Final Vermont Storm Wrapup. Plus A Gorgeous, Powdery Saturday Leads To A Frigid Night

Map of snow totals from our recently departed snowstorm
closely match forecast maps ahead of the storm, so
kudos to the National Weather Service in South
Burlington. Click on the map to make it bigger
and easier to see.

 The final list is in for snow totals across Vermont, and that list confirms that across the northern three quarters of Vermont or so, amounts are tightly clustered between 11 and 17 inches.

That's unusual, because the path of a storm and its wind field, usually leads to highly variable amounts of snow in most Vermont winter storms.  

This time, the storm itself was weak, so it didn't have much of a wind field to add snow to locations where the wind was climbing the sides of the mountain, or "shadow" areas where wind is forced to roar downhill on the other side of the mountains. 

During this week's storm, a very rich supply of wet air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean was forced to rise over a wall of cold air.  Rising air does enhance precipitation. The wall of cold air was mostly above mountain top level, so there was nothing to make strange snowfall booms and busts. Everybody got in on the action. 

Jackson the Weather Dog could barely peek over the 
heaps of snow left behind by this week's big snowstorm in 
St. Albans, Vermont, Jackson measured a final
snow total of 15.7 inches here in St. Albans. 

It was interesting that the two towns that had the greatest total, 18 inches were Warren, a perennial winner in the winter snow derbies, and Charlotte, a Champlain Valley town that usually misses out on the big storms. 

Unfortunately, far southern Vermont had a much shallower layer of cold air, so they got a bunch of freezing rain an sleet out of this, and not much snow. 

If you look at the map of snowfall totals in this storm, it really closely matches the forecast maps the National Weather Service in South Burlington issued ahead of the storm. Kudos to them!  

I have to say, wasn't today a beauty in Vermont?!?! That clean, deep fresh snow for most of us, those brilliant blue skies, that chilly bite to the air. I'm certifiably crazy and hand shovel my very long driveway.  

Today was so nice that I pretty much took pleasure in the chore, even though my nearly 60 year old body is now tired and a little sore. Worth it though!  I hope you had a nice powder day. 

True, far southern Vermont didn't have snow, but the ice glistening on the trees like crystal sculptures had to be amazing. Today will easily be the nicest day of the winter in Vermont. 

As I've been advertising, clear, calm nights with deep, fresh snow lead to frigid nights. As soon as the sun sets this evening, the temperatures will crash. We'll all be in the single numbers to teens below zero overnight. 

Deep snow and a late afternoon sun played with shadows
and colors in the deep snow in St. Albans, Vermont today

Thankfully, the core of the coldest air will be moving east of us late tonight, so I'm thinking only parts of the Northeast Kingdom will make it into the 20s below.

One other weather hazard to deal with:  In the Champlain Valley and the Islands, south winds will pick up, so we'll have problems with blowing and drifting snow.   That'll be a problem especially around open farmlands and on the islands, where wind will propel snow off of large frozen expanses ofLake Champlain. 

Expect problems with visibility and deep drifts on roads in these areas Sunday afternoon and night.