The  National Hurricane Center   continues to issue advisories and forecasts on  Hurricane Sandy (see attached).

If you've been following...this track is definitely a shift WEST and stronger, maintaining Hurricane status offshore of North Carolina before turning "Post Tropical" (aka - Powerful Nor'easter) before making landfall between Cape Cod and Jersey shore on Tuesday.

The exact path will determine the type and magnitude of the impacts for the North Country (Vermont and Northern NY).

A track closer to NJ/NYC would mean a greater wind threat for the North Country. 

A track across CT/RI/Cape Cod would mean a Rain and Wind threat.

  Wind Threat: 

At this moment, this may be the bigger threat. Confidence is Moderate.

Strong east to northeast winds could exceed 50 mph  or MORE, especially exposed hills/ridges and in downslope locations such as the western slopes of Vermont's Green Mountains and portions of Northern NY.. Scattered to widespread power outages may be likely, especially if these winds occur with saturated soils, thus fallen trees.

Rainfall:

At this moment...heaviest rainfall threat MAY be NY vs. Vermont. 

Again...so much can change that  both states need to be prepared for potential heavy rainfall of 2 to 5 inches and possibly localized more. Downed leaves will plug storm drains, thus urban, road flooding will be very likely. Minor to potentially Major flooding of streams...particularly mountain streams and rivers are possible.

Any flood threat will likely be different than Irene in that this will be a longer duration event 24-30+ hours vs. 12 hours. Max rainfall rates may be .25 inch or more per hour with this system vs. 0.50 to 1 inch per hour with Irene. The end result will mean it will take longer to flood and it may be more focused on stream and river flooding with only localized FLASH FLOODING.

Confidence of a flood threat is Low to Moderate at this point, but could change significantly depending on the track.

Timing:

Rain threat as early as Sunday in NY...possibly holding off til late Monday in VT.

Winds increasing during Monday into Tuesday.

AGAIN...there remains much uncertainty being 5 days out. However, be prepared to plan for the worse and hope for the best, including closely monitoring future weather forecasts and other information.