Cold Spell Of Vermont May Weather Continues With Snow, Freezes; Chilly Pattern To Continue

Daffodils enjoy some morning sun today in St. Albans,
Vermont. Cool weather has kept the daffodils blooming

Friday's weather in Vermont made a liar out of me. 

I said the other day we wouldn't get snow this week or next, except maybe at the tippy top of the mountains. 

Well, when I was in Enosburg Falls, Vermont yesterday, there was a graupel shower. While I was trying to mow a lawn, for gawd's sake. 

Graupel is that sleety, white snow that looks like it partly melted and refroze on the way down. Just regular snowflakes were spotted Friday in Readsboro, in southern Vermont. 

The place in Readsboro where it snowed is at a pretty high elevation, but not at the summit of any mountains. I'm sure it snowed in other places as well. Killington Ski Resort still has a trail with many feet of snow on it. They traditionally close for the season around Memorial Day or at about June 1. 

At this rate in the cool weather, Killington will be open to skiers all summer. I don't really believe that, but the chilly weather is starting to slow down the pace of spring. 

Last night was cold, too. Morning lows today in the Champlain Valley were in the mid-30s, so I think a frost advisory should have been issued there. A hard freeze hit some places away from the lake this morning. Montpelier got to at least 27 degrees and Morrisville was at 27 at 6 a.m. 

Saranac Lake, the perennial cold spot in the Adirondacks, was at a frigid 21 degrees at 6 a.m. today. 

On the bright side, it's not hot and humid, which would be even worse than the fleece and jacket weather we've been having. And the cold air keeps the early spring flowers going for longer. My daffodils look fantabulous this year. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

It'll be a little warmer this weekend, but not spectacularly so. And it's back to cool weather next week, though. And even though we'll see frequent chances of showers, we're not really going to get all the rain we need, either. 

A warm front of sorts is lifting up through Vermont today.  That means far southern Vermont should actually see some rain today, with maybe a quarter to a third of an inch down there.  It was already raining near the Massachusetts border early this morning. 

After a lot of morning sun, it will tend to cloud up this afternoon north. Central and northern Vermont will see little if any rain later today, and maybe just some light, boring showers tonight. 

A few showers might splatter down on Mother's Day, but they'll be hit and miss, won't last long and won't amount to much. Sunday will also actually feature normal temperatures for this time of year, with highs well into the 60s.

Enjoy the brief heat while you can. 

We'll be back down with 50s for highs during the first half of the week, which will be about ten degrees below normal. There's a chance of frost this coming Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

It still looks like it might warm up somewhat during the second half of next week.  Current projections suggest temperatures will head toward normal May levels. That's mid 60s to around 70.  Rainfall will probably stay scant for at least a week, probably more.  

Vermont Week Ahead: Thawing For Awhile With Frequent Rain/Snow Chances

A few snowflakes seen drifting down yesterday -
a gloomy but somewhat milder day than we've
had recently. A thaw starts today. 

OK, technically, our anticipated thaw sorta, kinda started Sunday, but it was essentially another winter day. 

In Burlington and here in St. Albans, the temperature got up to 34 degrees for a little while, which didn't exactly set off a rush of melting snow.  A few places in southeastern Vermont managed to reach the mid-30s. 

Snowflakes occasionally wafted down out of the sky, and a few places picked up an inch or so of snow. 

Except of course near the usual snowy Jay Peak, where nearby towns such as Westfield and Montgomery got about four inches of new snow Saturday night and early Sunday. 

After more snow flurries and snow showers last evening, we're starting this Monday morning pretty mild.  That should set the stage for our long awaited thaw.  

It won't be a dramatic thaw.  It won't suddenly get wildly warm, then immediately crash to near 0 temperatures within hours. Instead, temperature trends will be gradual. 

There won't be any big storms, either. Just a near constant risk of drizzle, cold rain drops here and some potential slight snowy interruptions. Especially in higher elevations where the thawing won't amount to too much to begin with.   

And like the skies we saw on Sunday, it will mostly a gloomy thaw.   

We might see a little sun this morning. But don't count on it. The sun might also come out a little bit on Wednesday.  You might not want to hold your breath on that one, either .

And spoiler: We're not done with winter. It's going to come roaring back before you know it. 

Let's break down the week.

TODAY

A storm passing far to our north means we'll pretty much miss out on any real precipitation today. There probably will be a few snowflake and raindrops around, especially close to the Canadian border, but they won't amount to anything.  The Champlain Valley looks like it will turn a bit gusty, as south winds could get as high as 35 mph.

The breezes will keep tonight mild, as lows in the Champlain Valley and a few other warmer valleys probably won't even get below freezing.  That sets us up for Tuesday.

TUESDAY

The best guess is this will be a cloudy gloomy, possibly foggy, drizzly damp day. Highs in the valleys should make it to about 40 degrees. There's some questions as to whether the mountain summits might see a little snow, rime ice or freezing drizzle. 

There's a weak little system coming through which will provided us with some light sprinkles or wet snowflakes. One computer forecasting model is a little stronger with this system, which if it pans out could end up giving us a slight accumulation of wet snow Tuesday afternoon and evening. Forecasters are dubious about this, however, so don't count on any replacement snow, unless perhaps you're on a mountain peak. 

A thaw day, but not a nice day, if it works out as planned.

WEDNESDAY

Perhaps the "nicest" day of the week? At least there very little if any precipitation. And it will be mild, with highs in the 36 to 42 degree range. 

THURSDAY

Last day of the thaw. At this point it looks like a modest storm might start us out with a little snow in the morning, but most of us should change to a light, cold rain during the day. We'll keep an eye on this because if the colder air gets here faster, we could have a little more snow.  

Earlier forecasts had called or a somewhat larger storm on Thursday, but now it's looking pretty tame. More gloom and dampness, but that's about it. 

FRIDAY

Colder and windy as the thaw ends. Morning snow showers should taper off. Of course, the timing could change this far out.   Road conditions from light snow showers will be a question once again. We shall see.

SATURDAY

Another round of snow showers, but again, so far it's not looking like a big storm. There's some questions on temperatures. If the storm goes a little to our north, we could briefly pop back up above freezing again. If it goes to our south, we stay cold. The forecasting models are split on this one so far. 

Beyond that we get another winter cold shot, but we'll address that when we get closer to the event. 

For those of you who aren't ready for spring, there will be plenty of snow left in the mountains and many areas of northern and central Vermont after this week's little thaw to carry on with your winter fun

 

Vermont Rain Struggling Against Dry Air Today During An Oddly Extreme-Free Spell Of Weather

 If you looked at weather radar overnight and early this  morning, you'd think it was about to rain any minute. 

This batch of daffodils in my St. Albans, Vermont gardens
seem happy enough with weather that has lacked
extremes over the past week to 10 days. So far, at 
least, the weather forecast looks mellow
for the next several days. 

But the rain kept disappearing by the time it approached the Vermont border. Were we in some kind of force field?

Kinda. 

The force field was just very low humidity. 

Dry air stubbornly held on overnight in Vermont, making any inroads the rain tried to make fail. It's the type of super dry air I talked about in yesterday morning's post.  When rain tries to invade, it often evaporates into that arid atmosphere. 

The rain was finally slowly edging into the Green Mountain State as of 7:45 this morning, but it's going to take its time. 

For instance, radar had the rain just to the southwest of my perch in St; Albans, Vermont for a couple hours previous to 7:45 a.m. I could see the rain from my house in the Adirondacks, but it only seems to advance toward me at a crawl.  It took another 45 minutes to just travel roughly ten miles to the point it started sprinkling at my place. 

The rain is moistening the atmosphere, so it will be able to advance across pretty much all of Vermont. But that dry air means it will only grudgingly advance across the state.  By the time it reaches the Northeast Kingdom later today, the weak system causing the rain will have exhausted most of its moisture supply. 

Rainfall will be light, amounting to as much as a quarter inch across western Vermont to only a few hundredths of an inch in the Northeast Kingdom. 

COOL DAY

April can be very temperamental. An example is this
blinding snow squall on April 22, 2021, which was
the second of two very snowy days in an
otherwise warm April that year. 

The light rain will keep the air cool today, holding in the 40s.  In the Champlain Valley, where temperatures sneaked to a little above 50 degrees early this morning, the light rain will chill us back into the 40s.  

Mild weather has been persistent this month.  Starting April 7, each day in Burlington has reached 50 and above.  The forecast calls for temperatures to reach at least 50 degrees for each of the next 7 days. 

Most days have been pretty close to normal, but it's been odd not to have a few chillier days thrown in with highs in 40s or only 30s.

 The only other April I can think of that had no such nippy days after the first week or so of the month was last year. 

For the record, the lowest high temperature on record for this date was 35 degrees in 1926.

I'm sure we'll eventually have a couple more truly chilly days before summer. (Remember last year we had a hard freeze on the 18th, and May 17 of last year featured highs in the 40s with snow flurries).

April is usually a pretty temperamental month in Vermont. Summery warm spells are followed by snowstorms. Warm sun and bone chilling winds can come on the same day, or within the same hour. 

This April has been oddly steady as she goes, at least after we got over that big ugly snowstorm on the fourth and fifth of this month.  And the forecast calls for continued moderation. 

It's as if April has stopped boozing and sobered up for a change. But don't worry, I fully expect our Vermont spring to go on another big bender sooner or later.