Slip, Sliding Away Tomorrow Morning In Much Of New England

Sleet and ice, and shadows of tree branches created by outdoor lighting
made slippery patterns on a roadway last winter in Burlington, Vermont.
Expect icy conditions again in many areas Friday morning. 

The title of this post refers to a great song called "Slip Slidin' Away" by Paul Simon. The song, of course, has absolutely NOTHING to do with the weather, but I'm going to make that besides the point.

The point is be prepared in much of New England, including most of Vermont, for a slick ride to work if you're up early Friday morning.

That sprawling storm in the middle of the nation I've been talking about for the past few days will finally reach its tentacles into New England overnight tonight and Friday morning.

Even though there's a strong surge of warm air coming up the east flank of this storm toward us, it's still pretty chilly today.   It'll be mostly in the 20s with some teens in the north by this afternoon.

As the warm, wet air from this storm's south wind hits this cold air, it will rise up and over it. Rising air means moisture condenses into precipitation, and that's what will happen.  Most of us will start with a quick burst of snow overnight, followed by sleet, then freezing rain. 

Typical New England bullcrap wintry crap, right?

Eventually, it'll go over to just plain rain on Friday, but it might take a awhile in some spots, especially from the Green Mountains east, into the Connecticut River valley all south almost to the southern New England coast. Much of New York, New Hampshire and Maine is under the gun with this, too.

There won't be much ice accumulation at all, but it only takes the thinnest skins of ice to screw up the roads and make them dangerous. If possible, delay your trip tomorrow morning, or just work from home. The later in the day you do travel, though, the better it will be.

Things will dwindle off to rain and snow showers Friday night and Saturday. It will probably be calm and cold again by this coming Sunday, but after that, there's a lot of question marks about the weather and what will happen. Stay tuned on that one.

Meanwhile, sure enough, this large storm has prompted blizzard warnings in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas.

Severe storm, tornado and flood alerts remain in effect along much of the Gulf Coast and the southeastern United States.

At least one tornado touched down in Texas Wednesday, and there were plenty of reports of localized wind damage and flooding across parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.