By a razor thin margin...

the precipitation late Thursday night into Friday morning appears to be in the form of snow. This is a system that is now plugged into the Gulf of Mexico's moisture source and will track in what appears to be a favorable direction, ultimately passing just west of the city of Boston before continuing on its travels northeast toward the Canadian maritimes. It will a quick moving system with a very confined corridor of snow. This means many locations will miss out and it much of northern Vermont stands to perform the best in terms of snowfall totals. The storm is also oh so close to being too warm at critical levels but it appears as if our supply of arctic cold from Canada has arrived in adequate strength to keep precipitation falling in the form of snow. Indications are though that our friends in central and southern Vermont will not be nearly as lucky with a changeover to sleet and freezing rain more likely the farther south you go. Snow will end or taper to flurries later in the day Friday but snowfall totals will range between 8-12 inches. Temperatures look just cold enough to support power (middle to high 20's) but any sleet could hurt the quality of the snow.

I don't have any good news regarding the pattern in the longer range. Still looking at a big warm-up early next week, a temporary return to cold for the middle of the week before another push of milder air around December 19th. Cold continues to expand very impressively in Canada and if the eastern upper ridge flattens toward Christmas things should get alot more interesting. Enjoy the snow !!