Snow Kidding: Vermont, New England Weather Will Be "Normal" For March, Not May On Tuesday

Mother's Day was not a lovely day for a drive along the Mass Pike
in a high spot in the Berkshires. Photo via Twitter
@hockeymomct

Yesterday, I talked about the prospect of snow in Vermont and New England, and it now looks like some high elevations spots will get lots of snow, and even some valleys could get some relatively rare mid-May flakes.

Welcome to March in May. Tuesday's high temperatures are almost sure to break records for the lowest high temperatures for May 14.

More on this in a moment, but first I'll recap Sunday's snowy foretaste of our May winter storm that parts of southern Vermont and western Massachusetts.

While people along the Canadian border in Vermont enjoyed a little sun and not-bad temperatures near 60 degrees, it was a completely different story down south.

Bennington, normally a warm spot in Vermont, stayed in the low 40s all day under rainy, drizzly skies. Go uphill a bit from Bennington, and you encountered snow. Accumulations only amounted to a half inch or a little more.

Still, that was enough to make the Mass Pike slick in a high spot in the Berkshires, leading to several crashes and traffic jams as motorists were probably unprepared for snow on Mother's Day. Which is reasonable. You normally don't build snowmen in the middle of May.

The snow tonight and Tuesday will be much more widespread than Sunday's. It will especially affect the high elevations across central and northern New England. If you are a diehard winter sports fan, the summits will be the place to go, as they will get hammered.

The peaks of the Green Mountains and possibly the Adirondacks could get up to 10 inches of snow. The summits of the White Mountains of New Hampshire are in for at least a foot.

Snow levels could go down to 2,000 feet or even lower by Tuesday morning in Vermont. The National Weather Service in South Burlington isn't predicting much in the way of accumulation. Still, I imagine grassy surfaces and such will see some light, slushy accumulation.

Especially if you've taken your snow tires off, I'd reconsider driving through the higher elevations late tonight and tomorrow.

I'm guessing some wet snowflakes could make it all the way down to some colder valley floors Tuesday morning.

Nevertheless, it will be, as noted, a miserable March day in May across the region Tuesday. Where it doesn't snow, a cold rain will fall. High temperatures across Vermont Tuesday will range from the 30s in the higher elevations to the low or mid 40s on valley floors.

These will be record cold high temperatures.  The record "low high" for Burlington Tuesday is 51 degrees. The current "record low highs" are in the mid and upper 40s for most other weather stations in Vermont.  Normal high temperatures this time of year are in the mid-60s. So this is a pretty impressive cold snap for May.

Luckily, all the clouds and precipitation and breezes will keep nighttime temperatures this week near and above freezing, so no hard frosts will wreck any plants and flowers growing outdoors.

After tomorrow, it will slowly warm up during the rest of the week, and we'll be back to near normal readings in the 60s in the afternoons by the upcoming weekend.