Vermont Weekend Half And Half; Dangerous Weather Elsewhere

Welcome to the weekend.

A gloomy day last December in Burlington, Vermont. We're heading into
the cloudiest time of year. After a relatively nice Saturday, we'll
have a rather stormy dank Sunday, followed by unsettled weather
through most of the upcoming week.

Here in Vermont, today's weather will be OK, with some sunshine, but if you have outdoor plans Sunday, you might as well pretty much forget it. That's thanks in large part to ex-tropical storm Olga.

Olga formed briefly in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday before being quickly overtaken by a strong cold front, turning this thing into an ordinary, but still rather potent storm. 

It brought damaging tornadoes Friday around Mobile, Alabama and severe thunderstorms elsewhere in the South. Strong winds caused quite a few power failures in and around New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ex-Olga will make a beeline into Michigan by Sunday morning, bringing a good batch of good old Gulf of Mexico moisture with it.  That means a pretty nasty day Sunday with wind, rain and chilly temperatures.

Now, it won't be extreme for the end of October, but not as pleasant as we've gotten used to. Most places in Vermont will get an inch of rain or a little less than that, so flooding isn't a big worry.  Most of the strongest winds will be limited to the mountains, but it will be gusty pretty much everywheere. There might be a few power issues, but nothing widespread.

In some of the higher elevations to the north especially, the National Weather Service in South Burlington says the storm might start with some wet snow flakes early Sunday morning before changing to rain. Yes, it's that time of year.

Later on Sunday, the rain might become a little more showery, but it will still be damp. Unsettled weather will continue most of next week. We are getting toward the cloudiest time of year in Vermont, which is November and December, so we have to expect that.

CALIFORNIA FIRES UPDATE

In Vermont, Sunday's weather will be merely unpleasant. In much of California, it will be scary and dangerous.

The weather of late has favored conditions that have made for some destructive wildfires.  On Sunday, things will go to a whole other level in northern California.

National Weather Service meteorologists in the Bay Area warn of a  "long duration and potentially extreme/historic event across the North Bay."

Even by California standards, the fire risk is off the charts Sunday with winds gusting to 55 mph in the low elevations and up to 80 mph up high. Combined with very low humidity, this is a recipe for disaster if any fires get going, or if the wind whips up existing fires.

If things go well, it will just be windy. If things go badly, this has the makings of destructive wildfires chewing up swaths of neighborhoods and towns, like what happened in Santa Rosa in 2017 (44 deaths) and Paradise, California last year (more than 80 deaths.)

Southern California, already hit by wildfires this year, is also at risk.

Pacific Gas & Electric, which has been cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses during periods of high fire risk, will likely step it up even more Sunday, possibly cutting power to more than 2 million people.

Even without any fires, that's a huge impact in and of itself.