In Vermont: More Snow, A Little Ice, Eventually The Thaw, Then A Wintry Surprise?

The next little storm is due tonight. Expect another
two or three inches north, with much less south due
to freezing rain and sleet mixing in, especially
near the Massachusetts border. 

 I've got an early appointment today, so I'll just do a quick morning weather situation report as we're in a pretty active weather pattern at the moment. 

I don't have a lot of totals from  yesterday's snow, but it appears some places in northern Vermont overachieved slightly. Burlington came in with 2.9 inches of new snow.

 Here in St. Albans, we had 2.0 inches, perfectly in line with National Weather Service forecasts ahead of the event. 

Those figures were near the upper range of what was expected. It was a really fluffy snow, so it'll be pretty easy to clean up.  Roads might still be a little iffy on the roads this morning, which is partly why I'm getting an early start. 

NEXT STORM

The next storm - still a modest one but enough to cause a little trouble - is hot on the heels of yesterday's light snow. 

Hot is sort of the operative word, even if it is an exaggeration. Temperatures were in the teens and low 20s early this morning, giving us the balmiest morning since December 29. OK, I get that it's not exactly warm, but we'll take what we can get.

After a day that gets us to near 30 degrees, again, the warmest since December 29.

The snow will arrive this evening. For most of us, I think we'll squeeze in the afternoon commute before it starts, as the National Weather Service office is projecting a start time of around 8 or 9 p.m for most of us. It should be over by mid-morning Wednesday.

In Vermont's southernmost two counties, a winter weather advisory is up because those areas are expecting a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. 

The further north you go in Vermont, the more likely it is that this will be just snow. Amounts will be only two or three inches up there. Because it will be a little warmer, tonight's snow won't be quite as feather-like as the stuff we're cleaning up this morning.

There's no weather alerts in Vermont other than in the far south. For those of us north of Bennington and Windham counties, the National Weather Service in South Burlington stated this morning: "If confidence in freezing rain or heavier snow over a large are increases, weather weather advisories may be issued." 

NEXT STORMS

The weather will quiet down and warm up Wednesday and Thursday  ahead of the next storms. Highs both days should get well into the 30s, so it will be the beginning of our thaw. Not much of a thaw, but whatever.

It still looks like we'll have two in quick succession. The first, on Friday, is the core of our brief January thaw. It'll rain and get up into the 40s, with a couple places maybe threatening 50 degrees. At this point, the rain looks like it will probably not be heavy enough, and the snow melt not extensive enough to set off any real flooding. 

There's new questions about the second, stronger system on Saturday. Earlier we thought the second storm would consist of more rain. Now, we're not so sure. Some computer models still keep the storm mostly rain, at least until the tail end of it.

Other models shift the storm a little further east, bringing in the chilly air earlier. That could set the stage for some freezing rain and snow 

As always, we'll know more as we get closer to the event.