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| Much of the snow that fell last week on my yard had melted by this morning. Most of the rest should go today under mild southerly breezes along with a little late day rain. |
A weather front was draped across the state yesterday. As expected, this created a fairly wide temperature difference across Vermont.
On the Canadian border, it was in the mid-30s most of the afternoon, while southern Vermont valleys reached the low 50s. Again, that was in line with forecasts.
Overnight, the front moved north, dropping a few rain drops and maybe some mountain snowflakes.
TODAY
The front is stalling out just north of the border. The temperature contrast on either side of the front is still sharp, but now it's mostly southern Quebec's problem. Highgate, Vermont, right on the Canadian border was at 43 degrees at 8 a.m today. Montreal, just 50 miles north as the crow flies, was at 25 degrees.
The fact that front is so close to Vermont will mean we'll still see a pretty big temperature variation today.
Right up by the Canadian border, it should get into the upper 40s, to possibly near 50. By the time you get down to Burlington, it should top out in the mid 50s. The warmest valleys in far southern Vermont could make it into the mid 60s. For the record, the warm front should get close enough to Montreal so that they get to about 40 degrees.
Also, the further north you go, the cloudier it will get, too.
It should be mostly dry until mid to late afternoon, when rain will increase as our cold front approaches.
TONIGHT
The bulk of the rain should come through during the first half of the night. As has so often been the case this winter and early spring, forecasters have at nearly the last moment cut back on the amount of precipitation we're going to get.
Northern areas should only see a tenth to a third of an inch of rain, because a small storm riding in tandem with, but just south of the cold front is going further south than expected. That means far southern Vermont should still see the previously expected half inch or so of rain.
The lighter expected rain is a bit of a disappointment. Yes, yes, I know, it's awfully wet and squishy underfoot, this being mud season and all. But we could have used more snow and rain over the winter.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, hot off the presses this morning, continues to show moderate drought in the Northeast Kingdom and abnormally dry conditions across southern Vermont.
Vermont had its 10th driest February on record, according to NOAA. Since many storms were smaller than expected in March, the month will turn out to be a little on the dry side for most of Vermont. Overall precipitation during the earlier parts of winter were just, well, whelming. Just kind of meh.
It's good that rainfall wasn't excessive in March, that would have led to flooding, but a little more rain than we received would have been better.
I'm actually hoping for a really wet April to saturate the ground before trees leaf out and start really pulling moisture from the soil. I know we want a nice sunny spring, but as Lynn Anderson sang, "along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometime."
COLD SNAP
It's just as good, though, that we won't have a lot of precipitation tomorrow, Saturday and into Sunday, because if we did, it would be unwelcome snow.
We might see a little snow at the tail end of our overnight cold front, but by morning, you'll see at most a thin dusting of snow.
The forecast for the cold weather Friday and Saturday hasn't changed. It'll be at or a little below freezing for most of us during the afternoons both days. Lows will be in the single numbers and low teens. That's normal for the end of February, not the end of March.
At least the sun will be out both days to take some of the edge off the chill. The real cold weather will end by Sunday afternoon, when it'll get up to about 40 degrees.
Looking ahead beyond that, next week looks really iffy, as we will be once again near the border between Canadian winter cold and balmy spring breezes from the South. Our next shot at any noticeably precipitation would come along around next Wednesday.
