Rinse and repeat, another 1-2 feet !!!

We've certainly seen some storms slip through our fingers this year and a soul crushing stretch of February weather that appeared on the brink of permanently closing out the 2017-2018 season at MRG. March arrives, the pattern improves drastically and a "trend is your friend" theme has suddenly dominated the blog. Almost 30 inches on the ground with more coming, a lot more actually.

As of Sunday afternoon, a storm is intensifying and gathering a healthy supply of Gulf of Mexico Moisture. It will already be a formidable system by the time it moves off the Carolina coastline on Monday and it will appear as if it will make a full escape out into the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, but you simply can't count any storm out in this pattern. Jet energy will dive in behind the storm , amplifying the pattern and further fueling the system, while continued blocking over the Labrador Sea prevents the aforementioned full escape. The storm will thus make the critical northward turn, pass just east of Cape Cod Tuesday afternoon and get hung up in the Maritimes for a time, somewhat like the last storm. This is a stronger storm from the standpoint of atmospheric pressure and a larger storm geometrically which means that in spite of the less than favorable track, Vermont will be positioned to get some decent snowfall and better than decent snowfall thanks to the storms temporary maritime "hang-up".

Much of southern and eastern New England are positioned to get clobbered with some of the heaviest snowfall through much of Tuesday. Snow will begin across much of the state of Vermont by Tuesday morning and persist steadily throughout the day, accumulating 4-8 inches by the evening. If the storm track can shift westward by 100 or so miles, accumulations could be double that at then some. Even without the shift, snow should continue into Tuesday night and into Wednesday when lingering moisture will combine with the added effects of upslope. The central and especially northern Green Mountains should do especially well as a result with an additional 2-4 inches Tuesday night and another 2-4 Wednesday. And it won't stop there, as moisture will be allowed to pinwheel around the weakening area of low pressure into Thursday thus yielding our 3-day total of 1-3 feet. I am actually being a bit conservative on snow estimates. It's an excellent setup even without the most optimal storm track and I could see the northern Greens overperforming much like we did Saturday night.

Overall this is both a stronger and colder storm. Snowfall should be powdery throughout with temperatures in the lower 20's and we should see stronger north winds though the strongest winds appear to be reserved for eastern New England mainly Tuesday. Winds will shift to the northwest Wednesday and Thursday but remain in the 10-20 mph range with higher gusts at the summits.

Flurries might continue into Friday but the accumulating snow should be over by Thursday. Temperatures are expected to remain well below freezing on the hill through Friday and the St Patrick's day mild push appears less potent although temperatures are likely going to climb above freezing at low elevations by Saturday afternoon. Some underrated good news is that the potential storm that appeared timed for the 18-19th of the month appears delayed allowing the pattern to supply what will be much needed cold air as the precipitation arrives. Within a day or so of March 20th we could see another and this is followed by more March chill that will persist through the end of the ensuing week. Now when I say "March chill", it's a relative term. Late March weather typically consists of many above-freezing days even in wintry patterns but to readers of the blog, I think that goes without saying.