Storms, Wind, Snow: Tuesday Update On Wild Weather Pattern

Snow and early spring blooms in Central Park, New York on Monday
as much of the nation keeps enduring a wintry early April weather
pattern. Photo via Twitter,  @My_Cen_ParkNYC  

Time for a quick Tuesday morning update on the wild, wintry weather pattern that I talked about yesterday. It is still looking eventful in the weather department for sure.

Let's pick them apart, both nationally, and locally here in Vermont

SEVERE STORMS

A broad area from the Gulf Coast through the Tennessee and Ohio valleys is under the gun for severe thunderstorms today.

The storm system causing this means business and the cold front attached to it is sharpening up and strengthening. Jet stream winds are howling, too.

That sets up the area for a bunch of severe storms along and just ahead of the front this afternoon and evening. There will probably be a few tornadoes with this, but the main threat is very strong, damaging straight line winds.

SNOWSTORMS

A good chunk of the Northeast was hit by a surprisingly heavy snowfall on Monday. Though the snow ended in the afternoon and this all began to melt, the snow was still stunning for early April.  Snow at one point fell at a rate of two inches per hour at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Central Park got 5.5 inches of snow, the largest April snowstorm since 1982.

Some areas of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut received up to seven inches of snow.

No snow with this next storm today and tomorrow in New York City, but a big area stretching across most of South Dakota, southern Minnesota, northern Iowa and on into Wisconsin and Michigan are in for three to 10 inches of snow today. More snows will follow this storm in various parts of the nation. More on that in a bit.

VERMONT: FIRST STORM WINDY AND WET

A large are in the middle of the country (yellow and orange) are at
risk for severe thunderstorms today. The light green that extends
into Vermont means we could have a rumble of thunder here
on Wednesday. 

The system causing the severe weather in the middle of the country today and the snow in the north will of course affect us here in Vermont.

Rain will come in later today. I think the chances of snow and sleet at the onset later today are fairly low, but it could still happen in the Northeast Kingdom and higher elevations.

Once you get into northern New Hampshire and Maine, there is a better chance of a sloppy mix later today.

After a rather rainy night tonight, the real excitement comes in with the storm's strong cold front on Wednesday. It'll be accompanied by gusty showers, some locally rather heavy. There might be a rumble of thunder, too.

Overall, this storm will pack enough rain to make rivers rise again, but they'll pretty much stay within their banks. There might be just a bit of minor flooding, but no big deal.

What will be the big deal is the strong winds, especially after the cold front goes through Wednesday afternoon and evening. High wind warnings and watches are up for most of New York and southern Vermont, where winds could gust as high as 60 mph. I imagine a number of people will lose electricity. And see quite a few trees and branches come down.

Elsewhere in Vermont, winds could gust to or over 45 mph, and that still might be enough to drop some trees and power lines, so watch out for that.

NEXT UP: MORE WINTER

Temperatures will plunge Wednesday night and there could end up being a few snow showers in the mountains. The puddles from the rains will freeze, so watch out for icy patches Thursday morning.

The day Thursday looks blustery and cold and wintry. You'll need your parka. Then, a new storm comes into Vermont on  Friday, and this doesn't look good, if you're pining for spring.

Though the Friday storm won't be as wet as the one Wednesday the energy with the Friday one is   quite impressive, so it will squeeze out a fairly decent amount of precipitation. Since this will be a much colder storm, I'm still thinking most of the precipitation will be snow. There could be a mix with rain in the warmer valleys, but it's still looking like Friday is Vermont's turn to get some snow.

It's too early to speculate on accumulations, but some areas will get several inches at least, especially on grassy surfaces.  Some of whatever snow we do get will stick around, as temperatures will remain well below normal through the upcoming weekend.

LOOKING FURTHER AHEAD:

This is only broad brush, and long range forecasts are often inaccurate, but at this point, I have this to say: I hope you like storms. The weather pattern through the third week in April still seems to indicate a parade of often strong storm systems heading generally west to east across the nation.

This means that for much of the rest of April:
1. The potential for heavy rain and flooding from northern California up the West Coast through Washington State:
2. A continued risk of wildfires amid strong winds and drought conditions in the Southwest
3. The risk of several rounds of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in parts of the Southern Plains, Midwest and Southeast. Plus possible flooding issues.
4. A continued chance of snowfalls in the Northern Plains.
5. Repeated bouts of rain here in the Northeast. Some snow might get involved with some of these, depending on storm tracks, but since it's April, most of the month will feature rainstorms, not snowstorms.