We're Mostly Dodging The Snow, But Don't Expect Full-Blown Spring Anytime Soon

Once again, snow begins to dust my yard and gardens in
St. Albans, Vermont Sunday afternoon

Snow showers drifted down on my St. Albans, Vermont property Sunday afternoon as we remain gripped in a cold April weather pattern.

This time of year, I should be into bigtime spring garden work, but I blew it off Sunday. It wasn't that cold - in the low 30s.

But it was dishearteningly chilly for the start of the second week in April.

And by late afternoon, those snow showers had accumulated to almost a half inch.  So I mostly stayed inside. (This time of year, afternoon temperatures should be around 50 degrees.)

At least we're not getting nearly as much snow over the next several days as I'd feared last week. True, we got that one to four inches on Friday, but that's mostly melted, at least in the low elevations.

Sunday's snow only amounted to a dusting to at most a few inches in the mountains.   A storm which could have given us a decent shot of snow passed well offshore Sunday and Sunday night, so no worries there.

I was especially concerned about a potential nor'easter tomorrow and Wednesday, but that's not in the cards now.

Still, the upcoming week won't suggest Classic Spring in Vermont. We will still be longing for a nice spring day. Usually, we get at least a day here and there this time of year that goes up to 60 degrees at least, mixed in with the cooler days, but this April it's chilly, chilly, chilly

Today, I think the sun will be out more often than not, but high temperatures in the 33 to 43 degree range. (northern highlands to warmer valley floors) is still pretty chilly for this time of year. At least we'll get a fair amount of sun

Tuesday will be no better. It looks like some sort of upper level disturbance will come through, cooling temperatures high above us even more. We've now gotten into the season when the strong sun warms the surface of the Earth. When there's cold air above at the same time, you get showers.

It won't be that warm down on the surface where we live Tuesday, so we'll have scattered cold rain showers, with snow showers in the mountains. It's possible that in widely scattered heavier showers, enough cold air will be brought down from aloft to get brief mixes with snow and snow pellets, even in the valleys.

And I wouldn't be surprised to see up to an inch of accumulation Tuesday in the mountains.

Wednesday will be OK, I suppose. It'll start cold with temperatures well down in the 20s, but with at least some sunshine afternoon temperatures will get well into the 40s, with no doubt some low 50s in the warmer valleys.   If we get to the 50s, at least that will be close to normal for one.  Still, the day will once again average chillier than normal because of the cold morning.

Another small storm comes through Thursday, with more cold rain showers, maybe mixed with snow in the mountains. Precipitation will be light, but it will make for another raw April day.

Cool again on Friday, then next weekend is a wild card for sure. We are pretty certain a large storm will get going in the middle of the country. I bet it will cause a severe weather outbreak Friday in the South.

As this thing approaches next weekend, it'll make most of the East Coast finally nice and toasty warm. I expect 70s as far north as New York City.

But cold high pressure will sit north of us in  Canada. I'm better that high will block most of the warm air from getting into Vermont.

It's possible we'll get lucky and the warm air could briefly invade next Saturday, but that's a long shot. I'm sort of guessing there will be a big range in temperatures across Vermont sometime next weekend, with relatively warm air down by Bennington and almost wintery  conditions in the Northeast Kingdom. But that's just a wild stab in the dark at this point.

Talk about not having a good forecast yet: On Saturday, depending upon the placement of the weather front, afternoon temperatures will be somewhere from the mid 30s to low 70s in Vermont. Take your pick.

Eventually, rain will move in next weekend. I have no idea how much. But at least at this point snow looks unlikely.

The average temperature this time of year is rising rapidly. So each cold snap is less bad than the previous. Even if the weather pattern continues to give us below normal temperatures, the trend will be upward.

On top of that, the weather pattern that was bringing super bitter Arctic air into the United States is changing somewhat, so I don't imagine temperatures will be as much below normal as they have been. We might even get a day that's near or a bit warmer than normal here or there in the next 10 days or so.

Just don't count on it. The overall weather pattern for most of the rest of the month doesn't really favor any long stretches of warm weather. We can always hope the long range forecasts are wrong. (They sometimes are!)