Snow Threat Diminishes In Vermont; Bad Weather Practically Everwhere Else

That familiar snow forecast map this time for tonight.All that blue means
a minor storm. Pretty much all of Vermont will get one to five
inches of snow, with the most in the southeast. 

Forecast trends have continued to minimize how much snow we in Vermont are expected to get with the upcoming storm.

I would now hardly call this a storm at all in Vermont, really, with expected snow accumulations overnight tonight only amounting to one to three inches across the northwestern half of the state and two to four inches in the southeastern half.

If they're "lucky," a few places in southeastern Vermont, especially in the mountains cold get five inches or so. Not a huge "storm."

Any snow we do get will be tapering off fairly early Monday morning.

As it stands now, the mountains of northern Vermont will actually do better with weak weather disturbances coming through Monday night through Wednesday. The most favored locations, like Jay Peak could get several inches of snow out of mid-week snow showers. The valleys would get less than that.

WORSE ELSEWHERE

Elsewhere around the nation, the weather is set to be much more interesting than here in Vermont today and early this week.

The storm that's just grazing Vermont will bring more snow to points south. There's a stripe of winter storm warnings today extending from West Virginia to southern New England.

This storm is a fast mover. It was all the way out in Kansas early this morning, prompting additional winter storm warnings out there. It'll be done in southern New England by midday Monday at the latest, which gives you an indication of how fast this thing is rocketing east.

A greater danger with this storm is arising today in the Southeast, especially in southern Alabama and much of Georgia. 

Severe storms are likely, with possible tornadoes today in the Southeast,
especially in Alabama and Georgia. 

The storm we've been talking about has been pulling a lot of moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico ingo the Southeast. Upper level winds are strong there, and veering with height. The air is getting unstable in the region, too.  

That sets the table for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes today.  As is usually the case with swarms of tornadoes,  most will be what I'd sarcastically called garden variety tornadoes.

Garden variety tornadoes, in my mind, are the ones that knock over a few trees, and maybe a barn or two, and vandalize houses by breaking windows and ripping away roof shingles. They're dangerous and can be deadly, but usually don't kill people who are taking proper shelter, like in a basement. ,

However, the weather situation it the Southeast is dynamic enough today that a couple tornadoes could turn out to be quite strong. Those are the ones that pretty much level houses and are extremely dangerous. We'll see how this pans out.

Further north, I'm very impressed by the vast stretches of the United States that are under wind chill advisories and warnings. It's especially wild considering we're now in March, when Arctic cold waves have usually lost a little bit of their bite.

Still, everywhere from Montana to the central Great Lakes and south to Oklahoma is covered by the wind chill alerts. There were some record low "high" temperatures in the northern Plains Saturday, and I'm sure we'll hear of more record lows in that region this morning.

Some are already in, and I'm feeling bad for my relatives in South Dakota. Record lows in that state this morning include 20 below in both Huron and Brookings with 17 in Mitchell and Sioux Falls.

That Arctic air, as advertised, is continuing to head toward us here in Vermont. It will warm up slightly on the trip east, but that is, ahem, cold comfort for us.

It'll still be windy and very cold in the Green Mountain State starting Monday, when afternoon temperatures will be in the mid and upper 20s. The cold will really hit on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That means highs in the 15-22 degree range, and lows a few degrees either side of zero.

That's not as cold as it can possibly get here in Vermont, but it's still definitely on the chilly side for this time of year. It will still be cold-ish Friday and Saturday but there will be sun, and the temperature will slowly be creeping upwards by then.

There actually is a modest looking storm heading toward the East Coast Friday, but that looks like it will stay well south of Vermont. Another storm looks like it will hit us next Sunday, but it's way too soon to know what will fall out of the sky and how much.