Sunday, March 28, 2010

Another east coast storm brings all rain to VT followed a season ending thaw

In the end, the storm early this week will be a microcosm of the season. The cold air which returned in time for the recent weekend has become stale and will receive little re-enforcing help. As a result the storm which will refuel along the North Carolina coast will have little cold air to work with and will spread rain into Vermont Monday and lots of it. There is in fact legitimate concern about flooding when you combine the nearly 2 inches of rain that is expected to fall Monday and Tuesday with the snow that will melt across the high country. The periods of rain should persist through Tuesday with temperatures generally in the low 40's. On Tuesday, the summits could see some limited snow before precipitation moves east and out of the region Wednesday.

Once the sunshine returns the weather will turn spectacular as promised late last week. It is a mammoth upper ridge which is expected to build across the eastern third of the country and this will allow for weather more typical of early June in Vermont as opposed to early April. The only competing force will be some marine air which could back in to interior New England sporadically; otherwise, temperatures will surge into the 70's on at least 2 and probably 3 days in the period between Friday of this week and Tuesday of next week. The warm air will be accompanied by some great visibility and plenty of sunshine. So long as the snow survives, the skiing will be great but the warmth is strong enough to put a mortal dent into the snow cover and will likely render parts of MRG unskiable by April 5th or 6th. With all that in mind the SCWB will probably get one more update before we call it a season.

1 comment:

Harvey44 said...

Mad River did a great job with the hand that was dealt this year.

Really enjoyed having your forecasts on our feed on Harvey Road this year Josh.

While it will be sad to read your last entry on April 3 ... I will definitely do so.