Weird Little Storm To Spoil Sunday Vermont Outdoor Plans, Severe Weather Pennsylvania

An odd little storm is expect to create a severe
weather outbreak today mostly in the yellow
and orange zone. The same storm will
spoil Vermont's sunny start to Sunday with
light rain and cooler temperatures this afternoon. 

Usually when there's severe weather outbreaks this time of year, a large scale storm will move through the middle of the nation.  

That type of storm draws big plumes of warm, humid air northward, setting the stage for wild thunderstorms and tornadoes somewhere in the Plains or even eastern United States.

We expect an outbreak of severe weather today in a smaller area due to just one weird little storm. It's a storm that will affect us in Vermont, but with dreary tame showers and nothing scary. 

It's a small cute little thing compared to a lot of storms. It was near Lake Huron this morning, and will zip through central New York and central New England today and tonight. 

Normally, we expect just scattered light showers out of something like this, but the little storm has a surprising amount of oomph to it. 

It was gorgeously sunny to start today here in Vermont, but clouds will rapidly fill in. It will be raining in most places by the first half of the afternoon. We won't get a lot of rain - a tenth to a quarter inch - but the promise is another sunny Sunday we saw this morning won't happen. 

We're just lucky this little storm is either going by just to Vermont's south or maybe nearly overhead if you're in far southern Vermont. We're just in for a chilly light rain, we'll survive that.

SEVERE WEATHER

South of the storm, an odd area of severe weather is in the cards today.  

A band from eastern Ohio, through Pennsylvania and maybe just into the southwestern Catskills of New York is in for a day of severe thunderstorms with powerful winds and maybe a few tornadoes. 

Cold air aloft, moisture pooling near the Earth's surface and a cold front with this little storm seem destined to power up a line of big thunderstorms. Straight line winds with a squall line seem like the biggest threat in Pennsylvania. But a few storms might get going ahead of the squall line, which could produce a tornado risk.

Kinks in the line of storms later today might be spots where tornadoes can spin up, too.

Ohio and western Pennsylvania seem to be ground zero for severe weather so far this spring. Which is odd, as March and April storm and tornado outbreaks are usually further south this time of year. 

Ohio has had 29 tornadoes so far this year. Their average for an entire year is 21 twisters. Most of Ohio's tornadoes hit on February 27, March 14 and April 2.   May and June are usually Ohio's big tornado season.

Western Pennsylvania has been hit by two big flood events in the past few weeks. Luckily, this latest storm should move too fast to renew the flooding there. 

NEW OUTBREAK

A more traditional larger springtime storm is set to power up in the Plains tomorrow and Tuesday, which will create more tornadoes and hail storms across much of the Plains and Midwest. 

That bigger storm will eventually affect us here in Vermont, but it will be falling apart on its way here. We can just expect fairly light showers late this week from that system.