After A (Mostly) Steady State March, Vermont Is In For Dug Nap-Style Weather Roller Coaster

The scene in one of my perennial gardens today fits the
highly changeable weather we'll have the next couple
of days. Note the snowbanks AND the tender
green spring shoots coming up.

 We in Vermont are now in a weather pattern in which pretty much anything could happen, and probably will. So buckle up! 

On the very bright side, there's nothing super destructive or dangerous in our forecast, in contrast to the tornadoes, severe weather, winter storms and floods forecast for much of the nation's midsection today.

We'll still need to stay on our toes, though..

Those snow squalls Wednesday night pretty much behaved as expected. They were spotty, but where they hit, you had these brief blizzards of zero visibility and strong gusty winds. 

When it came through St. Albans, we didn't really get much snow, but the roar of the wind in the darkness was pretty impressive.  We also saw a couple lightning flashes to our west, and later, more lightning was reported near Jay Peak. 

After a chilly but bright Thursday, more changes are coming along, fast and furiously. 

Today will cloud up pretty fast, if it isn't already overcast where you are. An approaching warm front today will ironically not cause warm weather. 

Instead, rain or snow will break out. Even in the valleys, any initial rain will change to snow as the precipitation helps cool the atmosphere, at least temporarily. The snow, maybe mixed with rain in the warmer valleys will continue into the evening. 

Most places should only get a slushy coating to maybe an inch or two in the high spots.  The peak of this will hit during the evening commute, but main roads should stay in pretty good shape. Some back roads, especially in higher elevations, might get a little iffy.

Overnight we'll have drizzle and fog and maybe a little freezing drizzle in the cold spots. Again, annoying, but not the end of the world. 

SATURDAY SURPRISES?

Saturday - April Fool's Day - will fittingly bring us pretty much all kinds of possible weather. It'll pretty much be like that Dug Nap artwork with a forecast of some pretty wild weather changes. 

It won't turn out to be as extreme as in Dug Nap's imagination, but the weather on Saturday will seem to change every hour. 

 A burst of rain should come through Saturday mornin amid raw temperatures in the low 40s.

 Then the sun might actually peek through the clouds for awhile, and temperatures should rocket upward. Warmer valleys, especially west of the Green Mountains, should make it into the low 60s. If that happens, it'll be the warmest since mid-November.  A sign of spring, finally. 

There's actually a marginal risk of
severe storms in parts of Vermont
tomorrow. Sign of spring?

The "problem" with the warm temperatures is that will help make the air unstable. This could set off some showers and thunderstorms. Again springlike.   Another sign of spring is that for the first time this year, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has parts of Vermont in a risk zone for severe thunderstorms. 

Before you panic, it's the lowest level one risk out of five risk categories. That means there might - maybe - be one or two instances of damaging wind gusts in the most vigorous thunderstorms. This would be mostly south of Route 2. Although there might be a rumble or two of thunder further north. 

Then we get a sharp cold front. Temperatures will tumble down to within a few degrees of 20 late Saturday night as rain showers change to snow showers. Fortunately, we won't have much accumulation. 

But during Saturday night and Sunday morning, after all those bursts of rain and the mild weather on Saturday afternoon, we'll probably have some minor flooding. 

 Luckily, this storm won't be powerful for us, anyway, to touch off anything major. But you'll see fields under water, probably. And the low lying roads that usually get flooded in the spring probably will in this go around, too.

The yo-yo weather continues into next week, at least. It'll be a very chilly day for early April on Sunday, with highs barely making into the 30s.  But we'll have a nice rebound to 50 or above next week. But there's a lot of questions as to how warm it will get and how long it will last. Plus, we'll have other fitful bursts of rain to contend with, too.