Noon Update: Wild Spring Snowstorm Winding Down, Except In New York State

About as snowy as you can get in April this morning,
St. Albans, Vermont.

 Well, that was something.

Our over-performing snowstorm has finally come to an end, at least mostly here in Vermont, though some snow is continuing in the colder air over New York State and a few high elevations in western Vermont. 

As you are probably aware, the heavy wet snow caused travel trouble, and worse, caused a lot of damage to trees and power lines. 

As of 11:15 a.m. the power outages in Vermont were the worst of the day so far, hovering near 22,000, after wiggling between 15,000 and 20,000 most of the morning. 

The highest snow accumulations I've seen so far in Vermont are 8.5 inches in Hyde Park and 7 inches in Warren. I saw a lot of reports in the three to five inch range, especially in central and western Vermont. I measured 5.1 inches here in St. Albans. It looks like the official snow total at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington is 3.9 inches.

Meanwhile, across much of New York State, some totals were insane. Newcomb reported 13.2 inches. Indian Lake, New York has 16 inches, while Hoffmeister was close behind with 15.5 inches. 

It's even worse in central New York, just west of the Adirondacks. So far, Virgil, New York has 18 inches of snow.  Even well populated areas are buried. The city of Binghamton, New York has so far clocked in with 14 inches.

As of late morning, nearly 200,000 houses and businesses had no electricity in New York State.

Back here in Vermont, road conditions have gotten much better after the heavy snow move on. Interstate 89 southbound near Montpelier was closed for a time this morning as trucks were stalled in the slush. 

As of late morning, back roads are surely slushy with deep mud, so that's no good. But main roads are now just wet, and should stay that way through the rest of the day. 

Budding daffodils in St. Albans, Vermont struggling in
the snow this morning. 

This was a dynamic system that carried a lot of water and energy.  I had thundersnow in St. Albans, Vermont from lightning strikes in nearby Milton. Thundersnow was also reported in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Quebec and Ontario.

The wet, heavy character of the snow proved there was a lot of water in it.  As of 11 a.m. rain and melted snow had already amounted to just over an inch.  Montpelier was a little under an inch of rain and melted snow as of late morning. 

Through the rest of the day, most of us will just have a cold, light rain, with the most probably in the Champlain Valley closer to that band of moisture in New York.  Central New York and the Adirondacks will continue to pile up snow, but at a slower pace than this morning. 

Any snow that doesn't melt away today will still go quickly. There could be a few rain and snow showers tonight, but they won't amount to much. 

Tomorrow will still be chilly for this time of year, but readings in the upper 40s and sunshine should erase most if not all of the snow. 

It'll stay somewhat on the cool side for late April through the weekend, but with highs in the low to mid 50s it doesn't look like another snowstorm is in our immediate future. 

Warmer air, at least relatively speaking has moved up through eastern and northeastern Vermont where temperatures are well up into the 40s. No worries about snow there! 

Some tree branches looked like they were on the verge of 
breaking around my house in St Albans Vermont today.
Many branches and trees did collapse under the 
snow in Vermont today, causing power failures.

As of 11 a.m.the western half of Vermont remained in the colder half of the storm, with temperatures holding in the 30s.  The April sun is strong, though. Despite the cold air feeding into western Vermont from the north, the sun is getting through the clouds a bit, and was melting the snow off the trees.

That was probably worsening power outages late this morning as overloaded branches snap back into place with the snow falling off. Those whipping branches are likely taking down more power lines.

During the afternoon, though, that trend will reverse and power crews should begin to whittle the number of outages downward through the rest of the day.  That, even though temperatures will probably hover only in the 30s to perhaps near 40 in western Vermont this afternoon. It should be in the upper 50s this time of year.