One More Weird, Windy Vermont March Heat Wave Before Winter (Sort Of) Returns

Wildfires continue to burn amid very windy, dry 
conditions in the Southwest. This large fire near
Borger, Texas on Tuesday forced evacuations,
 but at last report no homes have burned. 

 Gawd, Tuesday was gorgeous in Vermont. Wall to wall sunshine under deep blue skies, light winds and comfortable temperatures. All after an overnight freeze probably revived the sap runs in the sugar bushes. 

Another weird storm out in the Midwest today will give us another odd March heat wave with a lot of wind in some areas once again. 

But a weather pattern change means our premature spring will revert back to typical late March dampness, chill, slush and cold rain.

THE STORM

As expected, the Plains are in trouble again with this one. 

Blizzards are hitting from eastern Colorado to southern Minnesota. High wind warning and advisories cover most of the middle of the U.S., threatening tree damage, power outages and more wildfires. Dangerous dust storms once again raked places like New Mexico and Texas on Tuesday. 

The fire danger remains extreme in the southern Plains. At last report, numerous wildfires were burning or had just been contained. An especially large fire was threatening homes near Borger, Texas, prompting evacuations of several neighborhoods in the city of 12,000 people northeast of Amarillo. 

The high risk of wildfires in the Southwest is expected to continue for the next several days. 

Dust storms closed several highways in western Texas, including a stretch of Interstate 27 south of Amarillo that was the scene of a fatal highway pileup in another dust storm last Friday. 

Windy weather is extending the brush and wildfire risk through much of the Midwest and in much of the Appalachian chain as far north as southwest New York State. 

Earlier forecasts had called for a limited number of severe thunderstorms with this system, but that's changed. There could be a few to several tornadoes today in Illinois and Indiana, along with intense straight line winds and large hail. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Much like the last storm, this one is throwing a big squirt of warm, windy air at us. 

Sunny, mild weather last evening and in the past
few days has allowed an early start with spring
cleaning in my St. Albans, Vermont perennial beds,
but an upcoming change in the weather pattern
might put a temporary stop to that work. Look
closely at photo and you can see LOTS of 
green daffodil shoots starting to emerge

After most of us managed to get below freezing again overnight, today will be ridiculously warm March day. Most valleys will reach the 60s, and there could even be a spot 70 degree reading in some of the warmest towns. 

Winds will increase, too, especially in the Champlain Valley.  Gusts could reach 40 mph in spots by late afternoon.

Tonight will be warm and noisy, especially in the northern Champlain Valley where a wind advisory goes into effect and lasts until early afternoon Thursday. 

Gusts up in Franklin County, Vermont could go to 50 or 55 mph, causing a few more scattered problems with power lines and tree branches. Winds will probably peak between about 2 and 10 a.m.  Thursday. 

Elsewhere in the Champlain Valley, winds might go up to 45 mph.  It'll be pretty windy elsewhere in Vermont too. 

It'll stay warm, with many of us not dropping below 40 degrees overnight. That sets us up for more 60 degree weather tomorrow.

The Change

Then the cold front comes in Thursday night as a storm forms along it. Forecasters have gotten a little less bullish on the amount of rain and eventual snow we'll get.  There were some fears of a heavy snowstorm Friday. 

It still looks like it's going to snow late Thursday night and Friday, probably enough to interfere with Friday morning drive time.  Expected accumulations are still up in the air, but forecasts are leaning toward no more than a couple inches in the valleys and at most four inches or so up in the mountains. 

Stay tuned for any updates of that one. 

As mentioned, the cold front is introducing a new weather pattern that will have us continue to see temperatures yo-yoing but not to extremes that we've seen over the past week. 

And it will generally be colder than it's been, but nothing ridiculous for late March. In fact, we might squeeze in some comfortably mild readings Saturday before the next cold front crashes us downward into the 30s for the day Sunday.

A new storm looks like it wants to spread some snow and rain over us next Monday, but we don't have the details on that yet. 

I'm guessing the cooler, unsettled weather will last into at least early April