Tornado Outbreak Continues Today In South; Could Storm Produce A Little Ice In Vermont?

Weather radar capture at least five supercell storms, all
capable of tornadoes, menacing the area around Austin,
Texas Monday. Several tornadoes did touch down.

 As expected, some dramatic tornadoes touched down in Texas on Monday, causing widespread damage and injuries. But so far, I haven't heard of any reported deaths, which of course is the good news. 

Preliminary reports suggest more than 20 tornadoes touched down. More twisters are almost a sure bet today in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and some of them could be strong. So this ain't over. 

News and video from the Texas tornado zone makes me even more surprised and happy over the lack of deaths.  One twister hit the elementary school in Jacksboro, Texas while dozes of students were inside. 

The gymnasium was destroyed and the rest of the building had substantial damage. But everyone in the school was in designated shelters within the school and weren't hurt, CNN reports. 

About 70 houses in Jacksboro were damaged.  Serious damage to homes and businesses occurred in Elgin, Bowie and Round Rock, Texas as well.  One video shows a red truck, caught in the tornado on a highway in Elgin get tossed, overturn, spun around a couple times, the get plopped down on its wheels. The driver of the red truck then somehow drives away from the twister.   

The driver of the red truck is reported to be a 16 or 17 year old kid who only suffered a cut on his arm. 

Another video shows the tornado in Round Rock scoring a direct hit on one of television station KVUE's cameras. Yet another shows a debris-filled tornado on the edge of a Wal-Mart parking lot as people scramble to get inside the store. 

I'm worried about today's expected tornadoes because ground zero is an area with a lot of mobile homes, relative poverty with people who might not have easy access to storm warnings. 

Some more severe weather is expected in the Southeast tomorrow, but then there will be a few days of quiet with not much severe weather or tornado risk anywhere in the nation. 

VERMONT EFFECTS 

The parent storm causing this rough weather will inevitably affect Vermont, though. No need to worry about tornadoes here, but maybe, once again, ice?

As the storm approaches Wednesday night, there will be enough cold air in place, especially aloft to create a mix of sleet, snow, rain and maybe a little freezing rain. That ice could happen at least briefly anywhere in Vermont, but is most likely along and east of the Green Mountains. 

The mixed precipitation will probably linger into Thursday morning, especially in the Northeast Kingdom.  The past winter featured lots of ice and mixed precipitation, so why not continue the party into spring, right?

The mix should go over to rain during the day Thursday everywhere and continue into the night.  Rain won't come down hard enough to cause any real flooding, but will help prolong our nasty mud season this year.

Snow and rain showers should continue Friday through the weekend. A cold shot from Canada will return us to winter Sunday through Tuesday, with high temperatures then expected to only reach to near or just above freezing.  That's not so unusual for late March, but will come as a slap in the face after the couple weeks of mild weather we've had.