Vermont Weather Whiplash: Snow To Record Heat To....Severe Weather?

After temperatures in the 80s on Wednesday, it's very nice to see colors
other than brown, gray and winter snow white in my St. Albans,
Vermont gardens. 

You're probably sick of the old saying, "If you don't like the weather in Vermont, wait a minute it will change.

Of course by "change," sometimes we mean really, really dramatic change.

And so it was this week. On Monday, up to seven inches of snow fell on some Vermont communities. Just two days later - yesterday - temperatures flirted with 90 degrees.

In Burlington, Wednesday's 88 degree was a record high for the date. St. Johnsbury got up to 85 degrees and normally chilly Montpelier was 83 degrees.

Today, the weather is changing yet again, taking a turn towards wet. And, the first severe thunderstorm threat of the season looms in Vermont today and tomorrow, though the threat isn't extreme.

As of 8 a.m., a cluster of showers, with a couple embedded lightning strikes, was heading across northern New York and headed toward the northern half of Vermont. Those will go through later this morning and early this afternoon.

Those showers will mostly miss southern Vermont, meaning some meager sunshine there will help make the atmosphere less stable in time for another weather disturbance to come through later this afternoon.

There might be enough instability to help create a few severe thunderstorms, mostly closest to the Massachusetts border.   Most places won't get severe weather, but there could easily be a few spots that get some damaging winds out of this, as the Storm Prediction Center has that area under a slight risk zone for severe storms.

There's even a very,  very remote, but non-zero chance of a brief tornado, but I'm not holding my breath on that possibility.

There's another threat of severe weather in Vermont on Friday, but again, it won't be widespread. The Storm Prediction Center has us under a marginal risk of bad thunderstorms, and is considering raising the threat level to "slight."

(The Storm Prediction Center has five levels of severe risk -- marginal, slight, enhanced, moderate and high. If you're in a high risk zone, you'd really better watch out. )

Friday's thunderstorms depend at least partly upon whether there can be breaks of sun between showers in the morning and early afternoon to again help make the atmosphere more unstable ahead of an approaching cold front. Again, the primary threat would be strong wind gusts.

Whether or not any severe storms develop, the air has gotten quite humid for this time of year, and some shower and storms anytime between now and Friday evening could dump some really heavy downpours.

The showers and storms will be moving right along at a good clip, so they won't be lingering over any one spot all that long. That means the threat of flooding is pretty low, though you could easily see some local street flooding or some brooks abruptly get rambunctious.

Starting Saturday, all this turbulent all-over-the-place weather should settle down nicely over Vermont.

Temperatures over the weekend will be close to normal - I'd say high temperatures will be in the 55 to 65 degree range. There might be a few showers Sunday, but I think those will be light and scattered and brief.

A week or so ago, I said there was a slight possibility of a sharp cold snap long about Sunday or Monday, but that won't happen. Monday will be a bit on the cool side, but nothing out of the ordinary for early May.

Then another warming trend will set in next week, but it won't get hot again. Just pleasant with temperatures in the 60s to lows 70s. Classic, beautiful spring weather for once.  The nice thing is it looks like there will be at least three or four days in a row next week with little or no rain, so that will dry us out a bit.