Winter To Finally Hit Parts Of Nation Over Next Few Days

There's been a notable lack of winter
storms like this one in the nation so far
this month. That's about to change 

Snow has been seriously lacking in the United States so far this late autumn.

Oh, sure there have been decent snows in the higher elevations in the Rockies and in the mountains of northern New England.

But by this late in November, the United States has usually seen a couple good, widespread snowstorms somewhere in the northern half of the nation.  Not this year.  It's been pretty much storm free for the past few weeks.

Until now. The weather pattern is finally changing. A blizzard watch is up for parts of the northeastern South Dakota, a bit of southeastern North Dakota and a little piece of western Minnesotal.

Winter storm watches are in effect for a broader in a band from Wyoming through much of Minnesota.  Much of western Colorado is also under a winter storm watch.

In the blizzard watch zone, six to 10 inches of snow could fall, with winds gusting to 50 mph. The region about to be hit by the winter storm had record high temperatures earlier this week, so the snowstorm and blizzard might come as a bit of a shock.

The storm that will likely cause the Dakotas/Minnesota snowstorm will move into Ontario toward the weekend, but a new storm will form somewhere near or over New England Saturday or Sunday.

That means rain is likely, which is good news because we could still use it in much of the Northeast. The drought is kinda lingering on.

The mild weather will come to an end in the Northeast, too with this weekend storm. By Sunday, temperatures will be crashing, and rain will change to snow, especially in the higher elevations.

I don't think there will be much snow with this, except in the mountains, which could pick  up a few inches. I think the lake effect snow machine will finally rev up along the shores of the Great Lakes, too.

Temperatures will be wintry in northern New England by early next week, so get ready for that.

There has been a dearth of storms across the nation in recent weeks, up until now, so the weather has been remarkably calm.

But this initial storm signals a pattern change. It's going to be much stormier than it has been in recent weeks over the nation, so various places are at risk for several more winter storms over the next few weeks.

It's hard, if not impossible to pin down exactly who will get hit by winter precipitation after this weekend, so stay tuned. Anyone in the northern half of the nation could be a target with this likely parade of wintry storms.

Snow North and West Sat. Night; A Bigger Storm Midweek?

The weather pattern across the nation has, as advertised,  turned warmer and wetter over the past couple of days.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington
says up to 4-6 inches of snow might fall near the Canadian
border, less to the south. Click on the map to make
it bigger and easier to read.  

The first of the storms in this somewhat altered weather pattern is going to hit northern New England and northern New York Saturday night.

For most of the region, this one's going to be somewhat of a close miss.

Light mixed precipitation will come in Saturday afternoon and continue Saturday night for the southern two thirds of Vermont and New Hampshire and in New York State south of the Adirondacks.

More to the north, it looks like there might be a fairly decent snowfall. In Vermont, it looks as if about 2 to 6 inches will fall within 30 miles of the Canadian border. Northwestern New York, up toward the northern Adirondacks,  ccould get something closer to six inches.

Those of you headed up toward Montreal, watch out: The Montreal metro area looks like it might be in for a six to 10 incher with this.

My usual caveat applies, especially in situations like this when the temperature flirts with 32 degrees. The forecast could be a bust, with less snow than expected up north. Or maybe the snow will extend south more into Vermont than we're thinking now.

This is just the best guess as of Friday evening.

The weather will turn mild and quiet Sunday, a bit cooler Monday, and then we'll have to watch the next storm.

If, and that's a big if, but if current computer models are right, Most of northern New England would be in for a decent six to 12 inch snowfall right around Wednesday. Maybe even more than that, since this midweek storm is going to come loaded with tons of moisture.

The only major question seems to be a few computer models take the storm more north than the others. If that happens, we get mixed precipitation. AND if that happens, there could be quite an ice storm in parts of central New England.

We DON'T need that. A snowstorm would be fine. Ice, not so much.

Winds To 50 MPH Will End Foliage Season In Some Sections Of Vermont

The woods around my house in St. Albans, Vermont look a lot different, a lot thinner than they did yesterday morning.

Fall foliage in my St. Albans, Vermont yard on
Saturday. These colorful branches are
now largely bare after wind and rain last night. Such
weather will continue today.  

We've had some good rains and some gusty winds late yesterday and overnight, and a lot of leaves blew off the trees.

It's still quite colorful with autumn foliage, but it is going fast in this wind.

I'm afraid peak foliage season is pretty much over in higher elevations and parts of northern Vermont as of today.

The state is under a wind advisory, with gusts to 50 mph likely during the day. We'll also get showers and thunderstorms this afternoon and evening, and some of those will have some pretty heavy rain.

All this is the perfect recipe to strip foliage from the trees.

That's OK. We had a long spell of calm weather, and that meant the foliage was spectacular. We had our chance to enjoy it. I hope you did.

Plus, in the Champlain and lower Connecticut River valleys and in low elevations in southern Vermont, spectacular foliage will continue despite today's storminess. There is still some green foliage there, and that will turn color over the next week or so.

The wind will not only strip leaves from the trees today, it might also be strong enough to knock a few whole branches from the trees, and take down some power lines. So watch out for that.

This is particularly true since the National Severe Storms Center says some of the thunderstorms in Vermont could become severe, with winds pushing 60 mph. Maybe.

Also, the fallen leaves will clog storm drains. The rain this afternoon and/or evening looks like it might come in one heavy burst, with up to an inch of rain in just a couple hours in some areas. That clogged drains and heavy rain could combine to produce some street flooding here and there.

The stormiest weather in Vermont will come this afternoon, when the winds will be strongest and the showers and thunderstorms will arrive.

We have gotten used to calm, sunny weather and we've had so much of it lately. The good news is we're only getting one stormy day. The rest of the week looks like we'll have a return to sunshine. Tuesday will be sort of on the cool side, but it will warm up well into the 60s later in the week.

So the nice fall weather isn't finished yet.