s Monday instead of the normal low to mid 70s we get this time of  year. 

The slow moving storminess might even delay the expected real warmup that was to have begun in earnest on Tuesday.  Still, the end of the week does look much more seasonable.  Shower chances ramp up late in the week, too, giving a little hope for needed rain in northwestern Vermont, and perhaps a little more drought-busting rain to the southern part of the Green Mountain State.