Wet snow Friday night will cover the northern Vermont high country with a few inches to start the first full weekend in April

Sunshine helped to boost temperatures out of the teens and into the 40's Friday keeping with the theme that the weather in much of Vermont has only allowed for limited glimpses of spring. The Friday evening, early Saturday weather map appears rather disorganized, and a rather disorganized area of precipitation will impact the high country across northern Vermont before clearing the region in the morning hours Saturday. The airmass in place across the region is both cold (for the season) and especially dry and this will allow a chunk of this precipitation to fall as a wet snow and leaving our favorite Vermont ski locations with 2-3 inches of snow by first tracks time Saturday. The exiting precipitation early in the day will also mark the northward advance of some milder temperatures. Readings will climb well into the 40's Saturday and may approach 50 on Sunday ( higher readings can be expected in the low lying areas).

A few days ago, the April 7-9 time frame was highlighted as the period most likely to see some decent spring-like warmth and that it wasn't likely to last. Well, at least the 2nd part is looking correct and the first is more accurate in locations south of Vermont. For northern New England, cold air positioned over Quebec will compete for control and bring more classic Vermont April conditions. The limited sunshine and near 50 degree readings Sunday will be replaced by cloudiness, temperatures generally in the 30's on Monday and a period or two of rain. Though the rain will move out by Tuesday, the clouds will prove to be more stubborn and thus keep temperatures from climbing out of the 40's until very late in the day if at all. Wednesday will follow with readings ranging from the 30's during the morning to near 50 during the afternoon and this will be followed by cooler conditions as we approach the last weekend of the Mad River Glen season.

The blog will likely get one more general update next week which will discuss the weather details during the mid-April MRG finale. If some kind of storm shows up, multiple updates may be required. Though a powdery finale is unlikely, the pattern will be driven by the negative Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation (AO & NAO). This means below normal temperatures and the possibility of unsettled weather including snowfall. For now, we should keep expectations more general and expect sub-freezing temps at least in the mornings and no better than 45 in the afternoons. Conditions are also more likely  to be cloudy with at least one period for some type of precipitation.