Snow Makes A Return Visit To A Vermont Spring

Large fallen branches still litter a South Burlington lawn 
on Tuesday, a week after a wet spring snowstorm damaged
trees in much of Vermont. Tree trimming companies
are swamped with requests for help from storm damage

A little over a week after a wet snowstorm trashed lots of trees and power lines across much of Vermont, the Green Mountain State is facing more snow today through tomorrow. 

This time, thankfully, there will be much less snow for most places than what we had on April 19. Some places won't get any at all. 

But, we certainly have another interruption of spring to talk about, as cold north winds, clouds and low temperatures won't put you in the mood to dance with the daffodils for the next few days. The snow will mostly be in higher elevations, and the Northeast Kingdom.

The culprit is a storm in both the lower and upper levels of the atmosphere blossoming near Maine and New Brunswick. It's pulling cold, wet air around the back side of it. Atmospheric steering currents over the Atlantic are all gummed up at the moment, so that storm will sit and spin now to Saturday, keeping us chilly, mostly cloudy, and at times, snowy. 

Most of the snow we do receive comes this afternoon and tonight. Snowflakes will eventually make it down to many valley floors overnight, but if anything accumulates in the lowlands, it will just be a slushy coating on the grass.

At and above about 1,500 feet above sea level in northern Vermont, there's a good chance of seeing one to three inches of snow. Some of the highest elevations and a few spots in the Northeast Kingdom could see four or five inches, says the the National Weather Service in South Burlington. 

There might even be enough snow for an isolated power outage or two, but we won't see anything like the scale of last week. 

The Northeast Kingdom missed out on a lot of last week's snow, so I guess it's their turn. 

For all of us though, we'll endure some March like weather, especially today through Friday. That means highs only in the 40s, with a few upper 30s in the coldest places in the Northeast Kingdom. Overnight lows for the next few nights will be near or below freezing.

Since the storm will be stalled near New Brunswick, the further east you go now through Saturday the worse the weather will be.  Northern New York might actually be fairly sunny starting tomorrow.  Vermont's Champlain Valley will see some peeks of sun occasionally, but the Northeast Kingdom looks gloomy.

Things will start to improve Saturday  and especially Sunday, when that pesky storm finally gets a good shove out into the Atlantic Ocean. By Sunday afternoon, temperatures should be in the 50s to around 60, which isn't far from normal for this time of year.

Beyond that, the weather looks like it will be a typical spring pattern of changeable weather, with nothing too extreme in the offing.

Meanwhile, the fallout from last week's storm continues in Vermont. Tree companies are slammed with business with wait times to remove fallen and damaged trees extending into weeks.  One victim of fallen trees said the chain saw guys couldn't even look at their damage the day and day after the storm because there were prioritizing all the houses and cars damaged by the trees.

The McNeil Waste Wood yard in Burlington, where people can bring their clean wood, such as branches and broken trees, had an immense pile of storm damage as of Wednesday. The attendant there said it's been incredibly busy since the storm.