Vermont Winter Storm Warning As Snow Forecasts Remain Unchanged

The obligatory snow forecast map from the National Weather
Service in South Burlington. If it verifies everybody in 
Vermont gets at least six inches of snow, with closer
to a foot in the southern third of the state.

 As expected the winter storm watch that had been in effect for Vermont was upgraded to a warning for tomorrow's snowstorm.  

Overall predictions for accumulation are unchanged, with six inches or a little more than that near the Canadian border to near a foot in much of southern Vermont. 

The snow moves in well before dawn in southern Vermont and will spread northward, as is usual in these cases.  The morning commute will be challenging, especially in southern Vermont. During the morning, it might not be snowing all that hard up north, but enough to make the roads slick enough.   

As the National Weather Service in South Burlington explains it, southern Vermont will benefit from its closer proximity to the storm. Lots of moisture will ride up over colder air covering central and northern New England. That air will get even more lift because it will have to rise up and over east and south facing slopes.

Up north, the moisture supply isn't quite as good, but a weather disturbance tagging along with the main storm will add some great lift to the air during the late morning and afternoon.  You want rising air to set off precipitation, so the snow will come down hard from a little before lunch to dinnertime.

The trip home from work will be challenging late Friday afternoon because snow might be coming down at a rate of an inch per hour or more.  At that rate, it's hard to keep up with the plowing.

The snow will be powdery everywhere in Vermont, but even more so up north. The fluff factor will be really high north of Route 2, so that eight inches or so of expected snow will compact down to five or six inches or even less after a few days. 

If you melt the forecasted snow down, it would amount to less than a half inch along and north of Route 2, but more than three quarters of an inch along and south of Route 4. 

At this point, no sleet or freezing rain is expected anywhere in Vermont, including the far south. 

That, of course, is a very good thing. We've had enough ice this winter. 

We're lucky. The storm that is creating our snowy Friday is mainly an ice storm for much of the nation. Sleet and freezing rain has caused oodles of problems across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and on into parts of the Midwest. 

An ice storm warning is up for parts of Pennsylvania tonight due to expected heavy freezing rain. 

Back here in Vermont the snow will end Friday night and it's still looking like a great weekend to go out and play in the snow. 

With a caveat.  We might be setting up for another round of snow squalls on Sunday, like we saw last Saturday.  So if you're out and about, perhaps on the way to or from the ski slopes, you might encounter some whiteouts on the roads, so be aware of that. 

Since we're heading into March next week, thaws are getting easier to come by, but in this case, the snow will last for awhile.  Temperatures are forecast to stay near or below freezing through next Wednesday.