Windy Vermont Continues As Nasty Storm Continues To Loom

Rainfall prediction map for Thursday night and Friday.'
Most of should get about an inch or so of rain. Combined
with melting snow, we could get some minor flooding.

 It got blustery again overnight, especially in the Champlain Valley, as Vermont's windy, cold month continues. 

The cold is about to disappear big time, if only briefly, but the winds will keep howling. Today is the 13th day out of the 17 this month in which winds have gusted to at least 30 mph in Burlington. I'm sure Thursday and Friday will also get above 30 mph. 

The high winds are hitting in huge parts of the nation today, which I'll get into more detail in another post today. 

But for now, let's focus on Vermont.

The south winds today are coming from a storm way up in central Quebec. Wind have already gusted to 40 mph in Burlington earlier today, and as of this morning was still going over 30 mph. Meanwhile, there's not much wind in central and eastern Vermont. 

The channeling effects of the Champlain Valley really help the wind blow. But almost everywhere in Vermont, whatever south winds hit will get us above freezing today for a change. 

The storm will drag a cold front through later today, but it doesn't have much moisture to work with. So, just a few rain and snow showers. Though a couple of the snow showers could come down hard briefly late this afternoon and evening in parts of northern Vermont, especially near the Green Mountains. But if there's any accumulation anywhere, it won't be much. 

The cold front will also create gusty west winds after it passes, with the highest gusts along and east of the Greens.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY

This will be our runup to our big storm. The wind will shift to the south and again, and start blowing even harder than it is today in the Champlain Valley. Some spots there will see winds gust to 35 mph. 

Temperatures will rise into the upper 30s and low 40s in the afternoon and keep going up overnight Thursday into Friday.

It now doesn't look like there will be much rain until midnight or after. The bulk of the rain will come between that midnight hour and noon Friday. There will be quite a bit of it, too. Current forecasts give us an inch or so of rain.

That, combined with the snow melt amid the warm temperatures does put the risk of flooding in play. It's still a little early to get a forecast as to how high water will get, but minor flooding definitely looks possible in some spots. 

Ironically, given the cold month we've had, we could easily see some record high temperatures Friday morning. For some reason, the current record high on Friday in Burlington is only 49 degrees, lower than most daily record highs this year. Most of 'em are in the 50s to around 60 .

Montpelier's record high Friday is also 49 degrees, so that might get eclipsed, too. St. Johnsbury's record high Friday is 60, so that looks safe. 

Don't get used to those balmy temperatures. It's back to winter Friday afternoon and probably on through the rest of the month.

We might have trouble with some snow behind the cold front Friday afternoon or evening along with water freezing on the roads. Stay tuned for those travel alerts Friday evening. 

After Friday, it looks like just weaker systems are on tap,  one on Sunday, the other on Tuesday or early on Christmas Eve. Neither storm would bring much snow, but they'll keep the gusty winds going.