Will Those Pesky Clouds Finally Depart Today?

Skies were finally clearing over St. Albans, Vermont
this morning, and that clearing trend should spread
across the rest of the state today. 

 Today's the day when us Vermonters should finally see the sun after a long hiatus.

It's been overcast since Saturday, so I'm sure lots of you are beginning to wonder whether the sun would ever reappear. 

Although that sunshine should come sometime today, exactly when is the question. 

The Canadian province of Quebec, at least north of Montreal, basked in sunshine Tuesday and that drier air has been slowly trying to bleed southward across the International Border.

The dry air has been battling stubborn moisture in the lower levels of the atmosphere here in Vermont.  Forecasters think the battle will be won as the sun gets high enough into the sky late this morning to cause the atmosphere to mix. 

Drier air up above will start to dip down and skies will clear. 

It looks like northern areas will be the first to clear later this morning, and that process should head south through the state by early afternoon.

These overcast sieges happen in Vermont from time to time in the autumn, and it's often hard to predict when they will break up.  So don't be surprised if the clearing comes a little sooner or somewhat later in the day than forecast in any given location.

My bet is on an earlier clearing trend. At my place in St. Albans, not far from the Canadian border, skies cleared abruptly shortly after 8 a.m at least briefly, though patches of low clouds were moving back in. So it might be an uneven clearing trend as we go through the morning.   

Once we clear out, we should see a fair amount of sun until the weekend.  Do expect many areas of fog and overcast in the mornings, though, which is typical of this time of year.

A backdoor cold front is coming in Saturday, which might help to temporarily cloud us over.  It's called a backdoor cold front because it's coming in from the northeast, instead of the west or northwest like most cold fronts do.

The backdoor cold should bring a whoosh of more moist air off the Atlantic, so many of us could see some more fog and drizzle Saturday.  Another system might bring more clouds Sunday, but the upcoming weekend won't be nearly as dank and dreary as the past one. 

Nights in particular have been warm.  With the clearing skies, daytimes will now become warmer too, as temperatures push toward 70 degrees. With clearer skies at night, though, overnight lows will be cooler for the rest of the week, but not nearly cold enough to produce frost. 

The air coming with that backdoor cold front is only somewhat cooler than the air ahead of it, so it will still be relatively mild over the weekend, and the warm air will re-establish itself next week.

While we here in Vermont will remain warmer than normal at least through mid-month, there still are signs of impending winter, as you might expect. 

The western United States, which has been on the warm side too, will cool off big time and the first substantial snows of the season should hit the Rocky Mountains next week. 

It's already winter up in Alaska. Deadhorse, way up on the northern edge of that state, tied a record low for the date of 2 below zero yesterday.  Won't be that long before we see temperatures like that in Vermont.