Menacing Cloud, Innocent Snow Flurrry. But Weekend Weather Truly Menacing

This photo I took last evening in St. Albans, Vermont looks like some
menacing weather was approaching, but it was just an innocent little
snow flurry. But really bad weather is due over the weekend. 

As expected, snow showers developed over Vermont and surrounding areas Tuesday as a pocket of especially cold air passed overhead.

Here in St. Albans, we had one of those occasions when an oncoming cloud during these snow showers looked menacing, but it was all just a light, innocent snow flurry.

The cloud,  pictured here, was actually mostly falling snow backlit by the sun. It looked like one of of those images you see of a violent Midwestern tornado that's just firing up, but of course it obviously wasn't.

Once the snow shower arrived, the low angled sun came out, too, and you can seen the benign results of the snow flurry in my yard. The brief video in this post shows the snow shower in my yard.



As I mentioned yesterday, upcoming weather in Vermont will be anything but benign, however. A storm is coming and it's going to be very, very messy. And possibly dangerous.

This will be the same storm that you'll hear about on the news affecting much of the rest of the nation.

It looks like it will touch off severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in the southern Plains and Gulf Coast states, a really nasty snowstorm in the northern Plains, and strong winds with a very high fire risk in the Southwest.

For us, it's still looking like the storm will feature a stalled front over or just south of us, with cold Canadian air feeding into it.

As the event draws closer, the National Weather Service in South Burlington is trying to pin down what kinds of awful things we can expect from this setup.

They're highlighting three main hazards: Snow and mixed precipitation, possibly pretty heavy, especially across the north;  flooding and high winds.  

The specifics of the weekend forecast will certainly change as the event draws closer and meteorologists get more information, but the first stab at it goes something like this. (remember, it won't work out exactly this way):

Friday, the front will begin to set up, and some rain showers will begin to develop, especially in the afternoon. (these will be preceded by other rain showers Thursday, caused by a weaker system zipping past us.)

Saturday, the cold air from Canada will charge in, changing the rain to snow, sleet or even freezing rain, especially across the northern half of Vermont, along with places like northern New York, norhtern New Hampshire, parts of Maine and southern Quebec.

This state of affairs will go on Saturday night. On Sunday, it might warm up enough to go over to plain rain again, especially south and west of Interstate 89. Sunday night, as temperatures cool, there's a risk of possibly damaging amounts of freezing rain, again, mostly  but not exclusively east of the Green Mountains.

The storm's warm front will start heading back north Monday, and we could be in for a period of moderate to heavy rain. That rain, combined with the soaking over the weekend, and the melting snow and ice we seem destined to get Saturday and Sunday, could result in flooding.

Meanwhile, the storm is powerful, so some areas, especially along the western slopes of the Green Mountains, could get strong, possibly damaging.

The storm will linger at least into Tuesday with more rain and snow showers. So basically, it's going to stay cold and wet and sometimes snowy and icy Thursday through Tuesday.

Happy spring!