Another Winter Throwback In Vermont; Much More Serious Threats Elsewhere in Nation

Sunshine tries to break through as snow falls in my St. Albans, Vermont
yard on Wednesday. It looks like a little more snow will fall tonight.

The never-ending winter of 2018-19 in Vermont marches on the best it can, despite the calendar saying we are well into spring and the strong sun trying with limited success to oust the cold.

Despite that bright sunshine, it was a cold Thursday. I cut short outdoor chores at my house in St. Albans, Vermont early last evening.

The sun felt nice enough when it was out, but the air was cold - only in the low to mid 30s. Winds gusting past 30 mph added a lot of chill to the air.

This morning, it's as cold as 8 degrees in Saranac Lake, New York, and Island Pond, Vermont. The "toasty" spots in the state were around 20 degrees. Not exactly spring-like, huh? 

And guess what? It's going to snow tonight!  Luckily, it won't be a big snowstorm at all by Vermont standards, or even April standards, but snow does frustrate this time of year. Ironically, the snow will be caused by a warm front.

Precipitation will break out as the warm front approaches late this afternoon and evening. Many of us will probably start off as rain. But the rain will initially be falling into dry air. That causes the air to cool, so the rain will change to snow.

Almost all of us, including the Champlain Valley banana belt, will get some snow out of this. The current thinking is we'll get an inch or so of slush in the valley, with one to three inches in north-central and northeastern Vermont tonight. A couple favored higher elevation places might clock in with four inches or so.

The good news is this is a warm front, after all, so we'll be left with a decent weekend. High temperatures will reach the 50s both Saturday and Sunday. That's not super warm for April, but it's OK, and we'll take it

The weather turns unsettled again next week. We're settling back into that pattern we had all winter, with storms crossing the country from the West Coast up to the Northeast, leaving trails of bad weather with them. 

Here in Vermont, that means rain, with some mountain snows each time a storm comes by. We'll have to watch this, as there's still a lot of snow in the mountains. If the rain is heavy, there could be some flood concerns. It's too early to tell on that one.

We know a slug of rain, with maybe a little mountain snow will come through Monday, with showers lingering into Tuesday. There's the potential for a relatively strong storm to pass through in about a week, so we'll see about that.

SEVERE WEATHER

Big area of the South, in yellow, under threat for severe weather Saturday.
A possibly even bigger area is possibly under the same threat Sunday. 

The increase in storminess across the nation, combined with the fact that it's spring, means the potential for severe weather and tornadoes is really ramping up now.

The first round of severe weather starts today in Texas, part of the storm system that will affect us here in Vermont by Monday.

A very big area of the nation, which includes much of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana Saturday, are in for large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes Saturday. 

An even bigger area encompassing a broad area along and a couple hundred miles either side of the central and southern Mississippi River is under the gun for this severe weather on Sunday.

Following that is a larger storm during the middle of next week in the middle of the nation. If that one shapes up like it appears it might, that would produce an even more intense round of severe weather and possible tornadoes in the southern Plains, and Mid-South next week.

After that, the parade of storms will probably continue with more threats of severe weather.

FLOODS INTENSIFY?

Especially the areas in pink, purple and red can expect heavy precipitation
over the next week or so. 

The northern and central Plains are still reeling from spring floods this year, and much of the Mississippi River, among many other major waterways are still in flood.

This upcoming parade of storms threatens to unleash another deluge on these areas. Up to two inches of precipitation are expected in just the next seven days in parts of the Plains. Then more storms will come after that.

Some of this might come down as snow, which further delays spring planting preparations. And that snow will melt, of course, leading to more water in already badly flooded areas.

Parts of the southern Mississippi Valley had heavy rain and flash flooding on Thursday. The storms will produce more heavy rain in that area over the next week or two.

I guess this is turning out to be the spring of our discontent.