Wintry Mix To Impact Holiday Travel; Winter Weather Advisory

Local Update...
   JRWeather Winter Weather Advisory In Effect From 12AM Wednesday To 12AM Thursday...

JRWeather WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY
     JRWeather has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Orleans, Caledonia, Essex, Lamoille, Washington, Orange, Eastern Franklin, Easter Chittenden, and Eastern Addison Counties in Vermont, and St. Lawrence, Franklin, Western Clinton, and Western Essex Counties in New York.

     A low pressure system over Colorado will continue to move Northeast and into the Great Lakes region through Christmas Eve. This will bring some wintry precipitation to the area. It should start as all snow for the entire region early Wednesday morning, and slowly change over to sleet, and then to freezing rain, and to plain rain in some spots. By Christmas day, the sleet/ freezing rain may change to all rain across much of the region. Total snow accumulations of 2-5 inches, and total ice accumulations of around a tenth to locally a quarter inch can be expected in the Advisory area. The most significant ice accumulations will occur across the sheltered valley's in Northeastern Vermont, and the St. Lawrence Valley in Northern New York.

     A Winter Weather Advisory is issued when significant but not severe winter weather is expected. In this case the winter weather advisory is for light to moderate snow, and ice accumulations. Holiday travel will be impacted by this storm, but not severely. Roads will become snow, and ice covered but not enough to make travel impossible. Drive cautiously, and defensively, and leave extra time to reach your destination.

Discussion
     The discussion will be fairly short, the Winter Weather Advisory has details pretty much covered. Low pressure will move from Colorado Northeast, and through the Eastern Great Lakes region for Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day. This will put us in the warm sector of the storm (Back to the old weather pattern) resulting in a wintry mix, changing to plain rain in the Champlain Valley. The only place of most significant concern once again with this type of set up, is the freezing rain potential, especially in the Northern St. Lawrence Valley, where cold air is going to hang on tight, despite strong southerly winds across much of the region. The heaviest of the snow accumulations will be in Northeastern Vermont, and Northern New York. Across the Champlain Valley we will likely see all 3 types of wintry precipitation (Snow, Sleet, Freezing Rain) before changing over to plain rain, however it will not be significant enough to warrant any alerts at this time. For the Champlain Valley though one thing that will need to be monitored, is when that Southerly wind kicks in, it will funnel through the valley, and could produce some very strong winds, resulting in a Wind Advisory, or even a High Wind Watch, or High Wind Warning. Winds should be strong enough across the entire area to warrant at minimum a Wind Advisory. This wont be issued right now though, I am going to wait for a bit more details before issuing any Wind Alerts. Eitherway holiday travel is going to be impacted, but as long as you drive carefully, and leave plenty of extra time to reach your destination you should be just fine. Alert, and accumulations maps below... Stay tuned for further updates!