Tornado recap, and freezing temps for us

Matt Sutkoski, Contributor
Weak weather disturbances will keep zipping past Vermont through the weekend, which will keep occasional light snow going. This will keep slowly piling up in the mountains, which is good news for the ski industry. Photo By Barb Keefe.

As expected, more tornadoes broke out Sunday across the South, including a huge wedge tornado that killed four people and caused extensive damage in Albany, Georgia. At least 19 people died in the Southern tornadoes over the weekend, more than the number of people who died in tornadoes during all of 2016 in the United States.

Last year was near a record low in tornado deaths for the nation, but it looks like our luck has run out, at least for now, with a dearth of tornado disasters in past few years. Thankfully, though, this tornado outbreak is over and there is no signs of another blast of severe weather in the next week, probably more.

Also as forecast, the storm system has consolidated into a nor’easter, which means a lot of wind and mixed precipitation came to the Northeast Monday and Tuesday. A variety of winter storm warnings, watches and advisories were up for the interior Northeast.

As many of you noticed, Vermont and many surrounding regions had been entombed in a dense, low, foggy, drizzly, warm overcast last week. Mountain summits have been above the inversion that has caused this and have poked into the sunshine. The spate of warm, gloomy weather we’ve had is very unusual for January. This is the kind of air the storm ran into. Not the usual cold stuff.

Vermont impacts
Mixed precipitation hit the Green Mountain State Monday and Tuesday. Following the storm, temperatures will remain warmer than normal in Vermont through the weekend, but will be trending downward with time. Instead of each day being a whopping 15 to 20 degrees warmer than normal like the past week, we’ll trend down to something like five degrees warmer than normal by the weekend. That’ll keep temperatures below freezing in most spots, even during the day.

Weak weather disturbances will keep zipping past Vermont through the weekend, which will keep occasional light snow going. This will keep slowly piling up in the mountains, which is good news for the ski industry.

Matt’s Weather Rapport is written by Vermont-based journalist and weather reporter Matt Sutkoski. This blog has a nationwide and worldwide focus, with particular interest in Vermont and the Northeast. Find Matt’s Weather Rapport for expert analysis of weather events, news, the latest on climate change science, fun stuff, and wild photos and videos of big weather events. Also check for his frequent quick weather updates on Twitter.