Friday, March 4, 2011

Big rains Sunday but some snow to follow for Monday

A large upper ridge is well entrenched across the east coast and this is allowing very mild weather to push well into interior sections of New England. We do have a storm trying to break this pesky feature down but it is running into a brick wall as it progresses east. The result will be an unfortunate rain which will begin Saturday evening and will be quite heavy for a time during the day Sunday. After over an inch of rain, a cold front will mercifully make its push through Vermont and bring colder weather and... a little winter weather Sunday night. The snow will come as a result from a wave of low pressure, one of many which will form along the above-mentioned slow moving front but this one will move to our right as opposed to our left. The transition to snow may be gradual with rain changing to a freezing rain and sleet mixture Sunday evening and then going to all snow by daybreak Monday. We could see a couple hours of fairly heavy snow before precipitation moves off to our northeast. Overall this system is an impressive one for its total precipitation. Over an inch of rain as I mentioned and then several inches of sleet and snow.

The return to winter in Vermont will last a few days but we can't rid ourselves of this extremely adverse pattern. The next system late this week will thus be forced to conform to the same guidelines as the previous two which will mean another push of mild weather and potentially more ice and rain. In the case of this upcoming week, the approaching weather system Thursday will encounter a more resistant form of cold air giving us a shot at some snow late in the week but its just a chance and the more likely result is something more undesirable.

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