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| An intense snow squall sweeps into St. Albans, Vermont in February, 2022. Similar intense squalls are possible in Vermont tonight, |
It's usually a tempestuous month, with wild temperature changes, lots of wind, abrupt shift in weather that kind of thing. We've seen little of that in the past few weeks.
Until today and especially tonight. Get ready for a pretty bumpy ride.
Today started gorgeous, with clear blue skies and a frosty bite to the air.
Temperatures will quickly warm up into the 40s to near 50. Although you'll start to see some clouds come in this afternoon, and a south breeze will pick up, it will be a nice day. And a perfect set-up for another wonderful sap run for the maple sugarers.
But lurking to our west and north is a powerful cold front. What it lacks in its mediocre moisture supply is more than made up for in its energy. You'll really notice this thing when it approaches and comes through.
THE "PREVIEW"
The cold front is sort of a winter/summer hybrid, but with a little more emphasis on winter. But the early part of the whole thing will have a summer set up on the weather map.
On those hot, humid days when a cold front is approaching, something called a pre-frontal trough forms ahead of the cold front. The trough is sort of a mini preview cold front. In the summer, the strongest thunderstorms with the weather system are often along the pre-frontal trough.
In the winter, you don't usually see these "preview fronts." Today, you will, but the strongest storms won't be along this. Still, this thing might well create a line of rain showers, with maybe a rumble of thunder, very late this afternoon and early evening.
After that, the big show arrives.
THE BIG SHOW
The cold front will arrive, and almost all indications point toward a nasty snow squall along it. When it comes in, especially if you're in relatively low elevations in Vermont, it'll start off as a hard rain, then quickly switch to very heavy, blinding snow. There might be more lightning and thunder.
It won't last long in any given location, but it'll be a nightmare if you're out driving. Visibility will go to zero. Road conditions will go from fine to incredibly slick in an instant.
Timing wise, the National Weather Service in South Burlington says the big squall line will enter northwestern Vermont at roughly 9 p.m., approach the Green Mountains around 10 p.m. and be getting ready to exit Vermont into New Hampshire at around midnight.
The strongest weather with this squall will probably be north of Route 4 and along and west of the Green Mountains
Since this won't last long, we won't get a ton of accumulation. Most of us should come in at around an inch. Some of the mountains maybe up to three inches. Southeastern Vermont should see less than an inch.
AFTERMATH
Temperatures will plunge overnight into the upper teens and low 20s, ensuring any remaining water or slush on the roads turns to ice for your trip to work tomorrow morning. It'll be blustery and quite cold Thursday. Even though the sun will make an appearance, especially in the afternoon, most of northern Vermont and the high elevations in South should stay at or below freezing all day,
This will probably, hopefully, be the last continuously subfreezing day until next November. But of course we can't be sure as April has almost as wild a reputation as March.
By the way, more storminess, rain, maybe a little flooding, a little snow and big temperature fluctuations are due Friday through Sunday. I'll post more on that tomorrow,
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