This Coming Week Super Busy For All Of Us: Here's Weather We'll Deal With

It'll probably look like this occasionally in
Vermont as people rush to get their Christmas
stuff done. 

Today through next weekend is a frantic time for many of us as we get ready for Christmas. There's decorations to keep putting up, there's a lot of holiday shopping and errands to do, parties you either want to or have to go to, or you have to travel.

By next weekend, right before Christmas, I hope things will settle down for you and me. But meanwhile, we Vermonters, as always, have weather to deal with.

So here's a brief day by day breakdown of what you'll have to deal with in the Green Mountain State. Luckily, there's nothing too extreme coming down the pike, but it is Vermont.

There are complications. Also note as we look at things later and later in the week, things might change from current forecasts. But we have a good idea generally what will happen

TODAY (Sunday).  Expect lots of wind.  Pretty much all except western Vermont north of Bennington County is under a wind advisory today for gusts reaching 50 mph.  Even in relativel "calm" areas, like the Champlain Valley, winds will go to 40 mph or higher.

There will probably be a few power outages, especially in the eastern half of Vermont because of the wind.  The ground is quite saturated, so the wind will more easily push over shallow rooted trees.  Today is not a good day to install outdoor Christmas decorations. And for gawd's sake deflate those damn blow up decorations so they don't blow all over the place.

MONDAY: This will be a quiet, relatively calm day to get things done.  The sun will be out a good part of the time, and the wind will be much lighter than it is today. It'll be chilly, but nothing scary for mid-December with highs somewhere in the 20s.

TUESDAY:  A little bit of trouble for your Tuesday.  A mid-size storm will be passing by to our south, and that will throw some snow into Vermont.  This is subject to change, but as of Sunday, forecast trends have pushed the storm further south than first thought a couple of days ago.

If this trend holds, southern Vermont would get the most snow, with maybe six inches in some favored spot.  Northern Vermont could get as little as one to three inches. There still are uncertainties on how this storm will play out, so stay tuned for possible changes in the  snow forecasts. It could still go up or down.

Note that this same storm is likely to cause severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the Deep South Monday. Plus, for those of you who are traveling, there's a lot of risk for a bunch of freezing rain from Oklahoma to southern New England as this storm travels cross-country.

It could get particularly nasty in southern New England, southern New York, Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey on Tuesday. It's probably a good idea to avoid those areas on Tuesday if you can.

WEDNESDAY: At least part of the day could prove to be, um, interesting here in Vermont. It'll start off quiet enough, but a sharp cold front will raise the risk of heavy, potentially dangerous snow squalls. Kind of like what we had last Thursday, but possibly even worse.

It's not definite that we'll get the snow squalls, but there's a lot of players coming together that could produce them.  If you're venturing out Wednesday, listen to forecasts first.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington and other Vermont meterologists are pretty damn good at timing these things out.

It's too soon now to say when or even if those snow squalls will develop, but pay attention to forecasts all day Wednesday.  That'll give you a sense when whiteouts and dangerous road conditions are most likely.

THURSDAY: Quiet and very cold for this time of year, though it won't be a record breaker. It looks like highs will only be in the teens to around 20 with lows a few degrees either side of zero. At least that's how it looks now.

FRIDAY: Still quiet and cold. A risk of a subzero morning, but temperatures should moderate a bit by afternoon.   It'll still be chilly, but highs in the 20s aren't all that bad.