Good day to you, southern Vermonters! This early spring has been more like late winter, and that trend continues through the end of this week, unfortunately.
For skiers, this has been a wonderful season to be sure, but for the rest of us, it's been a slog. There is at least some short-term light at the end of the tunnel, and the weekend into early next week is looking pleasant, calm, and milder.
However, the Wednesday night through Friday period is looking inclement and, at times, wintry with additional snow accumulations possible. Let's jump into the details!
For Wednesday, we will enjoy a brief period of subsidence behind the departing upper low that brought rain and snow showers to southern Vermont on Tuesday.
Subsidence refers to sinking air. Sinking air is found under high pressure systems, as sinking air causes air to compress and dry out. We should enjoy partly sunny skies with highs in the mid 40s and lows in the low 30s as clouds increase ahead of our next storm system.
For Thursday, an upper level system will dive south out of southeastern Canada while a surface low tracks east-southeast through New York and Pennsylvania. These systems will merge to some degree and track over southern New England, or just south of the region.
This will bring rain and snow showers into southern Vermont during the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning and last during the day. Some light snow accumulations are possible in the hillier terrain. Highs will be in the mid to upper 30s, with lows in the low 30s.
For Thursday night into Friday morning, some energy will be hanging back over our region, and as colder air rushes in Thursday night, we should flip over to all snow.
As of this writing, it's too early to know what type of accumulations we'll see, but if I had to provide an estimate, it would probably be 2 to 5 inches of snow.
Highs on Friday will be near 40 degrees, and any snow or rain showers should quit by early afternoon, leaving us with a partly to mostly cloudy Friday night with lows in the upper 20s.
High pressure then moves in and dominates into early next week with mostly sunny skies through the period and highs climbing from the mid 40s through the low to mid 50s by Monday and Tuesday. Have a great week!