More snow late Thursday into Friday followed by a week of dry, chilly and at times blustery conditions

 If we could only bottle winter weather like this. The best week of the season continues to deliver Wednesday. As I begin this blog post, heavier snow showers continue from Waterbury north to Smuggs and as we turn those winds to a more northwesterly direction, we can expect some of that activity to impact MRG and Sugarbush (likely around midday). It will be a race to beat the drier air however which should clear all of the convective activity away by evening and set the stage for a chilly near zero degree overnight. 

The week culminates with the approach of another clipper system Thursday.  Like many clippers, this system contains plenty of jet energy but not plenty of moisture. I think we can make the most out of the whole situation however with light snow arriving in the afternoon Thursday and persisting into the evening. By early Friday, the snow shower setup arrives and improves as the day moves along. 1-3 inches are likely from the light snow late Thursday and Thursday night and another 2-5 inches is likely during the day Friday, particularly at the peak of diurnal instability, Friday afternoon. 

Our weekend weather is dry and cold and should feature at least some sunshine both Saturday and Sunday. Though new snowfall isn't likely over the weekend, we can expect a small amount Friday evening and night as an extension of the activity Friday. In addition to the cold temperatures of near 15 Saturday we can expect some very gusty winds of up to 30-40 mph at the summits.  Sunday looks a touch colder on temperatures and just a touch less windy though certainly far from calm. 

We can speak to the weather for the last week of January with a bit more clarity today and its really an extension of the weekend. Dry and cold and at times pretty windy. Many of the general ideas proposed by the ensembles several days ago appear to be looking pretty good as we get a bit closer to the forecast period. We won't see any of the bitterly cold temperatures or even get a taste of the arctic cold currently gripping portions of Siberia, but a less substantial area of arctic cold will make its way on to the playing field beginning this weekend and grip northern New England through most of next week. Most importantly though, the position of the mean trough over the western North Atlantic, well underneath the island of Newfoundland and east of Bermuda places Vermont in a dry zone of weather. The biggest weather producing system will impact portions of the east coast Monday and Tuesday but the jet stream is likely to steer the moisture well south and east of the our state. Worth watching as always but I am very doubtful. We are thus left with cold, dry and windy weather through at least Wednesday, a calmer day Thursday and the chance for some light snow Friday. Temperatures which will finally reach below normal territory this weekend will continue to be through most of next week with readings between 14-22 for highs and within 5 degrees of zero for lows. 

Aside from marking the arrival of a new President, Inauguration Day also offers us the first real chance to glance into early February. The pattern continues to look less arctic with the persistently irritated and agitated Pacific jet stream forcing a retreat to some of the arctic chill next week. Blocking in the jet stream across northern Quebec will also help keep it very mild in eastern Canada placing us in a more tenuous but not hopeless situation as we enter February. Fortunately, the negative AO will not leave our side and will give us the opportunity to take something positive away from the first 5 days of February.  We can expect more active weather at the very least, but will to retain at least a minimal amount of chill.