Active Pattern Floods, Gusts NW, NE Corners Of Nation, Plus Vermont Snow Update

Time to bring back the National Weather Service snow
prediction map! It's showing light accumulations tonight
away from the Champlain and lower Connecticut
River Valleys.

 Now that we are finally in our typical stormy November weather pattern across the United States, we're feeling the consequences of it. Some of us, anyway. 

Friday, and to an extent this weekend, the northeast and northwest corners of the nation are taking the brunt of it. 

Parts of Washington and Oregon were beset by flooding, mudslides and debris flows as heavy rains continued to roar in from the Pacific Ocean.  About 50 people had to be rescued via helicopter from a flooding RV park in Oregon. 

The flooding was made worse in Washington because snow had fallen in higher elevations and the latest storm was warm. That melted a lot of the snow and intensified runoff. The risk of flooding will continue there into early next week.k 

In New England, it isn't as bad as in Washington State. But still, there was a lot of street flooding and local flash floods Friday in parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.  There was briefly even a tornado warning on Nantucket Friday.

Power outages hit the entire region Friday, including here in Vermont.  All those fallen power lines have since been fixed.

A new storm today will create another risk of severe thunderstorms and maybe even a brief tornado in southern New England, a burst of rain in the entire region, and in some parts of northern New England, the first real accumulation of snow this season.

VERMONT IMPACTS

The forecasts continue to call for a little quick hitting, powerhouse of a storm later today and this evening.  The relatively dramatic weather will only last a few hours, but some of us will definitely find it noticeable. 

Temperatures will probably make it to a few degrees either side of 50 degrees by midday before the storm's rains get here. 

Once the storm winds up, it will throw a fairly good slug of precipitation at us during the afternoon, and thats' when temperatures will crash. While this is happening, there could well be a few out of season lighting strikes in southeastern Vermont. That's a sign the system has a lot of energy going for it.

For what it's worth, this weather model is a little more
aggressive with snow tonight, with most of Vermont outside
the Champlain and lower Connecticut valleys getting
about two inches of snow. It's showing spot totals of
four to seven inches in a few pockets in high 
elevations of the southern Green Mountains. 

When a storm intensifies rapidly, it often makes its own pool of chillier air, as the heavy precipitation cools the air. This will happen today, aided by colder air coming into the storm from the northwest. 

Snow levels will rapidly fall from summit level to 1,000 feet or so this evening.  I still think wet flakes will make it all the way to valley floors. 

This will largely be over by midnight.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington isn't going with any accumulation in the deeper valleys

However, if you're up around 1,000 feet or so in elevation, you'll start to see at least an inch or two.  The mountain summits will probably get four or five inches of snow out of this

Since the changeover to snow up there will be fairly rapid, and the precipitation will probably be briefly heavy, snow and ice could easily accumulate on roads if you start heading out of the valleys.  I'm looking at you, Interstate 89 around Brookfield and Interstate 91 near Sheffield. Roads that go over the Green Mountain ridgeline, like parts of Routes 9, 4, 15, 17 and 302, could see some issues this evening.

Just keep that in mind if you have travel plans. You're not used to driving in snow yet. And the wet snow we're expecting tends to me more slippery than the powdery stuff we get in mid-winter.

Another consideration is when a storm, even if small in size is this dynamic, the cold pool it forms could be more extensive than forecast. It's possible abrupt, light accumulations of snow and slippery travel could make it down into places like the Champlain Valley.  That's not the most likely scenario, ut definitely could happen! 

After that, we get kind of blah, typical November day Sunday (quite a few clouds, highs in the 40s).  Then we get into more rain and snow showers Monday and Tuesday.

We are sliding toward winter, folks!