Freezing Rain To Hamper After-Holiday Travel Saturday

Champlain Valley Weather Discussion:
         Conditions are becoming more likely for some freezing rain, some rather significant late tonight into Saturday afternoon. The most significant icing should occur outside of our area, in the St. Lawrence Valley, but conditions are being monitored for any changes. Also strong winds with gusts up to 60MPH are possible along the western slope communities of the Green mountains. If icing to near a quarter inch, and high winds become likely, then an Ice Storm Warning may be issued for these areas, even though they don't meet ice storm warning criteria of a half inch of greater. The reason being, its going to be the day after Christmas, and the combination of up to a quarter inch of ice, and strong winds, would result in trees, and power lines coming down, easier then if there was no wind. So this COULD potentially turn into a high impact event. At this time though, I will play it down some, and say that this will be a moderate impact event, with some travel difficulties, and the potential for some isolated power outages.

         Mixed precipitation is expected to start late tonight, initially mixing with sleet, and perhaps some snow, only briefly. The snow and sleet, will change to freezing rain, and then to rain in the Champlain Valley, by late Saturday morning or early afternoon. Freezing rain should linger across eastern Vermont for a few more hours, then in the Champlain Valley before changing to all rain. Across the extreme northern Champlain Valley, conditions will be monitored closely for a northerly, or northeasterly drainage flow from Canada, which could result in more ice then currently expected. At this time though Ice accumulations of up to a quarter inch are expected across the area. So thus I have issued a Freezing Rain Advisory. Also has mentioned above southeast gap winds will hit the western slopes, and cause potential wind gusts to 60MPH as well, so I have thus issued a High Wind Watch for that potential. Stay tuned for further updates.

         There are currently no OFFICIAL alerts from the National Weather Service across our area. There is however a Winter Storm Watch in effect for the St. Lawrence Valley for the potential of significant amounts of ice.