Evening Blizzard Update: Two Feet Plus In New England, Will Wind Down Tonight, Vermont Spared As Expected

Government Center Station in Boston today. Photo by
Scott Elsen/Getty Images.

As of late this afternoon, the big blizzard in New England was just a few hours away from winding down in Massachusetts and Rhode Island but was still going full tilt in coastal New Hampshire and Maine. 

Vermont was, as expected, a bystander to all this, but at least in northwestern Vermont, we got a very nice sunset out of the deal.  Sunshine in clear air over New York lit up the high clouds overhead in the Champlain Valley.

Of course, it's anything but nice further east. The highest snow total so far in Massachusetts is 24 inches in Bridgewater. There are several other reports of over 20 inches. Since it was still snowing at this report, those totals will go up. 

Highest official wind gusts so far were 81 mph in West Dennis and 78 mph Chatham, both on Cape Cod.

Snow amounts in New Hampshire and Maine were much less, mostly because the storm started later and there's been little time for accumulation. Those two states will end up with somewhat less snow than Massachusetts anyway. 

Islip, Long Island reported 22 inches of snow. New York City never did get into the heaviest snow bands, so Central Park came in with a respectable but not overwhelming 7.5 inches of new snow. 

At least in my opinion, the morning coastal flooding in Massachusetts was a little worse than expected. I do see some damage in some of the videos floating around on social media.

On the bright side, the worst of the storm surge hit during low tide later in the day, sparing the coast of any extreme damage.

People might laugh if anybody says climate change caused this storm.  The reality is global warming didn't actually cause this huge nor'easter but it probably made it worse than it otherwise would have been.

Water temperatures in theAtlantic Ocean along the path of the storm are at near record highs. The warmer the water, the stronger the storm and the more moisture can feed into the storm. When that extra moisture collided with the cold air over New England, you got the kind of dumping snow we saw today. 

One thing I haven't mentioned and should is that this storm is directing some awfully cold air into Florida. At least cold for them.

Freeze warnings extend as far south as places in inland Florida, due west from Miami.  Miami itself might go below 40 degrees for the first time in a decade. 

Hard freeze warnings are up in northern and central Florida, alerting residents o to overnight and early morning temperatures as low as 21 degrees.

It'll be so cold in Florida that it will rain iguanas tonight. These animals like to sleep up in the trees at night, but they lose their ability to function and grip things when it gets under 45 degrees. So they fall from the trees.

Unless something attacks them while they're on the ground, they'll be fine. They recover when it warms up again. The forecast high in Miami tomorrow is 64 degrees.

VERMONT IMPACTS AND WHAT'S NEXT

No snow from the blizzard in northwestern Vermont, but the 
shield of high clouds from the offshore storm did manage
to give us a decent sunset up in St. Albans. 

Far southern and eastern Vermont managed to get a tiny bit of snow out of this. Stamford and Readsboro, Vermont each reported 1.7 inches.  Putney managed 3.2 inches. Brattleboro had two inches by noon, so they probably ended up with three inches. No biggie.

It'll be another frigid night in Vermont, with temperatures below zero once again. 

However, we're getting a brief break from the repeated blasts of Arctic air that have been coming at us one after another this month. The first half of the week will bring us a moderating trend. Tomorrow will get into the teens, Monday the 20s, Tuesday the 30s and Wednesday possibly the low 40s.

The price we'll pay for this is a potentially very messy storm on Thursday. If we indeed get that late week storm, nobody knows yet if it will be rain, an icy mix, snow or all of the above. Stay tuned! 

VIDEOS:

With many of these, I don't want to run afoul and deny some of these video journalists their credit, so click on the hyperlinks in each description:

Coastal flooding and wild wind rake Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Obligatory video of giant waves crashing into houses in Scituate, Massachusetts. These Scituate videos surface after every big nor'easter but this one looks more damaging than most storms in recent years. 

Earlier today, things weren't  much better with the snow in Seaside Heights, New Jersey

Here's what it was like driving around Providence and Warwick, Rhode Island. 

In Boston, cars are hopelessly snowed in