After A Nice Tuesday, One More Vermont Severe Weather Threat

Areas in yellow, and to a lesser extent in dark green
have some risk of severe storms on Wednesday. As you
can see, all of Vermont is in this area.

A cold front came through the Northeast late yesterday, which will create a gorgeous late summer day today.

That cold front fired up some strong to locally severe thunderstorms over the eastern half of New England and down the eastern seaboard Monday afternoon.

That front is not done with us yet.

It'll come back north as a warm front Wednesday morning, setting the stage for potentially another round of strong to severe storms in New England, this time maybe including here in Vermont

The humidity will remain low today and much of tonight, but creep back up toward morning. As the warm front lifts north of us, it'll be oppressive by afternoon.

A couple of cold fronts and several other boundaries will be approaching from the west. Upper level winds will strengthen and change direction with height. The humidity and warmth will help feed storms.  The potential is there.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has Vermont and surrounding areas solidily in a slight risk zone for severe storms on Wednesday.  The biggest risk would be straight line wind damage. NOAA has not ruled out a couple supercell thunderstorms and maybe a brief spin up tornado somewhere in the slight risk area, but that's certainly not guaranteed.

Of course, there's caveats to that stated threat.

I absolutely agree with the National Weather Service in South Burlington in their weather discussion today. It seems that a day or two before a potential round of severe weather this summer, it looks like ingredients are coming together to produce the bad and dangerous weather.

But when the event arrives, other factors limit the ability for storms to become widespread and severe. A few big storms pop up in these situations, but they're thankfully not as numerous and nasty as first feared. So who knows? The forecast for tomorrow's storms might be a bust. You never know.

In this case, a series of disturbances, basically little mini weather fronts will likely come through during the afternoon and evening. All these could increase cloud cover, which would limit instability. And the little mini fronts might tend to dilute the atmospheric ingredients that need to come together for severe storms.

Still, keep listening to forecasts and if you're out and about on Wednesday, keep an eye to the sky, a weather radio close by and be ready to go inside if storms are approaching. Even if the storms don't turn out to be severe, lightning is always a danger.

More cold fronts will come through Thursday night and Friday, ushering in a hint of autumn for Friday and Saturday.

It's Now Time For Vermont's Western Slopes, Ski Areas To Get The Big Snow

Web cam shot taken shortly after 8 a.m. this morning shows
snow redeveloping and falling in the Nashville section of
Jericho, Vermont, along the western slopes of the Green
Mountains. The western slopes and the northern Green
Mountain peaks will get the most additional accumulation today.

As forecasted yesterday, the last phase of our North Country mid-December snowfall is shifting its focus to Vermont's Green Mountains and the western slopes of those mountains.

It took just awhile for that situation to develop. We did know there would be a late night lull in the snow regionwide, and that has happened. It actually stopped snow in the Champlain Valley.

Now, as of 8 a.m. Wednesday the west and northwest gusts have redeveloped, and the snow has reblossomed, especially along those western slopes. As expected, that snow has backed westward into the Champlain Valley, so it's snowing in places like Burlington and St. Albans again.

Expect this to continue through most of the morning, before the falling snow gradually retreats to end up just on the western slopes and the summits.

There might be a couple more inches of snow in the Champlain Valley this morning, and several more inches in the Green Mountains. I still think places like the top of Mount Mansfield and Jay Peak will end up with a storm total of 18 inches or so.

Only light snows will hit the southern Green Mountains, but they had their turn yesterday, especially on the eastern slopes and the summits down there.  There were some fairly impressive totals in the central and southern Greens. 

Some examples include 14 inches in Andover, 13 inches in Wallingford, and 12 inches in West Bridgewater and Hancock. I'm sure we'll see some updates with sizeable storm totals over northern Vermont before the day is out.

Pretty heavy snows will continue in much of the northern third of New Hampshire and northwestern Maine today, too. Heavy lake effect snow bands are also cranking in western New York and other areas near the Great Lakes, too.

It's much colder than it was yesterday region wide, and it's not going to get any warmer. Expect temperatures in the teens to around 20 today with nasty wind chills. That state of affairs will continue through Thursday, but by Thursday there will only be flurries at most in most areas.

Bottom line: In case you haven't noticed already, the roads across much of Vermont and surrounding areas are still slick. That will continue to be a problem during the late afternoon commute, especially near and just west of the Green Mountains.

Small disturbances will cause bouts of light precipitation from this weekend onward into next week, but it is still hard to tease out exactly when and how much snow or something else will come down. It will turn warmer again at the start of next week, with high temperatures in the valleys even getting above freezing during the afternoons.

At least that warming trend will make the snow great for snowball fights.