Distant Storm Puts Question Marks In Vermont Christmas Forecast

Whether or not it snows on Christmas Day, our living room
in St. Albans Vermont is a nice mix of holiday festive
and tropical green. Works for us!

 Until this morning, the forecast here in Vermont looked fairly straight forward, with the prospect of a white Christmas getting a little whiter with an expected December 25 light snowfall. 

Now that forecast is suddenly in question. 

But first, don't worry. Unlike most of the nation, we'll have a white Christmas in Vermont, except maybe the warmest valleys in the far south.  

Although temperatures today will probably get a little above freezing again in the warmer valleys, it won't be enough to melt away the snow cover. 

Plus, it will stay cold enough through Christmas to retain the thin, but real snow cover.'

Here's what's putting the forecast in question: The storm that produced at least one tornado in Florida yesterday rocketed northward as expected. It was actually throwing a little light mixed precipitation as far west as southern Vermont as the storm zips past New England. 

Watch in early this morning if you're in southern Vermont, especially near the Connecticut River Valley. There's not much mixed precipitation falling, but it's enough to make the roads slick. I've seen several reports of car crashes. 

The storm is bombing out, as they say, which means it's getting strong really fast.  It will cause a pretty good sized snowstorm in northern Maine, and causing icy conditions in other parts of eastern New England today.

This big storm will hang around eastern Canada for a few days.  That, in turn will try to drive a wedge of high pressure southward toward northern New England. That high pressure will try to block systems coming in from the west and attempt to shunt them to our south.

So, will that high pressure push that little Christmas storm to our south? It could.  There's benefits to either scenario.  If the small storm comes in on Christmas, it will put things even more into the holiday mood.  If the little storm gets pushed south, at least we won't have to worry about slick roads if you need to drive anywhere.

The forecast beyond Christmas gets even more uncertain, so I wouldn't believe any forecast for Sunday and beyond until we get a couple days before whatever forecast day you're interested in.