Enjoy Today, Stormy Days/Nights Coming To Vermont

A nice sunset Tuesday evening foretold a very nice late
March day in Vermont, but don't get used to that. 
Lots of unsettled weather is on the way. 

 I hope Vermont maple sugar makers got a good night's rest last night. I have a feeling there's going to be a great run today. 

Temperatures got down into the upper teens and 20s last night. This afternoon, it'll be in the 40s, with a few spot 50 degree readings possible in the warmest valleys. The sun will be out most of the day, so that's a recipe for a great, needed sap run.

The rest of us should enjoy today's weather, too. because this will be the nicest day we've had in awhile. And it will be awhile before we have conditions this pleasant again. 

A series of storms and relatively cold shots of air are on the way. While none of the storms and cold days appear as it they'll be any kind of record breakers, we'll have to wait to see some classic spring weather. At least after today. 

THURSDAY

The first storm tomorrow will be almost completely rain. Although it will be on the mild side, Thursday will not be a nice day with rain most of the time and a stiff south breeze in sone spots. 

Rainfall for most of us will be about a quarter or a third of an inch.  Areas along and north of Route 2 could see a half inch or more. 

Even with melting snow, this won't be enough to cause any real flooding, but you'll see stream and river level rise with this one. Just a muddy, wet, typically icky March day. 

FRIDAY:

We'll get a bit of a break between systems Friday, though it will be slightly on the chilly side. Highs will only make it into the 30s to low 40s, which is a bit cooler than normal for late March. 

WEEKEND

It still looks like we'll have a  messy storm that will act in many ways like the last few. 

Like the last several storms a strong system will head into the Great Lakes Saturday, then begin to weaken over southern Ontario and Quebec.  Meanwhile a new storm would form along the coast, helping to lock colder air in. 

If this were hitting a few weeks ago, the storm would be mostly snow, and we'd see potentially a decent 6 to 12 inch dump from this. 

Just one of many varying predictions of a storm on
approach toward New England. This map is depicts
how things would look Saturday morning. 

But it's late March, and it's warmer.  Lower elevations have a better chance of seeing at least some rain, while higher spots see mostly snow. Nobody's really guessing on projected snow accumulations yet. 

The biggest question in the valleys is, will this be mostly a cold rain, or mostly a slushy snow? Or an even split?

Hopefully how this works out will be better defined as we get closer to the event. But we do have a risk of slick roads Saturday and Saturday night, especially in higher elevations.  I don't think there's a big flooding risk, even if low spots see mostly rain. 

Even if it rains it will be too cold to see any rapid snow melt. And it'll be snowing in the mountains, so we won't see any runoff from higher elevations. 

The weather will slowly improve on Sunday.

BEYOND THE WEEKEND

Longer range forecasts are always iffy. That's extra true in the spring when the seasons are transitioning.  Old winter weather patterns are fading, and summer weather systems are still a distant dream. It basically means anything is possible. 

Around Tuesday, the computer models disagree on whether a new storm system will exist in the Northeast or not. Never mind whether it would be strong or weak, or what kind of precipitation it would generate. 

Flip a coin on that one, folks. 

In general, I don't see any real nice spells of spring weather coming at least into early April. But the warm weather will get here eventually. I think.