Good day to you, hearty and heart-full New Englanders! The main weather headline for southern Vermont is the continuance and persistence of our national weather pattern. The large-scale global patterns continue to produce a ripping zonal Pacific jet stream.
What does that mean? A “zonal jet stream” refers to a west-to-east fast-moving river of air several miles up above our heads that directs storms across the globe. This, combined with a persistent area of high pressure (known as a ridge) near Florida, has caused storms to track east-northeast into the center of the country, and then northeast through the Great Lakes.
This keeps us on the warmer side of storms. With plenty of cold air that has drained into our region, we have often started as snow as storms track to our west, then change to ice.
This Wednesday night into Thursday morning will be no different. Another similar setup arrives Saturday night into Sunday, so let's jump into the daily details!
For Wednesday, we will enjoy a cold, partly sunny day with highs in the low to mid 20s. Clouds will continue to increase as the day wears on. As a storm system tracks northeast through the Great Lakes, it will float a warm front toward southern Vermont.
With cold air entrenched at the surface, moisture will ride up and over the cold dome and snow will breakout across southern Vermont between 6 and 8 p.m., most likely. We should see a coating to 2 or 3 inches of snow before it mixes with and changes to sleet before midnight.
Sleet, freezing rain or freezing drizzle will be possible into the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning before ending by mid morning. Lows will reach the low 20s. For Thursday, expect an icy morning commute and give yourself extra travel time.
As the day wears on, milder air moves in on west winds gusting to 30 mph with highs in the low 40s, and lows in the mid 20s. Some scattered rain showers are possible during the day.
For Friday and Saturday, we will have beautiful partly to mostly sunny days and highs in the mid 30s Friday and upper 30s Saturday, with lows in the low 20s Friday night and upper 20s Saturday night.
Another inland-tracking storm system brings more snow in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning, before changing to sleet and then plain rain Sunday during the day with highs in the upper 30s.
Scattered mixed showers may persists into Sunday night. It looks to get a bit cooler by early next week before another storm arrives Tuesday or Wednesday. Have a great week!