BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A large area of low pressure will continue to bring a variety of impacts to Vermont and the North Country through Saturday including soaking rain, strong wind gusts and mountain snow. If you’re heading out on Friday evening for Halloween festivities, you’ll want to plan ahead for a showery, brisk and blustery night. Wind chills will only be in the 30s to low 40s.
Rain: The heaviest rain will occur between Thursday evening and early Friday morning. Widespread rain will taper to isolated showers after sunrise. Most of the day will be relatively dry, but showers start to fill back in during the late afternoon and evening, especially in communities hugging the mountains. Plan ahead for additional showers during the evening.
Most of Vermont will pick up an additional half inch to an inch of rain between Thursday evening and Friday morning. Totals will likely be a bit lower in parts of the Northeast Kingdom and Upper Valley. Some communities will see between 1″ and 2″ of additional rainfall through Friday, especially in the higher terrain of southeastern Vermont and in New York’s North Country.
Wind: Impacts from wind will be highly variable over short distances due to our topography. With the First Alert Weather App, you can see those town-by-town differences on a map, tailored to your county.
The focus for strong wind gusts Thursday night will be along the western slopes of the Green Mountains, Rutland County and Bennington County.
A Wind Advisory is in effect for eastern Franklin, Chittenden and Addison County along with all of Lamoille, Rutland and Bennington County through 5 a.m. Friday. Easterly winds between 20 and 30 mph with gusts between 45 and 55 mph are possible in those areas.
Winds won’t be as intense during the first half of Friday, but will shift westerly and ramp up again during the late afternoon and evening. It will be brisk and blustery with the potential for gusts up to 25 or 30 mph areawide, but some areas will see higher gusts. Parts of Clinton and Essex County in New York as well as the Champlain Islands, northern Champlain Valley and communities along and east of the Green Mountains could see gusts up to 45 mph later Friday evening.
A separate Wind Advisory is in effect for Windham County from 11 a.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday for westerly winds between 10 to 25 mph that could gust as high as 40 to 50 mph at times.
Winds remain brisk into Saturday afternoon.
Snow: Rain showers will start to flip to snow in the high terrain Friday evening. Outside of the broader valleys, there’s a good chance you’ll see some wet snow if you’re out late Friday evening, especially in the northern half of the area. High elevation snow showers continue into Saturday morning, trending later and tapering off through the afternoon.
Snow will be heavy and wet, with some minor slushy accumulations above 2000′ expected through Saturday morning. The ground is still warm enough that a lot of it should melt on contact, especially the lower in elevation you are. Mountain summits in the northern Green Mountains and Adirondacks could see 1″ to 3″ of snow through Saturday afternoon. The central and southern Greens will see less.
Impacts: Dress warmly if you have outdoor plans Friday evening. If you have outdoor decorations or inflatables, make sure they are secure or staked down. A few power outages are possible in areas that see the strongest wind gusts.
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