Shoveling It Off; Vermont Snow Ends As Winds Still Blow

The light in front of my St. Albans, Vermont house made
the wet snow stuck to a lilac bush glow in the dark 
last evening. I got about four inches of snow. 

 Before dawn today, the snow was pretty much over in Vermont, as predicted.

But as always with any winter storm, there are after effects.  There were some power outages that were still being prepared.  

As you head out today, the roads in many areas are still icy and iffy. Wind chills are in the single numbers and low teens as winds from the northwest gust to more than 30 mph at times.

Yeah, it's winter.  

As of early this morning, snowfall totals are still incomplete, as you might imagine. I'm really interested in how much fell in the high elevations of northern Vermont, as that was the expected bullseye for the heaviest snow. 

It was actually still snowing on the western slopes of the Green Mountains and on the summits early this morning, but it was not coming down nearly as heavily as last night. The National Weather Service in South Burlington is not expecting much more than an inch of additional snow where it was still coming down before dawn.

Stowe Mountain Resort reports at least 10 inches of new snow on the upper mountain, though they acknowledge it's hard to measure with such strong northwest winds. 

Jay Peak, which opens for the season today, hadn't updated its snowfall report as of early this morning, but I do know it was snowing heavily up there late yesterday afternoon and evening.

Elsewhere, I saw a report of 10 inches of new snow in high elevation Shrewsbury, in Rutland County. (It seems like Rutland County was in a zone of relatively heavy snow with this episode).  Statewide, most snow reports from overnight are in the 3 to 6 in range at elevations under 1,000 feet, which is about in line with forecasts ahead of the storm. 

For the record, I picked up 4 inches of snow in St. Albans.  But I live in a relatively high elevation compared to the rest of the town.  I'm sure there's less snow closer to Lake Champlain.  The official total at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington was 3.1 inches. 

As of 6:15 a.m. about 6,000 homes and businesses were without power, mostly in Rutland and Windsor counties, where, again, there seemed to be some heavier snow.  The snow consistency was pretty wet in much of Vermont, especially central Vermont, when the snow was coming down the hardest. So, it stuck to trees and power lines, and when the wind started cranking overnight, well, you know the drill. 

I expect the electrical outages will fade away today since the snow has mostly stopped and crews are out there fixing things up. 

Checking the traffic cams from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, I'd say road conditions early this morning ranged from meh to pretty crappy.   These road conditions will be improving through the day, as I can hear lots of plow truck rumbling out there.  In the meantime, take care out there. 

You're not used to driving in the snow yet, there's always a few idiots out there, so as always when it's like this, take it slow and easy.  If you end up being late arriving at your destination, so what? If anybody complains, they can go screw themselves. 

At least conditions on the roads are already better than the were last night.  Traffic was at a standstill on parts of Interstate 89 in Chittenden County due to crashes and slide offs.  Many other cars went into ditches, all over the state, too.  It didn't help that in some areas, snow-laden branches and trees fell onto roads. 

Looking ahead, there's no big new dumps in our immediate future, but it will snow a little, and stay fairly chilly. That's also in line with previous forecasts.

Don't look for all that much sun, either. Skies might partly clear for a time this afternoon in western Vermont, but in general, don't worry too much about sunburn. We're in the heart of the cloudiest time of year, so this is to be expected.

While most of the nation will be relatively warm for the next week or so, a fast northwest flow in the jet stream coming in from central Canada will keep the Northeast, including Vermont, on the cold side. 

Little clipper storms will race along in this fast flow every so often, roughly every other day.  Each one will throw a handful of snowflakes at us.  Accumulations will be minor, but could add up to a few inches in the higher elevations.

The weather might - maybe - turn, um, interesting again next weekend. But the weather computer models are arguing amongst each other, so it's too soon to guess what kind of storminess we might get in a week, or whether we'll get any storminess.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington notes that any potential weather systems that might affect us next weekend are still out in the western or central Pacific ocean.  Which means it's impossible to tell what would happen when they get near here.