Much like the last big storm just before Christmas, the problems are extending, or at least will extend coast to coast.
Unlike the last storm, we're not dealing with nearly as much frigid air. This lack of frigid air is cold comfort, though, and pardon the pun and the contradiction.
Almost every imaginable problem is coming out of this storm, including flooding, deep, deep snow, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, some of them possibly quite powerful, lots of ice, freezing rain, wind and record temperatures.
Though this time, those will be record high temperatures, not record lows.
On the bright side, locusts are highly unlikely with this storm, so I guess that's a plus.
We'll delve into the gory details of this storm a bit more, then go into Vermont impacts. Spoiler: As is often the case, the Green Mountain State won't get slammed as much as other parts of the nation, but things will still get pretty interesting as the storm passes through. More on that further down in this post.
This all started New Year's Eve, as the system took the form of an atmospheric river that slammed into central California. An atmospheric river is a long, narrow ribbon of deep moisture that can cross oceans. When they hit land, atmospheric rivers can cause torrential, flooding rains. Which it did
Downtown San Francisco measured 5.46 inches of rain Saturday, its second wettest day in at least 170 years. The flooding closed many roads, including part of Highway 101, and forced evacuations throughout the Bay Area.
One person died in the flooding in Sacramento County. Several others were rescued from a flooded highway in the area, the Sacramento Bee reported.
In the Sierra Nevada, the heavy precipitation took the form of blinding snows. Several feet of snow piled up, which will be a good thing for water supplies next summer. At one point, snow fell at a rate of 7.5 inches per hour at a Sierra Mountain research lab.
The heavy snow extended into western Nevada, where heavy snow blocked roads and trapped people in cars for a time. The actor Jeremy Renner was critically injured in a Lake Tahoe snow plowing accident.
This storm primed the pump for possibly even more extensive flooding in California later this week, when another atmospheric river is due. The ground is now quite saturated, and can't handle more downpours.
TORNADOES/SEVERE STORMS
Today, the focus for possible tornadoes is on an area known as ArkLaTex, where Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas meet.
If the storms fully develop, this will be the third time in two months that this section of the U.S. has been hit by destructive tornadoes.
As is often the case, it's hard to be sure if a lot of tornadoes will actually form later today and tonight. But the ingredients are there - high humidity, winds changing direction and speed with height, and a strong storm center to the north.
The severe weather and tornado risk will move into the central Gulf States tomorrow.
Early winter was busy for tornadoes and severe weather in the South, and unfortunately, it looks like that trend is continuing into the new year.
SNOW/ICE
A vast, wide stripe from Utah and Colorado to Minnesota. This will be a messy storm to say the least as it emerges into the central and northern Plains later today, tonight and into tomorrow. Up to a foot and a half of snow will fall, and some areas will probably see yet another blizzard.
In many of these areas, though, the snow will mix with freezing rain, sleet and even thunder.
An ice storm warning is in effect for northwest Iowa, and a few parts of eastern Nebraska and southern Minnesota, where enough freezing rain is in the cards to probably knock down trees and power lines.
FLOODING AND WARMTH
In the same areas where the tornadoes are possible in the South, torrential rains will probably cause some flash flooding. It probably won't be as bad as what hit in California, but bad enough. Out ahead of the system, more record high temperatures are forecast for the eastern third of the U.S., except northern New England.
Which brings us to a quick Vermont update with this thing.
VERMONT IMPACTS
This won't be a huge storm for us, but a tricky one in some respects.
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| Vermont AOT traffic cam screen grab from Route 4 near up on Mendon Mountain shows the recent warmth has decimated snow cover even in high elevations More rain is in the forecast, but a cool down and possible light snow will follow |
The storm's warm front won't fly off into southern Canada like originally thought. Instead, it will get hung up near the International Border. At least that's the way it looks now.
It'll still be toasty for January, but we won't have a rerun of that spring weather we enjoyed (or endured!) in the final days of 2022.
Watch out for a little freezing rain east of the Green Mountains early on Tuesday, but this will mainly be another rain event. A cold rain, but still rain.
We won't get enough rain through midday Wednesday to cause any flooding, so that's good news. Usually with this kind of storm, the cold front to finish it off sweeps on through fast like a fugitive being chased by a cop.
This time, the front will sort of limp on through. That puts us at risk for some mixed precipitation or snow later Wednesday through Thursday and maybe even into Thursday night.
At this point, it doesn't look like it will amount to all that much, but it could make the roads slick again. To give us back our usual winter hazards, I suppose.
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