Did Someone Say Snow? Again?

Despite the recent chill, I'm starting to see more pops of spring
color around the shed on my St. Albans, Vermont property. 

It's the end of April and spring should be in full swing.

But is it?  

This year, occasionally, at least, it's hard to tell. March and the first half of April in Vermont were pretty good in the spring department, at least by Vermont standards.

Temperatures during that time were generally warmer than normal, and some of the early spring garden plants got off to a roaring start.

Since the middle of the month, things went down hill,  back toward winter. Sure, there's been a couple nice days thrown in there, and today is certainly going to be nice enough. Sunshine and temperatures in the 50s to near 60 is not far from normal this time of year, after all.

But another chilly storm is on our doorstep, and for some Vermonters, it means, yes, more snow.

This next storm is going to be a pretty strong one.  It was developing around Missouri this morning and will steadily move northeastward toward New Jersey or so by Sunday night, all the while gaining more oomph.

Since it's going by to the south, central and southern Vermont, and by extension, central and southern New England, will see the most action from this.

The storm will spread a cold rain across New England Sunday, and it will come pretty hard at times Sunday afternoon and evening.  In Vermont, that's especially, I would guess, south of a Middlebury to Wells River line.

Temperatures will be close to cold enough for snow in the higher elevations. The heavier precipitation will probably bring down some even chilier air, bringing some snow Sunday evening down to elevations as low as 1,000 feet.

Having mostly survived a nasty cold wave earlier this month, spring
blooms in my St. Albans, Vermont ard bask in a little warm sunshine
this  morning before the next cold storm arrives tomorrow. 

A slushy coating is a good possibility in central and southern Vermont at 1,000 foot elevations and that will gradually increase as you go up in elevation. By the time you get to the top of Killington Peak, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a foot of new snow way up there.

Other high elevations of New Hampshire and Massachusetts will also probably see areas of accumulating snow out of this. It won't be the latest snow on record, but it is awfully late in the season.

Southern Vermont could get more than an inch of rain (and melted snow) out of this. It's been dry-ish, so this amount of rain shouldn't cause any flooding  problems.

As noted, northern areas should escape the worst of  the weather because they will be furthest away from the storm. Also,  dry air will feed down from Canada, making the precipitation a little lighter and spottier. There will only be probably a quarter inch of rain or melted snow north of Route 2, which isn't so bad. And that northern snow wil only accumulated above 1,500 feet in elevation, and amount to only an inch.

Unfortunately, there are few signs of a big warmup anytime soon, NOAA's extended outlooks call for mostly below normal temperatures in all of New England through at least May 9. Grr..

The storm from Sunday will meander off the coast until later on Tuesday, which will keep cold, light rain showers and a little bit of higher elevation snows going at least into Monday night.

The next good sized storm looks like it will arrive Thursday. I'm hoping and thinking that one will be a little warmer, so it would produce almost exclusively just rain

If you think the current weather pattern and forecast is bad, let's take a trip down memory lane. Just to prove it could be much, much worse.

Let's take the spring of 1971 for instance.  In Burlington, Vermont's banana belt, there was 33 inches of new snow in March and there was at least a foot of snow on the ground every day through March 30.

In April that year, there was at least some snow on the ground every day in April until the 22nd. Six nights that month got down into the teens, and only ten days cracked the 50 degree mark. Note it was colder and snowier, as usual, back then, outside the Champlain Valley. But we survived.

So yeah, mentioning snow in a Vermont weather forecast this time of year is a little disheartening. But we get through it. Everything does.

Remember the other day I was lamenting the likely loss of my early season flowers because of the sharp cold wave earlier this week? Well, as I said, everything copes. I would say 90 percent of the blooms and buds survived.  A little sunshine yesterday sprouted more blossoms and I expect more in today's sunshine.  Hope springs eternal. Literally.

Blame Out Of Season Temperature Inversion On Dank Vermont Weather

Spring flowers in my St. Albans, Vermont perennial gardens and bright
flags on my deck try to brighten up a very dreary Thursday
afternoon, but they can only do so much. 

For almost all of us Vermonters, this Thursday morning and afternoon has been an unpleasant exercise in chill, damp, clouds, fog and drizzle.  It's not the type of bright, blossomy May weather we expect, and feel entitled to this time of year.  

Blame it on a temperature inversion. It's warmer a few thousand feet up above us than it is near the surface.

This is the opposite of the usual regime, where it gets progressively colder the more you go up in elevation.

The warm-ish air up above locks us in the thick, chilly moisture and mist, as the atmosphere can't mix. Drier up above can't penetrate the "lid" the temperature inversion forms.

Since the drier air can't work its way down to us, it can't clear the clouds. The sun can't penetrate to warm us up. So, yuck.

These inversions are pretty typical in the late fall and winter. At that time of year, the sun angle is low and the light is weak.  If the sun is able to warm the air near the surface, it starts to rise, poking holes in the inversion up above until it finally breaks apart. In the winter, the sun just doesn't have the strength to pull that off.

The sun angle this time of year is much higher, so inversions are more rare. The sun usually can burst through, offering us a jail break from the gloom. Not today. The inversion is just too strong.

There's a slow moving weather front just to our south. Warmer air is feeding up and over that front and gliding northward, keeping that inversion sustained, despite what the sun wants to do.

South of the front, it's mild. It was 60 degrees at mid-afternoon in Bennington, which is just south of the front. Not super warm for early May, but much better than the March-like foggy 40s in the rest of Vermont.

So far today, the high temperature in Burlington was 45 degrees. That's not far from the coldest high temperature on record for the date, which was 41 degrees in 1953.

The inversion will break up tomorrow as a new, relatively weak storm comes in from the west and southwest. It will be a bit warmer Friday, but the overall weather won't improve much. It'll be in the 50s during the day - still a little chilly for this time of year. And there will be a lot of light rain and showers around.

You won't see the sun, so if you're craving it, you're out of luck.

Until Saturday, that is. By then, a little clearing will at least temporarily work in. The afternoon that day will feature some sun, and temperatures near 60 degrees. That's not too far from normal, so that's good.

With the forecasted sun and comfortable temperatures Saturday, it will be great if you want to participate in Vermont's Green-Up Day. That's when thousands of volunteers go out and clean up roadside trash. You ought to consider joining in.

But the weather pattern will remain active. We might not have more foggy, dank and drizzly inversions like we're having this afternoon, but we will have frequent bouts of clouds and showers for at least the next week or so.

Ain't No Sunshine In Vermont When Summer's Gone

Another cloudy, gloomy commute to work in Winooski, Vermont
this morning. This is usually the cloudiest time of year, and
the past month and a half have been even worse than usual.

By my count, Sunday was the ninth day in a row in which it was overcast. The sun has disappeared, it seems, and it's getting depressing.

November and December are always very cloudy here in Vermont. There's usually lots of storminess, which of course brings clouds.

The Great Lakes and a lot of lakes and other bodies of water in southeastern Canada aren't frozen yet. Moisture coming off those ice-free waterways helps keep us cloudy. 

Temperature inversions are common this time of year, too. That's when a warm layer a few thousand feet above us traps a layer of low overcast to block the sun. When the sun is stronger in the summer, the heat usually breaks up the inversions and the clouds and it gets bright out. The weak sun this time of year can't break those inversions, so we're stuck under the clouds.

Days are short too, so even a clear day doesn't offer that many hours of sun.

This year seems worse than usual. It's been remarkably cloudy by my estimation. The last sunny days we had were November 22 and 23, but you couldn't really enjoy tht sunshine because we were also enduring record cold temperatures. 

The last day I could find that had a fair amount of sun and was actually warmer than normal was back on October 20.

There was a glimmer of hope Saturday morning, when satellite images showed some clearing wanting to sneak in. But a low overcast hung on all day, except in the highest elevations, which were above the cloud layer.

It's been a particularly stormy pattern since mid-October, which has contributed to our gloom. The weather pattern this week is temporarily less stormy, so there is hope for some sun here and there. I don't anticipate any stretch of crystal clear skies, but glimpses of sun would be nice.

We have a shot at seeing breaks of sun Tuesday afternoon and again on Wednesday. After a cold front with clouds and snow showers goed by Thursday and Friday, there's a chance we could see a little more sun next weekend.

That is, if a storm in the southeastern United States stays far enough to our south. Right now, that's in the game plan according to forecasts. But there's always a chance that the storm could surprise us, and throw yet more clouds our way.

If you really want sun, you'd probably almost have to go overseas. Outside of South Florida, the only storm-free, sunny area I can find for the upcoming week in the United States is in the northern Plains. But it's going to be cold there, so that's no fun.

Out of desperation, I looked up the weather forecast for the week in Barbados. Not bad. A few showers here and there, but the sun will be out most of the time with daily highs in the mid-80s.

Too bad I can't afford to book an emergency trip there.

Newfoundland Meteorologists Arrested Because Of VERY Crummy Summer

St. John', Newfoundland meteorologist Ryan Snodden
being arrested for trafficking in lousy
summer weather this year in that part of Canada.  

The weather has been totally lousy this month in Newfoundland. Unless, of course, you like midsummer fog, drizzle, gloom and chill.

Newfoundland and Labrador are obviously not known for their delightful weather, what with their everlasting frigid and stormy winters that make New England look like a tropical paradise. S

till, it can get nice this time of year in Newfoundland.  Just not this year.

It's been so bad a local meteorologist was arrested for not delivering summer weather, says USA Today. 

Don't worry, not really. It was a stunt. People are just finding ways to release their frustration over Newfoundland's Summer That's Not.

You can see the video of the arrest of one of the meteorologists at the bottom of this post. It's really awesome.

It started with a missing persons report of sorts from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Their press release said:

"Summer was last seen in early August of 2014. When last seen, summer was described as being between 20-30 degrees Celius (68-86 degrees Fahrenheit) blue skies with a bright and warm source of light in the sky. There have been sporadic sightings of this bright object, but these sightings have been rare since May 2015."

Then came the arrests of two meteorologists in St. John's Newfoundland for aiding and abetting the foul summer weather, specifically the rain, drizzle and fog, known in the area as RDF, reports USA Today, which by the way is headquarted in hot, very steamy Virginia.

Ryan Snodden of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. local affiliate in St. John's and Eddie Scheerr of NTV were both taken into "custody" by authorities.

Police spokesman Steven Curnew said Snodden was "charged with impersonating a meteorologist, failing to provide the essentials of summer - that being sunshine, good forecasts and blue skies. - and we also have him on trafficking of RDF."

Scheerr is a United States citizen and could be deported from Canada, local police joked. "Unfortunately, due to the weather, it could be two weeks before we could get a flight out of St. John's Airport."

In the short term, things don't look like they'll improve much. This weekend's forecast from Environment Canada features showers and drizzle both Saturday and Sunday in St. John's with high temperatures of around 11 or 12 Celcius. That's only the low to mid 50s Fahrenheit. Brrrr!!

Late this coming week, Environment Canada offers a glimmer of hope, forecast highs near 20 to 22 Celcius (near 70 Fahrenheit) with partly sunny skies.

Here's the tongue in cheek video of Snodden under arrest for hiding summer and replacing it with RDF. Pretty damn weird but funny:

In Vermont, First Day of Spring and First Spring Day Are Two Different Things

Astronomical spring arrives at 12:57, EDT, right after lunch today.

Vermont State Police this morning Tweeted this gloomy
photo with the caption "A sure sign of spring in Vermont"  

That's nice, but as we all know in the Great White North, the first day of spring and the first spring day are two completely different things.

Here in Vermont, that's demonstrably true today.

Yes, temperatures have risen a little above freezing in many locations this morning, and will rise to near 40 by the time spring officially gets here this afternoon.

That's enough for a modest maple sap run, which is good. But really, spring?

As much as 7 inches of snow fell overnight in southeastern Vermont and most of us got one to five inches of snow overnight.  Some roads were still icy and slick during the morning commute.

There's still more than a foot of snow on the ground in most areas of the state.  More snow is forecast tonight, especially in the mountains.  It's supposed to stay cold for at least a week, probably more. The first spring day in Vermont is going to come way, way after the first day of spring.

Vermont State Police got the spring situation, or lack thereof exactly right on Twitter this morning.  Above a caption that reads "A sure sign of spring in #Vermont," they Tweeted the photo you see in this post. VSP captured it perfectly.

Of course you have the "Winter Weather Advisory" electronic sign on the highway median, but notice the dark sky, darker landscape, wet road, piles of dirty snow and the car headlights cutting through the gloom in their mostly colorless photograph.

Not exactly spring brightness and cheer, huh?

I guess this means when (and if!) spring finally gets here with it's exploding greenery, blue skies with scattered puffy white clouds and splashes of flower color all over the place, we'll appreciate the first spring day more than we usually do.

Which is saying something!

Mild And Murky Vermont, But Winter Lurks

It's turning out to be a mild and murky week here in Vermont. Afternoon temperatures have been sneaking above freezing, there's little wind, a lot of clouds and a fair amount of fog and haze.

A gloomy early December Tuesday afternoon
in my St. Albans, Vermont yard.  

Typical early December dreariness.

If you're bored with the weather though, you can live vicariously through the rough and cold winter weather starting to engulf much of the rest of the nation.

That frigid, snowy, icy and at times dangerous weather will continue to spread across much of the United States, and we here in northern New England should start getting a taste of that by Sunday or Monday.

The cold is going to be focused on the northern Rocky Mountains and northern and central Plains. There are some areas near the Canadian border in Montana and North Dakota that went below zero today, and might not get above zero again until the weekend. Not even during the day.   BRRRR!!!!

It's mild in the east, and such a clash of air masses inevitably stirs up a storm. There's already winter storm warnings in a huge area from Idaho to Wisconsin. That weather will spread south and east. Don't be surprised to hear news of a nasty ice storm in a band from Texas to Kentucky later in the week.

Winter storm watches are already up for Thursday and Friday in Oklahoma and Arkansas for an expected snow, sleet and ice storm.

Other areas of the country are going to get LOTS of snow.

OK, what does that mean for Vermont and surrounding areas? Truth be told, I have no idea. Nobody does. It's too early to tell.

It will start to get cold again this weekend, and some kind of storm is coming along for the Sunday night through Tuesday time frame but I don't know how big it will be or whether it will bring snow, rain, a mix or all of the above.

We'll have to stay tuned until the event draws closer.

Aside from the mild temperatures between now and Friday, though, don't expect a break from wintry, cold weather over the next couple of weeks. It's a chilly weather pattern coast to coast, including in Vermont.

At least we here in northern New England looks like we will be spared the most intense cold.