Wild Snow Squalls Sweep Through Vermont Sunday

Intense snow squall slamming into Route 36 (Fairfield Hill
Road) in St. Albans this afternoon. 

 Well, that was intense. 

As of late afternoon, the entire northern two thirds of Vermont had been hit by an intense line of snow squalls, and as of this writing at around 5 p.m.  the squall line was remaining just as intense as it plunged into southern Vermont. 

My brother-in-law just sent me a photo of super heavy snow in West Rutland, Vermont as of 5 p.m. 

This was one of the most powerful and widespread line of snow squalls I've seen in years in Vermont. The only snow squall I've seen in recent years this wild was a more localized one that went through St. Albans, Vermont way out of season last April 22.

Today's snow squalls were quite brief in any one location and only left less than an inch of snow. But they demonstrated the utility of the National Weather Service's decision to issue snow squall warnings when such weather threatens.  These things were very dangerous if you were out on the roads. 

This was the second time in eight days NWS Burlington was forced to issue snow squall warnings. Similar squalls hit on February 19.

Kudos to the National Weather Service office in South Burlington with their predictions for this. The meteorologists there picked up on this late last week, and at that point began to include the possibility in their forecasts.

By this morning, the South Burlington NWS office had put out a special weather statement saying snow squalls were likely this afternoon.  Their forecasts this morning were exactly spot on for the intensity, timing and location of today's snow squalls. 

Today's snow squalls were not accompanied by phone alerts, like on February 19. As VTDigger explains, the National Weather Service issues targeted warnings, but ran into some technological hiccups. So Vermont Emergency Management picked up the slack, which prompted those phone alerts.

Today, it looks like the National Weather Service didn't encounter any technological problems, so they relied on their tried and true alert system when they issues snow squall warnings today. Your phone thusly didn't buzz for the warnings unless you'd already set it up to do so.

The warnings were certainly warranted this afternoon. The line of storms resembled solid walls of snow as they approached, and created instant whiteouts.  I haven't yet heard of any major crashes due to these snow squalls, but of course it takes time for reports to come out. 

That vertical feature you see in the clouds is a wall of 
snow from an intense snow squall rolling into 
St. Albans, Vermont Sunday afternoon.

 

Social media in Vermont lit up with images of zero visibility, strong gusty winds and swirling snow.  For what it's worth, you can see my YouTube video of how things went in St. Albans, Vermont today. 

The squall was fascinating as it approached. It came so fast that on video it looked like time lapse, but it was not. They just moved quickly.

So quickly that hardly any snow accumulated. The squall was in and out of St. Albans within 10 minutes. It was so windy it was impossible to measure the accumulation, but it was certainly a half inch or less.  That probably was typical statewide.

Except for southern and eastern Vermont, the snow squalls are done for the day, though there might be a few more snow showers to contend with.

Winds behind the line of snow squalls are gusty from the northwest, so blowing snow is a problem. I imagine this is especially an issue near Lake Champlain. From my perch on a hill in St. Albans, I could see massive amounts of blowing snow on the frozen lake late this afternoon. I'm sure there are local white outs on roads on the islands and near the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain.

Snow squalls like today's can happen anytime from late fall through winter and into spring,   but I have a feeling that today's squalls, and those eight days ago could perversely be a sign of spring. The sun's angle is rising toward the new season.  

The sun's warmth can add instability to the air, and that could have been a factor in the squalls' intensity.

It'll be a cold, wintry week. No big storms are in the offing.  An Alberta Clipper is forecast to give us a small amount of snow Tuesday, but no snow squalls are anticipated with that one. Another disturbance Thursday could give us some squalls, but that's very uncertain. 

Video:

Click on this hyperlink if you don't see the image of the video below. If you do see the image, click on the red arrow, then the YouTube logo for best viewing of the snow squall in St. Albans.