Vermont Transition To Warmer Weather To Be A Little Messy

Today and this evening's snow forecast.  A few inches
in the southern Green Mountains. Very little far north.
This is part of our transition to a warmer weather
pattern. We'll finally get a thaw, eventually.

 I hope early risers got to see the lunar eclipse at dawn today. 

I didn't quite luck out with it. Literally the only cloud in the sky obscured the view of it from my perch in St. Albans, Vermont. Oh well, it's a nice morning anyway. Although weird.

I say weird because temperatures were all over the place this morning. It was below zero again in places like Montpelier, St. Johnsbury and Morrisville. 

West of the Green Mountains, it was in the teens. As south winds began to blow, Burlington rocketed upward to 24 degrees, a 14 degree boost from a few hours earlier. 

We've now begun the transition to a warmer weather pattern. This being Vermont, there are some complications with that. Which is typical.  At least the iffy weather this week doesn't look particularly extreme. 

The trouble might actually start when we do get into the warm air this weekend. More on that in a minute. 

TODAY

The sunshine you might have seen early this morning will fade behind. The wide range in temperatures will even out later this morning and most of us will top out somewhere in the 30s. 

The trouble comes from a small storm that will send some wet snow our way. It will slowly spread northward across the state today.  And I do mean slowly. It'll start around Bennington early this afternoon and not make to places like Burlington, St. Johnsbury and St. Albans until early this evening. 

Also, the further north you go the less snow will fall.

Far southern Vermont - Bennington and Windham counties - are under a winter weather advisory this afternoon and overnight. That's because the initial thump of snow could briefly come down pretty hard this afternoon. And later, toward evening, there could be some light sleet and freezing rain.

Snow accumulation in the winter weather advisory zone will be two to five inches, with the highest totals in the southern Green Mountains.

That harder thump of snow, as noted, will slowly head north, but tend to weaken as it does so. We'll still see a good two inches of fairly wet snow in many places all the north almost to Route 2.  Some of the central Vermont Green Mountains might see three or four inches. 

Central Vermont might see some slippery roads for today's afternoon commute. 

The intensity of the snow will continue to fade as it reaches northern Vermont this evening. Places way up north like St. Albans and Newport will see less than an inch.

Later tonight, all areas could see some patchy freezing drizzle, so there might be a few issues here and  there o the roads first thing tomorrow. 

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY

I hope Vermont's maple sugarers are ready for this. Both days should hit the low 40s (some upper 30s in the cold spots) with at least partly sunny skies. 

This will start to erode the snow cover nicely, especially on south and west facing slopes that collect the heat of the sun. The March sun is strong enough that I noticed it was melting snow in sunny corners yesterday even though temperatures were only in the low 20s. 

But these two nice days won't complete our transition into our upcoming false spring. 

Some precipitation is coming at us Thursday night and Friday. But, as mentioned yesterday, strong, frigid high pressure will be temporarily building up in northern Quebec. That will probably result in mixed precipitation. 

Exactly how that plays out is still in question. But whatever comes out of the sky doesn't look torrential. It'll probably be heaviest south. More details to come.  

WARM WEEKEND

It still looks like it'll get into the upper 40s and low 50s Saturday through Monday. It also looks like we'll get some rain Saturday. Again, nothing torrential, but still.

The rapid thawing and rain will send water flowing into our iced up rivers. The ice will start to shift and move. This is when we'll need to keep an eye out for ice jams that could cause some local flooding. 

It's only mid-March, so the warm weather won't last forever. It's hard to say how long the mild spell will last. But don't worry, more winter is inevitable. Meanwhile, enjoy the upcoming mild spell.