Subtle Signs Of Spring? A Little More Snow Northern Vermont As Temperatures Creep Up To Near Freezing

Even if we get a bit of a thaw early next week, I don't 
think we'll be enjoying the springlike weather
on our back deck. It had also once again started
to snow when I took this pic this morning. 

For a couple days now, I've been watching forecasts of this tiny, but kind of intense upper level low and pool of cold air diving south from eastern Quebec toward Maine. 

This weird little thing that makes me think of a bowling ball on weather maps doesn't have much moisture, so it's not an immense storm. But it will probably bring snow squalls, gusty winds and generally unpleasantness to northern Maine. 

For us in Vermont, we're still going to  have a splendid weekend for outdoor winter sports with comfortable temperatures and plenty of snow on the ground.

But the odd thing in Maine will bring us some subtle twists and turns you might or might not notice. But they're fascinating for odd weather geeks like me.

Our Maine bowling ball helped create a sort of pseudo warm front heading toward us in Vermont.  It's a very mini version of this past Tuesday, when a burst of mild air coming at us from the west dumped a quick several inches of snow on Vermont. 

Sorry, snow lovers, this time, there's no quick fresh big dump of powder today.   Snow haters are bummed, too, since this set up is giving parts of northern and central Vermont some unexpected light snow this morning.  

Forecasts from last night called for isolated morning flurries today.  But this is  more than that. It was snowing here in St. Albans as I wrote this around 8 a.m, and we'd already piled up  half inch of new snow.

It turns out some of us, but not everyone in northern Vermont might get an inch of snow out of this before it heads out to give us a partly sunny afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised to see a report or two of two inches of fluff in the northern Green Mountains. 

WARMER AFTERNOON?

Since I'm calling this a mini-warm front, parts of the Champlain Valley and the valley floors of southern Vermont might get a degree or two warmer today than originally forecast. It won't be enough for you to really notice, except that it could end a streak of weather we haven't seen in 11 years.   

The National Weather Service is going for a high today of 33 degrees in Burlington. If that happens, it'll end a string of 22 consecutive below freezing days.  That would be the longest streak since 2015 and one of the 20 top longest periods on record where the temperatures stayed at or below 32 degrees. 

That tiny little bowling ball of cold air spinning southward across Maine will send a mini-cold front through Vermont later today and this evening.   That will get us back, down into the single digits tonight, with more below zero readings in the cold spots.

It also means we'll be a touch cooler tomorrow with highs in the mid and upper 20s

SIGNS OF SPRING?

If that lineup of consecutive subfreezing days doesn't end today, it will come to a close Monday with a high in the upper 30s.  Tuesday, the warmth peaks afternoon highs get to within a few degrees of 40 under partly to mostly cloudy skies. 

After the subzero cold of the start of this month, Tuesday will feel like a beach day in June. In any event, it will be the hottest day since January 14. 

We also have some other signs of spring that aren't quite as pleasant. 

The first doesn't involve us in Vermont but it's worth noting. As winter wanes, you start getting surges of warm, humid air coming off the Gulf of Mexico and enveloping the Gulf Coast states starting in mid-February or so. Meanwhile, winter continues to sent cold fronts southward.

The result is the first outbreaks of big thunderstorms and tornadoes. The severe weather season is staring. Right on schedule, severe thunderstorms and maybe a few tornadoes are in the forecast along the Gulf Coast today and tomorrow. 

Another sign of spring as weather forecasting, always dicey as we well know, gets trickier.  The atmosphere kind of wants to flip into a more springlike pattern, but the forces of winter don't want to give up. 

Right now we're in that sort of dilemma. Warm air wants to come up toward us in New England later in the week. But Arctic cold still has its sights on us. We're in a classic battleground. 

As for what kind of weather we'll get in the second half of the week, I'm just throwing my hands up at this point. A couple storms might want to try to make a run at us. But the storms could  fade before they get here. Or not fade, leaving us the question of whether we get snow or a mix. And if so, how much. 

If you have outdoor plans for the second half of next week, sorry, I can't help you. At least not yet.