Late Week Vermont Storm: Likely Another Rainer

There's now something like an inch of snow on the 
ground in St. Albans, Vermont and things have
finally frozen up some, but current forecasts have that
bit of snow on the ground disappearing by Friday.

 The remnants of that atmospheric river storm that's been pummeling California will be making its way across the U.S. of A. over the next couple of days, spitting out plenty of showers and thunderstorms along the way. 

Though no immense outbreaks of severe weather seems likely, a few intense storms and maybe a tornado or two might spin up from California, to Nevada and Utah of all places, and then on to the southeastern U.S., ,where winter thunderstorms aren't as weird.

Then, the storm sets its eyes on us here in New England. Finally a decent dump of snow? Think again. 

This storm is of warm Pacific origin, and there's not a lot of cold air available for it to tap into. Plus the center of the storm should eventually pass by just to the west of Vermont, putting us on the warm side of things. 

The first bit of the storm currently due to arrive Thursday morning should bring snow, but that will fairly quickly change to rain west of the Green Mountains without much accumulation. East of the Greens, the snow should last a little longer, especially north of White River Junction. 

But even there, it will go to a mix, then to rain overnight Thursday, and at most, only a few inches would accumulate before the changeover to rain.

Friday looks rainy region-wide, but it should taper off during the day as the storm goes by.  It does not look like the rain will be heavy enough to produce any kind of flooding. It will just keep things soggy and damp, and keep Vermont rivers and streams flowing at a pretty healthy pace.  

Lake Champlain is running a little high for this time of year and might get higher after the upcoming storm. But it's still, way, way, short of flood stage.

There probably will be some snow showers on the back side of the storm during the first half of the weekend, but I don't imagine it will amount to much. Colder air will filter in, but it will only be average for January or even a little on the warm side. No blasts of Arctic air behind this storm, that's for sure. 

A new storm will form along our late week's system after it departs out to sea. There were some suggestions in the forecast models that the second storm would come close enough to be a nor'easter to bring us some weekend snow, but at this point, that's looking less likely.

As with every weather forecast that looks three or four days ahead, there's always a chance the predictions on this system could change radically. 

The mild weather pattern we've had looks to continue on into next week, and quite possibly beyond.