Snow Burst This Evening To Interfere With Northern New York And Vermont Commute

Sunny skies earlier have yielded to a more ominous sky in
northwestern Vermont late this afternoon. A burst of briefly
moderate to even heavy snow will mess with this evening's commute

You might have noticed that a bright sunny morning here in Vermont has yielded to a gray, kind of ominous sky.

There's a weak warm front coming, but an interesting little thing has developed along it: There's a narrow band of moderate to heavy snow with this. It'll hit any minute.

As of 4 p.m., this narrow band had gotten into the Adirondacks of New York, and will push steadily into Vermont. Just in time for the evening commute.

We've been blessed the past several days with clear driving conditions, but our luck is about to run out. If you're getting out of work this evening, expect to encounter some snow, low visibilities and slippery roads.

If you live more toward eastern Vermont, chances are you'll get home before the problem arrives.

This is a narrow band, so accumulations won't be all that extreme. Maybe an inch. Two inches are possible in a few spots. The most snow will be in the northern half of Vermont.

It's just that the timing is bad, when a lot of us are trying to get home from work. If you can leave work before the snow arrives, terrific. If not, be careful driving home.

Looking further ahead, Thursday (tomorrow) might be our last above freezing day for awhile. The shift toward a colder pattern for us is already underway. You've noticed the chill the past couple of days.

A strong cold front will come through Thursday night with snow showers and maybe a snow squall or two. Accumulations won't be much. Maybe an inch or two. But the roads won't be all that great Friday morning. Yeah, once again. It's winter. We deal with it.

In the first few days of this colder pattern, at least, the worst of the cold will be well off to our north and west. So it'll be chilly, with highs in the teens Friday and lows a little below zero Friday night.

Going into next week, it'll be a little colder than normal, but again, nothing like we had in early January. There will be some fast moving disturbances zipping through with threats of snow from time to time.

Also, a coastal storm might get going Sunday night and Monday. That one could deposit a few to several inches of snow on us if things work out the way some computer models are indicating. The best chances for a plowable snow is in the eastern and southern half of Vermont.

Stay tuned for  updates on that one.

I've also just told you the cold won't be all that bad next week. There's no guarantees for the following week, though. Long range forecasts can't decide if the middle of the month will be kind of cold, or really, really cold.

We have plenty of time to refine those forecasts.