A Calm Day In Vermont Before A WildStormy, Windy, Snowy, Frigid (For October) 48 Hours

The trees in back of my St. Albans, Vermont home, 
stubbornly green until recently, have finally changed
colors. Many of those leaves will blow off in the 
coming days due to windy, rainy, then frigid
weather. A brief winter intro is coming. 

We awoke to at skies that were at least partly blue, a nice switch from northern Vermont's gloom and gray skies from yesterday. Southern Vermont had some sun, but also a few lingering showers, so it wasn't really a perfect autumn day. 

Rainfall totals from our wet storm are completely in. It looks like a pretty broad area of northwest Vermont  had 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain, with locally higher amounts. 

The Northeast Kingdom, which really needed the rain, had a respectable one to two inches. Amounts generally tapered off as you went south. By the time you reached Route 9 in far southern Vermont, less than half an inch fell.

We're in for a bit of a wild ride the next few days until things really, firmly calm down again, so let's get into it

TODAY

The pick of the week. Not perfect, but pretty damn good. Lots of sunshine, mixed with sun clouds, will augment the beautiful fall foliage. It'll be cooler than yesterday, especially compared to the balmy temperatures southern Vermont  had yesterday. Most of  us will see the low 50s. 

Enjoy the foliage, because a lot of it will blow away starting tomorrow. 

FRIDAY

Here's where the excitement begins big time. Rain should spread into Vermont early in the day. It'll be a rainy, windy day, with the most wind in the Champlain Valley and many areas in the northern Green Mountains. This won't be a damaging wind storm by any means, except to the fall foliage. Winds should gust to 40 mph in some places. 

On the Green Mountain summits, winds should gust to 55 to 65 mph. Between the rain and the wind, it won't be a day to go on a hike. In fact, up there, it will be dangerous. 

We'll see another decent rainfall, too, with amounts coming in between a half inch and an inch for most of us by Friday night. 

The storm's sharp cold front will come through in the evening and temperatures will plunge through the 40s and 30s Friday night. Rain will change to snow in the mountains, though precipitation rates will get much lighter as drier air moves in. 

SATURDAY

Here's our introduction to winter. Thankfully, it won't last long. Snow levels will fall such that even valleys could see some early morning flurries. There might be a thin scrim of snow on the ground at elevations above 1,500 feet. A couple inches of snow will dust the summits. 

Even though some areas will see a little sun by afternoon, it will be incredibly cold for mid-October. We might be seeing some record cold "high" temperatures. The record cold high temperature in Burlington for Saturday is 42. In Montpelier, it's 37. Unless it's still relatively warm just after midnight, we'll come close to tying or breaking those records. 

The National Weather Service tells us temperatures on the mountain summits will hold in the upper teens to around 20 all day. Welcome to January in Vermont. For one day, anyway. 

Strong northwest winds will make it feel much colder. If you can bundle up, go out and enjoy the snoliage views. Most of the leaves will have blown off, except in the lower, warmer valleys. But there will still be some. colorful trees and branches left. The contrast with the high elevation snow will be just lovely. 

SUNDAY

Definitely a cold start, but not as cold as you'd think, given how chilly Saturday will be. The core of the cold air will be moving away early Sunday. So, we'll start the day in the 20s, with a couple upper teens in the coldest hollows. Places like Burlington, St. Albans and other places close to Lake Champlain have avoided a freeze so far. Not this time. 

The day will get better as it goes along. Highs should reach to near 50, low 50s in the warmer valleys. The sun will be out, and winds will be much lighter. We'll actually have  lovely, crisp afternoon. 

NEXT WEEK

This week has been pretty wild for Vermont weather. Next week, not so much. Expect a fair amount of sun pretty much every day, with seasonable temperatures. That means frosty mornings in some spots with lows in the 30s, and highs in the 50s to low 60s. No weather systems of note seem to want to come through next week. 

We'll let you know if anything change. s