Good day to you, southern Vermonters! Well, some of us got stung by one last whip of winter's tail as it lifted out a couple of days ago. I had proclaimed that winter was over, which was wishful thinking on my part!
Some areas got several inches of snow in western Windham County Sunday night into Monday morning as a lobe of cold air nosed south enough into our neck of the woods to produce snow.
As for the coming week, it looks warmer than the past one, so we're moving more fully into spring. In fact, it will be summery during the last half of this week with showers and thunderstorms possible. For the weekend into early next week, we will tamp the temps back down to more seasonable territory with a return to fair weather. Let's jump into the details!
For Wednesday, we'll be thanking high pressure located off of the southeast U.S. coastline for our very warm back-half of this week. Air circulates in a clockwise direction around high pressure systems, which will produce a strong southwesterly flow of warm, moist air into southern Vermont.
Expect highs well into the 70s on Wednesday, with west wind gusts increasing to 30 mph as high pressure nudges north, producing a stronger pressure gradient in reaction to low pressure to our north.
Skies will be mostly sunny, and lows Wednesday night will dip into the upper 50s under partly cloudy skies. A pop-up shower is possible.
For Thursday, our west-to-east oriented northern New England frontal boundary will continue to sag south with low pressure tracking east along it while dragging a cold front through the region on Friday.
This will set the stage for instability and increased moisture, which will create the potential for strong to severe thunderstorms on Thursday afternoon and evening. Highs will be in the mid to upper 70s with lows in the upper 50s with more showers and thunderstorms possible.
For Friday, low pressure tracking north and east of us will drag the cold front through, producing more showers and thunderstorms, and with a bit more moisture in the region, some heavy downpours will be possible.
Highs will be in the low 70s and lows in the low 50s with showers possible during the evening, too.
For the period from Saturday through next Tuesday, we should see cooler high pressure build in with highs in the low 60s and lows in the low 40s under partly to mostly sunny skies. Have a great week!