 |
| Forecast snow accumulation from our expected small pre-Christmas storm. It looks like most of us should see two or three inches of snow with more in the mountains. It looks like we might have a white Christmas after all. |
A surge of west wind behind the cold front Sunday morning created Vermont power outages that peaked at more than 1,100 shortly before noon.
Gusts to 58 mph were recorded in Grand Isle and 51 mph in North Hero. I'm sure several other places saw winds of 50 mph, too.
The National Weather Service office in South Burlington saw a gust to 48 mph. Remarkably, it was the fifth day in a row with gusts reaching at least 39 mph.
Out of 21 days so far this month Burlington has had 17 days with gusts to at least 30 mph.
I have a feeling we're all going to be cleaning up a lot of sticks and branches from our yards next spring. Especially since we have more chances coming up for more gusty winds.
For now as of this morning, things have quieted down. Amid the much colder air this morning, winds almost everywhere in Vermont except in the high elections were at 10 mph or less.
WHITE CHRISTMAS?
The big thaw and record breaking high temperatures from Friday have left the ground bare in lower elevations across Vermont. The question for the kiddos is, will we still manage to have a white Christmas?
The answer appears to be.........YES!
A few places got a bit of snow yesterday and last night. A batch of clouds coming in this afternoon will probably yield some flurries. But that isn't really enough to make the ground officially snow-covered.
Then let me introduce you to a Christmas miracle of sorts. A clipper system - one of those quick moving, usually moisture-starved little storms that zip across us with a quick shot of show showers - is on its way.
This time, however, we have some very warm air to our south to thank. Which seems odd. But our clipper will create a warm front that will stay to our south. The warm front will force balmy, fairly moist air to rise over a stubborn layer of cold air over us. That will wring out the moisture as snow.
This sounds like a recipe for sleet and freezing rain, but this time the cold air over us will cover the entire atmosphere, not just a thin layer aloft. So it will just snow, with little or no mix. Some of the warmest valleys might see a couple rain drops mix in, and the snow might be a little on the wet side in some areas. But it'll be snow
Then, early Wednesday, the actual clipper storm will move almost overhead with some more snow.
The result should be a decent two to four inch snowfall across all of Vermont valleys between Tuesday afternoon and midday Christmas Eve. This will be nice, as the snowfall will be minimal enough so that we don't kill ourselves shoveling out. But it will be deep enough to cover the grass on our lawns, giving us a clean, white landscape.
Skiers are going to be happy, too. The snow will keep going in the mountains Wednesday, so their totals should be in the four to eight inch range. Maybe a little more than in some of the northern Green Mountains. That'll further improve skiing and riding conditions that took a dent in last Friday's thaw.
Jay Peak Resort reports a whopping 199 inches of snow so far this season. This pre-Christmas snowfall will easily push them over 200 inches.
The snow will mostly dry up as night falls Christmas Eve. Santa should have good flying conditions. It'll probably stay rather cloudy, so Rudolph's nose might come in handy.
Christmas Day itself will probably remain cloudy with average temperatures. That means highs should be within a few degrees of 30.
Another little storm should zip eastward on Friday, but it might go too far south of Vermont to cause us much weather. We'll have to wait and see on that. Then another fast moving storm could give us snow or a mix on Sunday.
The good news is it looks like we'll have a reprieve from our near constant gusty December winds until that storm starts moving in Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment