Slip, Sliding Away On An Icy Vermont Christmas

Ice accumulation map for today from the National Weather
Service.  Most of us should get about a tenth of an inch
of ice, more than enough to make the roads treacherous.
South

 Seriously, all I want for Christmas is to not break my leg slipping on the ice that's starting to form out there. 

This year will be a promising nominee for worst Christmas weather on record in Vermont, I hate to say.

Sure, other Christmases were lousy, too.  In 1980 it was in the 20s and 30s below. In 1978, there was one to two feet of snow, which made for a VERY white Christmas, but one you couldn't really drive through easily. It was in the mid-60s last Christmas, which was nice, I guess, but not traditional. It would have been more welcome on Easter.

Freezing rain is my least favorite kind of weather and that's what we're stuck with today.  

To pile on the bad news, the timing of the steadiest freezing rain couldn't be worse.  Before dawn, there were just a few snowflakes,a few sprinkles and drizzles of freezing rain. It wasn't that bad, really.

Most people, though, if they need to get to a friend or relative's house, usually drive over say, in the mid morning to early afternoon.  That seems to be when the steadiest freezing rain will happen, and when the roads will be worst. Most of the ice will come between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. today. 

Mind you, this won't be a freezing rain downpour.  But it will be more than enough to make the roads hazardous. I feel especially bad for the guys and gals on the highway road crews who will need to spend Christmas Day driving their salt shaker trucks around. 

Yesterday, I was saying ice won't accumulate enough to cause any real trouble with tree and wire damage. That remains true for most of us. 

I'm beginning to wonder, though, about a few locations in southeastern Vermont. Ice accumulation could get to almost a quarter inch thick.  That starts to be enough to cause scattered issues with too much weight on wires and branches. 

I'm glad we're talking about anything heavier than what we're getting.  A half inch of ice would start to cause serious trouble. If there's a bright side to today's weather, we're not going to that extreme. 

There might be a third or more of an inch of ice in some isolated spots in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts, so they'll need to keep a close eye there. 

Back here in Vermont, there might be a few hour window of above freezing air in the central and southern Champlain Valley and low elevations of southwestern Vermont  this afternoon. But cold ground temperatures will keep untreated surfaces quite icy. 

It still looks like a fair amount of snow will be mixed in up in the Northeast Kingdom, so they could get a couple inches of accumulation. Of snow, not ice.

Things will freeze back up late this afternoon and tonight, or remain frozen.  Initially it seemed precipitation might change back to snow tonight, but many of us could well be stuck with a bit of freezing drizzle overnight and early Sunday morning. Ugh! We can't escape it, huh?

For you fans of freezing rain out there --- anyone? Just one? No? - there's a chance we could be dealing with the same issue again midweek. That's an uncertain forecast for sure, but it's worth watching.