Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Burlington, VT
Issued by NWS Burlington, VT
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138 FXUS61 KBTV 241138 AFDBTV Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Burlington VT 638 AM EST Mon Nov 24 2025 .SYNOPSIS... Light upslope snow will taper off today with a dry period expected through much of Tuesday as temperatures trend a bit higher. A warm front will bring light rain late Tuesday and even milder conditions for Wednesday, especially immediately ahead of a cold front. This front will pass through Wednesday night, which will promote showers and blustery conditions into Thanksgiving Day. Gusty winds will continue Thursday night through Friday along with localized lake-effect snowfall and then quieter, drier weather will follow for the weekend. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/... As of 213 AM EST Monday...We`re on the backside of a broad shortwave trough this morning, and spokes of deeper moisture are pivoting eastward before it exits. Most of this activity is focused in southern portions of the region; however, subtle surface troughs are helping precipitation blossom in the Champlain Valley and northeastern Vermont, and as low level flow becomes more westerly finally after sunrise there will be a more pronounced upslope precipitation event unfolding rather than the more chaotic coverage of snow showers currently on the map. Steep lapse rates and orographic lift should overcome lack of large scale lift and poor saturation of the snow growth zone to provide at least a couple hours of light snow accumulations. As the snow showers wind down from late morning through early afternoon, we`ll probably see only up to an inch in most locations in the Adirondacks and northern Vermont, and possibly 1 to 2 inches on the mid-slopes and summits of the central and northern Greens. The weather pattern will change pretty significantly into tonight as much milder air aloft advects into the area on west/southwest flow as surface high pressure passes to our south and east. Warm frontal precipitation mainly to our north could briefly swipe northern Vermont at some point tonight with very light snow as it falls into a dry near surface layer, but otherwise it will remain dry with temperatures steady and then rising a bit overnight as winds aloft increase greatly, supporting mixing of warmer air above the surface following sunset. Think low temperatures are somewhat uncertain, with areas in central and eastern Vermont especially so where presence of clouds and/or wind would lead to a milder night than currently indicated. && .SHORT TERM /TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/... As of 213 AM EST Monday...Mild conditions will be in place on Tuesday, along with breezy, southerly channeled flow on Lake Champlain where a lake wind advisory may be needed at the start of the period. As a wave of low pressure approaches from the Ohio Valley, rain chances will increase, especially after sunset. Have indicated a slight chance of freezing rain at this time in possible colder pockets in northeastern Vermont, but confidence in accumulating ice at this time is low, given expected temperatures well above freezing during the day Tuesday and poor radiational cooling out ahead of the precipitation. Perhaps some locations will wet bulb down to near freezing, but think this event will be mainly plain rain. In fact, beginning Tuesday evening and lasting through all of Wednesday, even mountain summits will be all rain as a deep warm layer will cause the freezing level to be well above 5,000 feet. The main period of rain, with light amounts averaging in the range of 0.15" to 0.35", will be overnight Tuesday. This widespread rain will be followed by widely scattered shower activity during the day on Wednesday in a warm sector of a large frontal system that will drag a cold front into the area at the end of the day. High temperatures for Wednesday have edged slightly warmer, likely associated with the system trending stronger and the related warm air advection being more substantial out ahead of the cold front. 925 millibar temperatures will become anomalously warm, possibly pushing the 98th climatological percentile in Vermont towards Wednesday evening. Moist low level air will keep us from seeing equally anomalous surface temperatures associated with better mixing. That being said, future forecasts may need to bump up high temperatures further, especially east of the Green Mountains where non-typical diurnal temperatures (rising after sunset) are expected. && .LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/... As of 1252 AM EST Monday...Lake effect snow will get underway as deep southwesterly flow sets in until a vigorous upper vort pushes east of the region. Warm surface conditions and very cool upper temperatures in the 10th percentile will result in scattered precipitation, even without the band of lake effect that will develop. Low-level cold advection doesn`t begin until Friday. So there will be some valley rain where temperatures will rise into the upper 30s to near 40 on Thanksgiving Day. The lake effect showers will be active Wednesday night into Thanksgiving morning across the St. Lawrence Valley, and then as diurnal instability of about 100 J/kg with 8-9 C/km lapse rates will develop, that scattered activity will develop across Vermont. Thanksgiving Day will be breezy with gusts 25 to 35 mph across the area, less breezy in the Upper Valley into the Northeast Kingdom to just 20 mph. Thanksgiving night into Friday, a surface trough will progress east, and flow will turn more westerly. The lake effect band will amble southwards. Then the backside of the upper trough will shift southeast Friday afternoon, switching activity to more orographic northwest slope type snow. Between this and the lake effect snow, we`ll need to monitor the potential for headlines. Probabilistic data suggests a 50-70% chance of about 8" of snow in far southern St. Lawrence County over a 48 hour period. We`ll certainly know more as high res, convective allowing models can capture these details better. This activity appears somewhat short-lived as channeled zonal flow aloft and incoming 1030+mb high pressure ambles overhead, which will cause precipitation to diminish. Saturday night into Sunday could be quite chilly if we manage to clear out. Southwesterly return flow becomes reestablished fairly quickly, and we`ll warm back up heading into the new work week. && .AVIATION /12Z MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/... Through 12Z Tuesday...Shower activity is thinning, but persisting in common trouble spots for northwest winds such as KSLK and KEFK. A combination of intermittent light snow and patchy clouds around 600- 800 ft agl could cause some IFR for the next 2-3 hours, mainly at KSLK and KEFK. Ceilings will be slow to improve, mostly staying MVFR through about 19-21z. Winds today will be west to northwest around 4 to 8 knots much of today. KMSS and KSLK will trend southwesterly after 18z, and other terminals will follow beyond 00z. Skies trending partially clear with some high clouds at or above 10000 ft possible. Some LLWS is possible near KMSS beginning about 00z, but the fastest winds appear to stay just north of the terminal. Outlook... Tuesday: VFR. Slight chance RA. Tuesday Night: MVFR/IFR conditions possible. Likely RA, Slight chance FZRA. Wednesday: Mainly IFR, with areas MVFR possible. Chance RA. Wednesday Night: MVFR/IFR conditions possible. Chance SHRA, Chance SHSN. Thanksgiving Day: Mainly VFR, with local MVFR possible. Windy with gusts to 30 kt. Chance SHRA, Chance SHSN. Thursday Night: Mainly VFR, with areas MVFR and IFR possible. Likely SHSN. Friday: Mainly MVFR, with areas VFR possible. Chance SHSN. && .EQUIPMENT... NOAA Weather Radio station WXM-44, transmitting from Mt. Ascutney, Vermont, on frequency 162.475 MHz is non-operational at this time. NWS technicians have diagnosed the problem, but repairs will likely not be able to occur for quite some time due to circumstances beyond our control. Therefore, the time of return to service is currently unknown. The following NOAA Weather Radio transmitters may be able to provide service during this outage: WWG 50 from Burke Mtn, VT at 162.425 MHz and WNG 546 from Hanover, NH at 162.525 MHz. && .BTV WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... VT...None. NY...None. && $$ SYNOPSIS...Kutikoff NEAR TERM...Kutikoff SHORT TERM...Kutikoff LONG TERM...Haynes AVIATION...Haynes EQUIPMENT...Team BTV