Winter Is Back! A Potentially Stormy Vermont Week Ahead

An intense snow squall sweeps through St. Albans, 
Vermont on February 27, 2022. More snow squalls
are possible in Vermont today. 

 Winter is back in at least some of its glory. Chances are we will be dealing with a Vermont March that could behave the way January and February could have. 

The first wintry surprise proved me wrong this morning. In yesterday morning's post, I said temperatures wouldn't get to zero again in Burlington for at least a week. 

Oops.

There was a period of nearly clear skies and light winds that brought temperatures in Burlington 0 a little after midnight, giving us the sixth such day this winter. That's still way, way below normal for such cold weather. 

SQUALLY SUNDAY?

Temperatures were slowly rising this more morning as snow showers moved in.  It started snowing here in St. Albans shortly after 8:30 a.m. and those snow showers are moving quickly across northern Vermont. 

The morning snow won't amount  to much, but it's still cold, the wind is blowing, so is the snow, so it will be kind of a not so great trip on the roads

The real problem comes sometimes this afternoon. Temperatures will get up into the 20s to near 30 ahead of a cold front. It has quite a bit of instability with it, so the National Weather Service office in South Burlington tells us to expect snow squalls during the afternoon and early evening. 

I'd say the highest risk of squalls would be between 1 and 8 p.m. today.  Especially across northern and central Vermont. 

Though pretty much everybody should see snow showers and some light accumulation, the snow squalls will be hit and miss. Remember, snow squalls are dangerous on the roads. Visibility goes from perfect to zero in practically an instant, and roads ice up in a hurry.  Snow squalls are notorious for causing some of the worst highway pileups out there.

Today's snow squalls come almost on the anniversary of some of the most intense snow squalls I can remember. On Sunday, February 27, 2022, the squalls caused some pretty dramatic looking skies and intense snowfall rates.'

The snow squalls today might not reach the level they did a year ago, but some will be close. 

THE NEXT STORM

A storm will wildly intensify from not much to a strong system in the central Plains today.  Scary-looking forecasts call for an outbreak of tornadoes and destructive, hurricane force straight line winds in Oklahoma and surrounding states today and tonight.  

If you want to be selfish, though be thankful this storm is short fused. It'll go up toward the Great Lakes. From there on Monday night, the storm will be weakening as energy goes to a new storm forming along the Mid-Atlantic States.

This scenario often means a big dump of snow for us, but not this time. The coastal storm will scoot east out to sea, while the dying original storm passes near us.

That means we can expect a few inches of snow for most of us. The snowiest places, like along the east slopes of the southern and central Green Mountains, could get six inches or more. Early guesses give most other places as little as 1 inch and as much as 7 inches of snow. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington will probably issue winter weather advisories for this later today or tonight. 

There's already a winter storm watch up for Vermont's southernmost two counties which will be closest to the juicier storm that will be scooting out to sea. 

Broad valleys might mix with rain Tuesday as well as temperatures jump into the 30s.

BEYOND TUESDAY

Some sort of system will come through with a mix of snow and rain Thursday, but it doesn't look like it will be huge. 

We also see potential for a quick moving, snowy coastal storm on Friday or so.  It's unclear if it will go too far south for us in Vermont to get much of anything, or will it paste us with snow.

The overall weather pattern is changing, and I don't see any real signs of springtime weather heading into March.  It might not be record cold, but many days will be cold enough. It also looks like the weather pattern will stay busy, so we might have several chances of snow for the next couple of weeks. 

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center thinks it will be colder than average over most of the United States, including here in Vermont between March 10 and 24.  Chances lean a bit toward heavier than average precipitation, too.

If you wanted spring weather, you should have enjoyed it after Christmas, or in mid-February. It'll be awhile before we see anything like that in Vermont.