Windy, Changeable Weather Week Ahead In Vermont.

This is one forecast map for this Friday morning
from the National Weather Service. All those dark
lines, called isobars, when close together like
you see on many parts of this map, indicate
windy weather. 

A new week is starting and so is a new weather pattern. 

The last in a series of frigid air blasts has come into the United States. This time the worst for the cold air came down from Canada well west off us, plunging southward  from the northern Great Plains to the Gulf Coast. 

Wind chill and cold weather advisories are up in a broad north to south band from North Dakota and Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf Coast and northern Florida. 

We're cold up here in Vermont, but not wildly so.  Since the Arctic air blasted down to our west, it's been able to modify on its way here. It helps that it's early in the season. The Great Lakes are mostly still unfrozen. Even Hudson Bay up in Canada still has some open water. 

That relatively warm water helped take some of the bite out of the frigid air as tried to head our way. 

The bottom line is, the cold we're experiencing here isn't as bad as some of the earlier spells this month that took a more direct aim at us - straight shots south through Quebec.

The chill also is turning out to be not quite as deep as earlier forecasts.  Less get into the daily outlook:

TODAY

We'll be in the 20s today under cloudy skies. There might be some glimpses of sun, but overall it'll be another darkish December day. We'll have scattered light snow and flurries around this morning. Then, after something of a break, some snow showers will break out this evening and tonight. 

This will be mostly upslope snow in the central and northern Green Mountains. It won't be like late last week, when those mountains got a huge dump of snow. This time, only two to four inches of new fluff will come down up there. It does look like this time, the snow might back westward into the Champlain Valley, so some areas there might get an inch or two

MONDAY/TUESDAY

This will be the coldest day of the week, but again, nothing extreme. Highs will be within a few degrees either side of 20 for most of us. Lows overnight into Tuesday morning should reach the single digits above zero for most of Vermont.  Tuesday will also be chilly but relatively calm with highs in the 20s.

WEDNESDAY

The warmer weather pattern change will be underway by Wednesday as pretty much everyone in the Lower 48 loses the Arctic air.  Here in Vermont, we'll warm up into the 30s as a pretty moisture-starved  storm passes to our north. Vermont will get a few inconsequential rain or snow showers out of this one 

It's been a windy month in Vermont, especially in the Champlain Valley. Each of the past eight days have featured gusts over 30 mph in Burlington. 

After a few somewhat calmer days today through Tuesday, the wind will crank up again Wednesday., especially in the Champlain Valley. More gusts to 30 mph or more.

THURSDAY

A stronger storm will rapidly approach from the west on Thursday. This one, too, will go to our north and drag some warm air into the Green Mountain State.  Expect another strong surge of south wins Thursday, and gusts will be stronger than those on Wednesday, especially in the Champlain Valley. 

It's a little soon to say how strong, but I imagine there's a chance the National Weather Service might issue a wind advisory for gusts to maybe 45 mph in a few spot. We'll keep an eye on that. 

This storm will have a bigger batch of warm air, and more moisture with it. For snow lovers who have been ecstatic over this month's weather, it looks like the party might be temporarily over by Thursday night. 

It looks like a decent slug of rain will blow through the state Thursday night. There might be a little consolation snow on the back side of the storm on Friday, as winds remain strong, but shift to the northwest. 

BEYOND THURSDAY

As warm air surges west to east across most of the United States, we'll be near the northern fringe of it all as we head into Christmas week. The southern two thirds of the U.S. might have some record high temperatures, but we'll miss out on that here in New England.

Instead, fast moving, not especially strong but possibly windy storms will keep zipping on by, moving west to east overhead or to our north. . It's too soon to tease out the details, but it looks like we'll have fast changes between sort of warm and sort of chilly temperatures. Each system will bring bouts of rain or mixed precipitation, with some periods of snow thrown in. 

Probably nothing super heavy, but enough to really keep meteorologists on their toes.