Nor'easter Whiffs By Vermont, But Causes Trouble from Tennessee To Maine

You can track the expected path of the current winter storm
and future nor'easter by following the blues and pinks
on the National Weather Service home page from
Missouri and Arkansas to Downeast Maine.
Those colors represent winter storm warnings, 
watches and advisories. 

 The storm that will become the Friday nor'easter in eastern New England is already causing a lot of headaches today in places that have already been socked by sometimes dangerous weather lately. 

Freezing rain was falling in Memphis, Tennessee early this morning, promising yet another travel headache, this time in the mid-South.  

The entire state of Kentucky, battered by tornadoes and floods in recent weeks, is under a winter storm warning today for four to eight inches of snow.  West Virginia is under similar alerts. 

Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC, still recovering from that heavy snowstorm Monday, can expect another two to four inches of snow out of this today and tonight. Travel in Northern Virginia especially has not quite fully recovered from Monday and Tuesday's I-95 traffic disaster, so this will have to be watched.

New York City is expected to finally get its first snowfall of the winter with three to five inches there. Winter storm watches and warnings extend northward along the New England coast all the way to Downeast Maine. 

In New York and coastal New England, there are some signs that this storm could "overperform" and create a few hours of very heavy snowfall rates, like what happened Monday further south.  Worse, this heavy snow would be timed with the Friday morning commute in these areas, so there is a risk of more big traffic nightmares and strandings.

For us here in Vermont, this really is looking like a miss for us, though it will snow a little.  The outer fringes of the nor'easter combined with some weather disturbances floating around Friday should give us Vermonters one to three inches of snow, with the most in the southeastern half of the state. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington tells us some areas up in the Green Mountains could receive up to four inches of fluff. I suppose there's still a chance the storm could jog toward the northwest a little more than currently expected. If that happens, snowfall will be a little more robust in Vermont than current forecasts. Snow lovers can dream, right?

Bottom line: Not a biggie for Vermont, but our thin snow cover will get freshened up a bit. 

After a quiet and chilly Saturday, that Arctic cold front is still expected to roar through Sunday.  Strong south winds will probably briefly push temperatures above freezing in some valleys Sunday before the Arctic air blasts in. 

We're still expecting a brutal Monday and Tuesday.  Temperatures will probably fall all day Monday amid nasty wind chills.  Monday night and Tuesday night will have us in the teens below zero (maybe near 20 below in the cold hollows and in the single numbers below zero near Lake Champlain). 

Luckily the intense cold won't last all that long and temperatures will ease up a bit by next Wednesday.