Historic October 4, 1987 Snowstorm Still Seems Wild

October 4 1987 in Bennington, Vermont. Image from
the Bennington Banner.

 It'll be a pretty nice, warm week here in Vermont, with certainly no snow in the forecast. 

Skies should slowly clear after another cloudy day today, and aside from daily early morning fog for the rest of the week, there will be no weather problems.

That kind of benign weather doesn't always happen during foliage season.

With this year'squiet weather, we can look back at one of the more remarkable weather events I can remember. That was the October snowstorm of 1987.

On this date back then, the sky was clearing after incredible amounts of snow fell, especially in southern Vermont amid peak foliage season. 

Since most of the leaves were still on the trees, the heavy, wet snow collected on those leaves, weighing down the trees until countless branches and whole trees collapsed under the burden. 

The storm stranded thousands of leaf peepers in cold, powerless hotels and inns.  Roads were impassable because of the snow and fallen trees.  

On the bright side, those who could get out were treated to a unique fall foliage experience, especially the day after the storm on October 5.  By then, skies were clear, the remaining trees gleamed with fall foliage amid a deeply snowy landscape in some parts of Vermont. 

While most of Vermont outside the Champlain Valley saw accumulating snow in that storm, the snow focused most heavily on Bennington County and on into the Capital District of New York.

In some towns, a whopping 18 to 24 inches of snow fell, and snowfall rates were up to three inches per hour. You can imagine how fast the trees collapsed under that pace of snow.   There would have been a lot of tree damage even if the storm had occurred in leaf-free winter.

The snowstorm was caused by a relatively slow moving, intensifying nor'easter whose center passed through southern and eastern New England. 

The storm pulled down some unusually cold air from Canada. The strengthening storm also formed its own pool of cold air several thousand feet above the surface.  That cold pool centered itself over western New England and eastern New York, and that created the snowstorm.

Central and northern Vermont received less snow, mostly around six inches in mid and higher elevations, but that was more than enough to break trees there, too.  I wish I wasn't at work the evening the snow began to taper off on Sunday, October 4.

In eastern Chittenden County, fall foliage was laced with lots of snow. There was a dark-post storm overcast overhead, but the sun dramatically broke through the clouds just before sunset. That combination of conditions surely made for some incredible photos. 

Temperatures warmed pretty quickly after the storm, and the snow disappeared fast. But in some towns, it took more than a week to restore power and even longer to clear all those fallen branches and trees. 

That October, 1987 storm proved that even in a relatively warm time of year, a cold surprise can really slap you in the face.