Big MLK holiday weeekend storm has lots of potential for the whole of interior New England

The weekend system left a nice blanket of snow in DC and a very distinguishable seasonal snowfall hole in the Boston to New York city corridor. Mad River Glen has stayed out such a hole this year so far and I expect will stay out of it for the duration of the month the way things are looking. The mountain enjoyed a cold and dry weekend but temperatures have moderated to more seasonable levels as of early in the week. If you like tranquility and some good visibility, enjoy it because as they like to say, ___ its about to go down (insert 4 letter word) with wild temperature swings, storms and some extreme cold mixed in for the balance of January.

Over the next 2 weeks, a couple of big picture items that we typically monitor will be competing with one another and thus all the anticipated action . A block in the jet stream over the Arctic Circle will form and allow arctic air to push southward through Canada and the northern part of the United States. Meanwhile, the Pacific will remain active with a barrage of storminess creating lots of precipitation coast to coast while at the same time somewhat blocking the southward advance of arctic air. All of this will, for the most part, be to Vermont's benefit as far as wintry weather is concerned. Arctic cold will enter the playing field, but for the time being, won't be so overwhelming that we are taken out of the pathway for all the storminess and snowfall. The first chance for such snowfall comes a weaker wave of Pacific energy Thursday night. It won't be much of an event, less than 12 hours of relatively light snow, but enough to bring a 2-4 inch refresher before a stronger arctic airmass builds across the state and region by later Friday. And this sets the stage for the holiday weekend which to say the least, looks quite a bit interesting.

Unlike its predecessor, the storm coming out of the Colorado Rockies on Friday will be a beast and  is poised to make a run at the east coast late Saturday into Sunday. The storm will be fued by moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and a massive clash in temperatures between a strong arctic airmass to the northwest, and warm, moist, almost tropical air along the southeast coast. Snow and ice will result across New England with interior areas seeing the best chance for heavy snowfall including our beloved Mad River Valley. Though there have been a few models the past few days that have kept the storm to our south, I am much more concerned about a changeover to ice with this event than missing the storm entirely. Either way, this is a massive event that is capable of producing a lot of precipitation over a broad area. For the time being, we sit in a pretty good area for another foot of additional snowfall and potentially a lot more.

The storm will help to pile drive cold arctic air deep into the south for Martin Luther King Monday. At Mad River it will simply be that run of the mill, blustery, bitterly cold day with snow showers. Temperatures are likely to hover around zero on the mountain with wind chills well below that. Winds will subside somewhat on Tuesday and temperatures are likely to recover into the teens after beginning the day below zero.

The duration of next week (beyond MLK day) also look interesting with the region as a whole being the nexus  betwen a clashing of airmasses. For the time being models indicate a series of drier days between Tuesday and Thursday and then another potential storm late in the week or the weekend. Though the pattern will be full of cold air, the focus of this will be on points further west after Tuesday and the door is open for about anything as next week progresses. Eventually however the EPO is expected to relax jus enough to allow arctic cold to win the day by about January 27th or so and the month to finish on the very chilly side. Looks to be a terrific pattern with lots of snow, yet still the possibility for a few other precipitation types as well in spite of all the cold.