Winter And Spring Clashing Big Time To Give Much Nation Wild Weather

The area of my yard in St. Albans, Vermont I've been photographing as spring
tries to progress is finally showing some bare ground. it was deep in snow
a week ago. But I might get more snow later this week.

Hold on to your hats, folks!
This week is going to be one of extremes across much of the nation, as unseasonably strong forces of Arctic air plunging from Canada are having royal battles with the normal forces of spring.

Expect areas of unseasonable snow, areas of severe thunderstorms, lots of wind, near-record cold in some places, and lots and lots of quick weather changes, and big forecasting changes.

One very good microcosm of this weird weather pattern is Lincoln, Illinois, which is in the central part of the state. Yesterday, that city had a record 4.7 inches of snow. With the fresh snow on the ground, skies that were initially clear send temperatures there plummeting to 1 degrees above zero.

This shattered the record low for the date of 20 degrees. The normal low there is 36 degrees. I'm sure there's a lot of damage to early spring plants in central Illinois. There's also dense freezing fog in Lincoln this morning to make the day extra miserable.

By tomorrow, Lincoln is under some threat of severe thunderstorms. Yeah, it's that kind of week.

The snow that swept across the middle of the country - even St. Louis got into the act with thundersnow  - is now on the East Coast. It was snowing - unseasonably so once again - in places like Pennsylvania, New Jersey and into southern New England. Some areas are getting several inches of April snow.

Today's snow will mercifully miss most of Vermont, maybe clipping the far south and that's it. That's not to say it won't snow in the coming days and weeks here in the Green Mountain State. More on that later.

NEXT BIG STORM

This clash of the titans - hard core unseasonable winter and normal spring, will fire up a new, big storm system today and tomorrow, and Wednesday.

Winter storm warnings are flying in most of Montana today, where four to 12 inches of spring snow is likely.

An expansive area of potential severe storms and possibly tornadoes
exists Tuesday (mostly in the yellow and orange shaded areas.)

Further east along the storm track, winter storm watches are up in southern Minnesota, parts of Wisconsin and northern Michigan for tomorrow.

That heavy snow will continue on into Canada, and areas north of Ottawa and Montreal will get quite a snowstorm by Wednesday.

South of the storm's track, an expansive area of severe thunderstorms and even some tornadoes appears likely tomorrow from Texas and Lousiana all the way up into Ohio. This includes areas that got snow yesterday and today, so that's really strange.

VERMONT IMPACTS

This particular storm will be mostly a rain event for us here in Vermont. There could be some snow or sleet mixed in during the onset of precipitation Tuesday - especially north and east.

Temperatures will act a little strangely, with temperatures probably rising Tuesday night through the 40s. Wednesday's readings will depend greatly on when the storm's powerful cold front will crash through.

If it comes through in the morning, we'll have some readings in the low 50s before temperatures fall during the day again. If it comes through in the afternoon, we could briefly get to 60 degrees before temperatures go into a free fall.

Along and ahead of the cold front on Wednesday, there might be enough instability in the atmosphere to give us the first rumbles of thunder of spring.

It'll be a rather windy storm for us here in Vermont, first with south winds Tuesday night and early Wednesday. Then it'll go into gusty northwest winds Wednesday and Wednesday night.  We'll get a decent shot of rain with this - early guesses are a half inch or more. Not enough to cause any spring flooding of note, which is good.

As temperatures plummet Wednesday night, rain showers will turn to snow showers. At this point it doesn't look like there will be much accumulation in the valleys, but the mountains could pick up a few inches.

Thursday will be windy and wintry, with many of us not even getting above freezing during the day. Another storm Friday will come along. It won't be as strong as Wednesday's but we will get some rain and snow out of that. Details are still hazy on how much we'll get. I would bet at this point that at least the mountains will probably get some snow accumulation. Possibly the valleys, too. We'll see.

LOOKING AHEAD

Beyond Friday, forecasters can only provide a broad brush look at what might happen. The unseasonable Arctic air over the northern tier of the United States will eventually weaken going into next weekend and beyond. It IS April, after all.

But it will remain generally cooler than normal from the Rockies across the northern U.'S into the Northeast at least until around Tax Day - April 15 or so. There might be some warmish days interspersed in there ahead of various cold fronts.

Storms will continue to parade, one after another, mostly west to east across the nation going into mid-April. This could mean several outbreaks of severe storms and tornadoes across the South, frequent rainstorms in already soggy areas in the middle of the country, and perhaps more bouts of snow from the Rockies to New England.

The snow chances will of course depend on storm tracks and how deep any of the lingering cold air is.

Like I said at the top, hold on to your hat.