Stormy, Ugly Day, Saturday Evening In Vermont

Clear skies and light winds at dawn this morning in St. 
Albans, Vermont seemed to promise a lovely Saturday.
Instead, we'll get blasted by a burst of wet snow,
gusty winds, cold rains and raw conditions. 

 If you were looking to enjoy the Great Outdoors in Vermont today, think again. 

It's going to be a stormy day and evening, with snow, rain, schmutz and wind. Though this will be no means be a paralyzing storm, it will just be unpleasant to say the least. 

As dawn broke, it didn't seem so bad out there. I was greeted by beautiful clear skies and calm winds at daybreak today  in St. Albans, Vermont, for instance.  But things will go downhill pretty quickly. 

From late morning into the afternoon, a band of relatively heavy precipitation will roam the state, heading southwest to northeast.  Before that hits, temperatures will rise above freezing, so you'd think we'll just get a cold rain. 

But the moisture associated with this band of stuff will cool the atmosphere, so most of us will see a burst of heavy, wet snow. 

I suspect it might snow hard enough for a time in any given location, even in the valleys, to make the roads slick for a little while at least.   It won't be much snow, but a little dab will do ya, especially if it's wet snow like this will be.

Most of any accumulation will be on grassy surfaces and on existing snow cover. Maybe one to at most two inches in the valleys and a little more than that in the mountains. Be aware that this burst of snow might over-perform. I've seen several situations in the past where in this weather set up, an expected dusting of snow turns into a few inches. 

That over-performance is not guaranteed today, but it's something to keep an eye on. 

While this is going on, the winds will be picking up. In most places, the gusts will reach to 35 or 40 mph. With snow changing to a light rain, with temperatures staying in the 30s, it's going to feel awfully raw out there. 

The western slopes of the Green Mountains are going to be even windier. A wind advisory is up for those parts of the state from mid-afternoon to about midnight tonight. Winds there could gust to 50 mph, or even more in a few favored spots. 

I expect a few scattered power outages out of this. But it won't be nearly as bad as the storm we had on March 14 and 15, when tens of thousands of Vermonters lost power in a heavy, wet snowstorm. 

The burst of snow will taper for a time to light rain showers in the valleys, with light mixed stuff in the mountains. 

Another period of mostly rain will come through later tonight. Temperatures overnight will only be in the mid-30s, the same as readings during the expected snow this afternoon. But by late tonight, warmer air will have  moved in aloft. 

Mountains could still get a little snow and sleet out of this, but most of us will see a cold rain.

Sunday will end up with typical March weather: Blustery, kind of chilly, maybe some scattered rain and snow showers, especially in the morning and in the mountains. 

We should count ourselves lucky with today's storm.  It's not nice, but it's also not destructive here in Vermont. The same storm spawned a deadly tornado in Mississippi last night, which I have more details on in another, separate post this morning in this here blog thingy.