Say It Ain't Snow! Parts Of Vermont To Be Dusted With It Sunday, Believe It Or Not!

Yep! We have to do another snow prediction map from
the National Weather Service. This is for tomorrow.
Although accumulations should be limited to the
mountains snowflakes could reach valley floors 

 It might be very hard to believe, given the rainy, sort of warmish and muggy day we had here in Vermont on our Saturday, but a (hopefully!) last dash of winter weather (Read: Snow) is coming to parts of the Green Mountain State on Sunday. 

Only the high elevations will see any real accumulation, but some snowflakes could easily make it down to valley floors, especially along and north of Route 2.  

Elevations about 1,000 feet might well see some brief slushy accumulations on grassy surfaces.

This latest forecast update hints at more snow that was expected in earlier predications. 

It just goes to show how capricious a Vermont spring can be. 

The culprit is the same storm we dealt with today. We were on the eastern, warm side of the storm Saturday,  so we had that mild spring rains that helped boost all our spring green beauty out there. 

The storm's cold front was coming in late this afternoon and this evening, and that will quickly change the character of the air. As of 5 p.m., it was 64 degrees in Burlington with a dew point of 61, which is really the most humid it's been so far this spring.  

Not far to the west, in northwestern New York, it was already in the low 40s as of 5 p.m. That's the first hint that Sunday is going to be a March-like throwback to us Vermonters.

SUNDAY

Our storm will slow down temporarily  as it reaches Maine and the far southeast corner of Quebec by tomorrow. 

The storm will push a slug of moisture down from the north, making showers blossom and increase in intensity tomorrow morning. That will continue into the afternoon. 

This system is also carrying a pocket of very cold air with it, especially aloft.  That'll ensure that it snows on Sunday at elevations about 2,500 feet. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the summits of mountains like Jay Peak, Mount Mansfield and Camels Hump see three or four inches out of this.

The real interesting part on Sunday will be when heavier showers pass through a particular location. Those heavier showers will drag down some of the cold air aloft, changing the rain to snow when the precipitation is heavy. 

That's most likely at elevations above 1,000 feet.  But I think that some snowflakes might make it down as low as the northern Champlain Valley. 

These kinds of storm scenarios are tricky. In the past, I've been surprised by a dusting to an inch of snow in this kind of weather situation even in low elevations. You never know.

SMALL SIZED COLD SNAP

The pocket to frigid air with this storm system is very small in size.  As the storm slowly moves east, the skies will clear in northern New York, and warmer air will move in to those places. So Sunday afternoon, we'll have the opposite situation we had late this afternoon

While it will be snowing in Vermont, temperatures could rise to close to 60 in northwestern New York. 

The nasty cold pocket of air associated with our storm will continue moving east. That'll take the rain and snow with it and out of Vermont toward the end of Sunday. 

If clearing starts early enough in the evening, the temperature could spike up to the low to mid 50s in western Vermont in the evening, after spending the midday in the upper 30s to low 40s. 

You'd think that after such a cold Sunday, we'd have a nasty freeze Sunday night. But the warm air will continue to flood in, so most of us will stay above freezing overnight Sunday. Parts of eastern Vermont might get near or a little below freezing,  but that's not so odd for this time of year.

BIG WARMUP

By Monday, all will be forgotten. Under sunny skies, temperatures will soar back up into the 60s, maybe near 70 in some of the banana belt towns in the Champlain Valley and in in far southwest and southeast Vermont. That's all actually is a smidge warmer than normal for late April. 

On Tuesday, it's looking like we might have the warmest day of the year so far.  Many of us will get well into the 70s, and a few towns could get to 80 if the sun stays out long enough. 

A storm that is expected to create a nasty severe weather and tornado outbreak in the Midwest Monday will arrive in the form of a cold front later Tuesday and Tuesday night. 

This system might still have enough oomph to set off some thunderstorms in Vermont Tuesday night. It's very iffy, but there's a chance that a couple of the storms might actually turn out to be on the strong side.

But otherwise, don't worry about that next cold front. Instead of bringing snow, it should bring a seasonable cool, fresh spring day for us on Wednesday