Another Cycle Of Fires, Wind, Tornadoes, Winter Weather Underway In U.S.

There might not be another destructive tornado in New
Orleans like last week, but the U.S. faces another week
of varied weather hazards through this week.

 After a lull lasting a few days, another big, lumbering storm is beginning its move across the nation, promising another round of just about everything imaginable.  

Up here in Vermont, the evolving pattern means kitchen sink weather this week. Meaning a little of everything, except the kitchen sink, but no guarantees on that. More on Vermont conditions in a bit.   

The kitchen sink weather isn't limited to Vermont. It's the whole nation, almost. 

Spring time is when we're most likely to see a wide variety of weather hazards and this spring is so far showing how true that is. 

WILDFIRES

The trouble started Sunday, well ahead of the storm. 

Wildfires are already breaking out once again in the warm air ahead of the system approaching from the Pacific Ocean.  This is continuing a trend of unusual wildfires this winter and early spring. 

A wildfire broke out near Boulder, Colorado over the weekend, right near the National Center for Atmospheric Research. 

Around 8,000 homes involving 19,000 people were evacuated because of this fire.  Thankfully no houses ended up seriously damaged. At least so far, as this wildfire is still burning. 

The area around Boulder is at the moment especially sensitive about wildfires after a blaze in late December burned about 1,000 homes. It was the worst wildfire in Colorado history. 

More fires broke out in Texas Sunday and those are forecast to increase today and tomorrow. It's been a rough year in places like Texas and Oklahoma as repeated wildfires have caused numerous evacuations, destroyed homes and ranches and killed at least one person.  

Still dormant vegetation, a long, intensifying drought, dry, strong winds and low humidity will ensure more fires today and tomorrow. 

TEMPERATURE WEIRDNESS

In some cases, the warm air in front of this evolving storm was downright hot. Las Vegas reached 93 degrees Saturday, the hottest day on record for the entire month of March. Death Valley, California also set the record high for the entire month of March with a reading of 104 degrees.

Record highs for the date including 79 in Salt Lake City, 87 in El Paso, Texas, 70 in Pocatello, Idaho and 84 in Pueblo, Colorado.

The buildup of warm air in the western and central North America has caused a corresponding dip in the jet stream over the Great Lakes and Northeast, as we well know.  It's frosty this morning in the Carolinas as a result, it's snowing around the Great Lakes and everybody has dug out their winter gear again. 

RAIN AND STORMS

The actual storminess made landfall in California Sunday night. Southern and central California are expecting the biggest storm since late December. Which unfortunately isn't saying much. 

After a very wet December, the rain and snow shut off in California in January and February, which is normally the peak of the wet season. Snow didn't build up in the mountains as it should, and low elevations dried out again. 

This storm will help,. but it's too little, too late.

The system will skip over to the east and redevelop in the central Plains tomorrow, then strengthen as it heads toward the Great Lakes by Thursday. 

This will set up a stripe of severe storms and possible tornadoes in Texas Oklahoma and Kansas tomorrow. The severe outbreak will peak Wednesday in the Gulf Coast states with more destructive storms and tornadoes.

The area in play for the greatest chances of tornadoes and severe storms Wednesday is almost identical to the area most affected by severe storms and tornadoes last Tuesday, including that destructive tornado in the New Orleans area

Thursday, the severe threat moves to the Middle Atlantic States as far north as New Jersey, which is unusually far north and east for this time of year.  

This whole storm system will probably also stir up a pretty decent winter storm in northern Minnesota and the northwestern Great Lakes. 

VERMONT IMPACTS

Hard to tell for sure, but web cam image of Interstate 89
bridge over Lamoille River in Milton looked icy.
Bridges and overpasses are especially troublesome today

The storm that will cause all this interesting national weather will, as I hinted at, give indirectly and directly give us a variety of weather the rest of the week. 

First, Snow, Cold

That dip in the jet stream I referenced above allowed the weather gods to grab a packet of Arctic air right from the North Pole and blast it down on us in Vermont today.

Um, yay?  

Temperatures were pretty uniform across Vermont early this morning, generally in the low to mid teens, with wind chills right around zero. It's actually a bit cooler than many of the already bone chilling forecasts had indicated.

There's still some disturbances rotating down from Canada in this air flow, so snow showers will continue off and on all day, especially in the central and northern Green Mountains. 

This is making some roads surprisingly slick this morning, or just giving motorists surprises. I was checking Vermont Agency of Transportation web cams this morning.  The ground temperature is relatively warm from the recent balmy weather. 

Narrow bands of heavier snow could develop here and there
today amid the cold snow flurries. Radar detected one such
band near Alburgh around 8 a.m. this morning and
this Vermont AOT web came along 
Route 78 in Alburgh seemed to confirm it. 

So in some spots, the light snow is partly melting.  Then re-freezing.  Or bridges and overpasses offer surprises As of 7 a.m. the traffic cam at the Lamoille River Bridge on Interstate 89 in Milton showed the pavement looking clear before and after the bridge, but the roadbed on the bridge itself looked really icy. Be careful! 

Since the snow showers will continue all day, and might actually increase a little this afternoon, the trip home could be a little interesting, too.

Not much snow will fall in the valleys, probably an inch or less additional, but a few more inches are likely in the already suddenly snowy central and northern Green Mountains. 

Highs today will only be 15 to 25 degrees, which for many of us will be near records for lowest "high" temperatures.  

Then what?

After a similarly frigid night tonight, a warm up will start. Sort of. Tomorrow will only get up to the low 30s, still way colder than normal for this time of year. 

It'll be a little better Wednesday afternoon as clouds increase, but it will still be a chilly 40 degrees.

From there we might have, yes, a little more snow or mixed precipitation Wednesday night with a warm front. 

Then, with the storm going by to our west, we'll have another temperature  swing upward - well into the 50s for most of us.  Don't get used to that, though.

Temperatures go right hack downhill next weekend.  It won't be nearly as bad as today is, but Thursday's foray into spring will be brief.  It'll only be in 30s and low 40s again for awhile after Thursday or possibly Friday.

They say April is a cruel month, and there you go, at least if that forecast is accurate.