Vermont/Northeast Mired In Persistent Fog; What Next? Monsters?

Spent sunflower plants add a bit of The Addams family
character amid thick fog in St. Albans,
Vermont this morning. 

 This is certainly a rare spell of weather for Vermont:

Day after day of fog, drizzle, light rain, unseasonable warmth and constant dampness.  Video I took of all this is at the bottom of this post.  

It's beginning to feel like "The Mist," that Steve King movie in which a mysterious fog envelopes a Maine town and big man-eating creatures lurk in the mist. 

Thankfully, the biggest creature myself and Jackson the Weather Dog encountered in our fog-shrouded yard this morning was a rabbit. (Also, no reports of deadly creatures in Maine, which is also engulfed in fog today).

In the winter, weather patterns are usually vigorous, with storms, cold fronts, warm fronts and often cold high pressure systems from Canada blasting through in quick succession. Those changed in the weather, and the gusty winds those changes create, make long sieges of fog fairly rare in a Vermont winter. 

Sure, we have lots of low clouds, overcast and dreary weather this time of year, but not usually nearly as murky as this.  

Although this kind of long foggy spell is rare in a Vermont winter, it's interesting there was a similar bout of foggy, drizzly weather in the Green Mountain State back in early January. 

This time, the weather pattern has been more gummed up than usual, as a large upper level low that has been in the middle of the nation slowly lumbers eastward. It's cut off from the jet stream, so it's taking its sweet time moving. The low is also picking up plenty of Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic moisture, so the air is wet and warm

The overall jet stream is further north than usual, so nothing has been able to flush out our damp air in recent days. (Tuesday afternoon being an exception, when we had a few welcome hours of sunshine after a foggy morning). 

A tangled tree in the fog near Highgate, Vermont Wednesday.

No organized, vigorous storm has been able to form in this wet airflow, so rainfall has been on the light side. Along with the fog, that state of affairs will continue through Friday. 

We'll have bouts of light rain and showers mixed with the fog for awhile today, then a tonight, and off and on during Friday. 

We're still expecting no flooding over this. At least here. Some flooding has cropped up in and near New Jersey this morning from heavy rain, but that's not headed in our direction. 

The light rain here is keeping Lake Champlain elevated, so we'll have some more problems with wave splash over and such when the wind finally picks up. And it will, eventually. 

Relief will start to come in Saturday as the overall air flow over the Northeast begins to pick up.   It'll come from the northwest, too, which means temperatures will drop enough for some snow to fall. 

Not much, but at least a little snow cover will brighten things up a little.  In the valleys, snow Friday night and Saturday will likely be on the wet and sloppy side again. But there won't be much of it, so power failures and tree damage are not on the play book. 

Mountains could pick up a two or three inches of snow by Saturday night, but most valleys, if they get any snow at all, will probably manage an inch or less.

The good news, though, is if the fog hasn't lifted by Saturday, it certainly will by Sunday New Year's Eve.  The early guess on New Year's Eve weather is quiet, and sort of, kinda on the warm side (Highs in the 30s, lows in the teens and low 20s).

Video: Traffic in northwestern Vermont moves through the fog, carefully with headlights on. And the landscape has taken on a ghostly appearance in the mist. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: