Spring Storm: Snow Up High, Especially Southern Vermont

Vermont Agency of Transportation web cam from
Route 4 in Mendon, Vermont early this morning.

The spring snow and rain storm spinning over New England and New York was, as of 6 a.m., playing out almost exactly as forecast.  Snow is plastering high elevations, while some warmer valleys continue to get rain. 

There are some quirks going on, with southern Vermont valleys and central New England also getting in on the snow.  

Northern valleys are actually a touch warmer so most of those low elevation spots have so far kept with rain, with no snow. 

Overall,  expect a chilly, raw, wet, and some cases white day today through this evening.

As expected, the storm center itself is temporarily stalling over southeastern New England. Its upper level support was a little to its west over roughly south central New York early this morning, which is a normal arrangement for a storm of this type. 

That's what's helping cause the quirks I mentioned.  The upper level storm is a cool pool of air aloft.  It's helping translate the weather down to the surface. It's cooler near this upper low, so snow is more widespread in places like the Hudson Valley of New York and the lower Connecticut River Valley and in parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut.

Places a little further north are actually a bit warmer, so low elevations of northern Vermont were mostly rain. 

You could see this in the 6 a.m observations.  It was 32 degrees and snowing at a 574-foot elevation in Springfield, Vermont.  Web cams along relatively low elevation Interstate 91 in Hartford and Weathersfield just after dawn showed snow on the ground and trees sagging under the weight of snow 

The cold spot seemed to be down in Albany, New York,  elevation only 285 feet above sea level, was close to the upper low.  It was only 30 degrees there with snow falling at 6 a.m. 

Meanwhile, up at Saranac Lake, New York, a notorious cold spot pretty high up in the Adirondacks at 1,663 feet,   it was snowing, but the temperature was slightly warmer, at 32 degrees. In Burlington, it was a "balmy" 38 degrees.

Some northern areas were getting into the snow act around dawn. Web cams along Interstate 89 in Brookfield showed heavy snow falling shortly before 7 a.m. and the highway looked slushy.   Secondary roads in the high spots are surely slick.

As of 6 a.m., the wet snow was contribution to around 3,000 homes and businesses without power, mostly in Windsor County. 

Even low elevations in southern Vermont are getting snow,
closer to the cold upper level low. This is a Vermont
AOT webcam along Interstate 91 in Hartford.

We'll get many more snow reports later, but the spotty early reports include seven inches in Landgrove 4.4 inches in Athens, Vermont, 4 inches in Plymouth and Woodstock, all in southern Vermont. In the north, Williamstown reported 3 inches so far.   

There's still a chance the warmer northern valleys could see some snow mix in this morning,  especially during periods when precipitation is heavier and can drag down cold air from aloft. 

Still, this remains mostly an elevation and southern Vermont/central New England snow. 

Since this storm is such a slow mover, expect light rain and snow to continue all day and into this evening.  Snow will continue for a few hours this morning even in the valleys of southern and central Vermont, and in parts of central New England.

The sun angle is high this time of year, so despite the thick clouds and cold upper low nearby, it will warm up just slightly. Enough so that by afternoon, sow will exit the valleys and be confined to elevations above 1,500 feet.

We needed all this moisture, as I've been mentioning so often, so even the snow is more good than bad.  Burlington had 0.67 inches of rain Thursday, which isn't extraordinary, but it was the wettest day since January 16. And of course more rain is falling today.

At my very unofficial rain gauge in St. Albans, Vermont, I had collected 1.2 inches of rain as of 7 a.m. today.

A bit more good news in the rain department: It's starting to look like a cold front coming in the middle of next week will be a little slower and wetter than first thought. Let the rains continue!