 |
| The forecast snow accumulation map from the National Weather Service in South Burlington has slightly increased expected snow totals from the upcoming storm. |
However, they have increased snow and ice totals a bit since this morning.
Before we get into that, do note there was a cold front in southern Quebec as of 5 p.m. It's coming south into Vermont with a band of snow showers. Some of these might be briefly heavy. Temperatures will drop with these, too.
So road conditions might quickly deteriorate in some areas this evening. Keep an eye on that if you're driving around. Those pesky winter cold fronts!
On to the bigger storm now.
A winter storm warning covers all of Vermont except a good chunk of the Northeast Kingdom, the Champlain Valley and the western half of Rutland County. Within the winter storm warning zone, five to 10 inches of snow should fall with this. At least in general. A few places, especially up in the Green Mountains and upper eastern slopes of those mountains could easily get a little more than that.
A winter storm warning means a storm dumping at least seven inches of snow is occurring or imminent. In this case it's imminent, since it won't start until tomorrow afternoon.
Those areas not under the winter storm warning are covered by a winter weather advisory. Those areas should expect four to seven inches of snow.
This storm still looks messy and wet, and that makes me wonder about a renewed round of power outages.
As of late this afternoon there were still a few outages in southeastern Vermont lingering from Monday's storm. I'm guessing those should largely be repaired by tomorrow, but then this new storm comes in.
Luckily, at the onset, temperatures will likely be solidly below freezing in most areas, so the initial snow shouldn't be too wet and heavy. Then again, trees in southern and central Vermont are still heavily weighed down with snow, so even this more powdery snow could create problems.
You'll notice tomorrow afternoon that the summits of the mountains will begin to look blurry. That's snow falling. At first, the snow will evaporate on the way down, so that's why you'll see signs of snow at the summits but not in the valleys.
But soon enough, the snow will hit the valley floors, probably mid to late afternoon south and late afternoon to early evening north. Give or take.
Plan on a possibly exciting drive home in the snow late afternoon or evening Wednesday. The first thump of snow will come in quick and hard. For a few hours, the snow could come down at a rate of one to two inches of snow per hour. The snow will get wetter and heavier as time goes on. Not a good night to be out and about.
Then, overnight, it will warm up and this storm has a lot of warm, moist air to work with. As the night goes on, we'll probably see a schmutz of wet snow, freezing rain and sleet, and even rain, work south to north into at least central Vermont.
The heaviest snow will be on the east slopes of the Green Mountains, as moisture will be forced up the slopes of the hills. When that happens, moisture gets squeezed out of the atmosphere, and precipitation gets heavier.
In the Northeast Kingdom and western slopes of the Greens, the mountains will block some of the moisture, which is why less snow will fall there. By the way, winds could get pretty gusty at times overnight on the west slopes of the Greens.
This still looks like it will not be anything like that huge storm on December 23. But it could be enough to risk a few additional power problems.
Late at night and early morning Thursday, a tongue of drier and warmer air aloft will tend to taper things off to drizzle, freezing drizzle or a bit of sleet.
Winds will turn west and northwest during the day Sunday. That will usher in colder air at all levels of the atmosphere. So any mix will change to snow. Most of that snow will hit the western slopes of the Green Mountains and the Northeast Kingdom, areas that will have been "cheated" out of snow in the earlier phase of the storm.
Near Lake Champlain, it might not snow all that much Thursday afternoon and night, so that area will probably have some of the lowest snow totals with this storm.
It'll probably get kind of windy during the day Thursday and Thursday night, so there might be a few problems with blowing snow.
The above is the current forecast scenario for this storm. Expect changes, and as those changes do occur, I'll update with subsequent posts.
TEXAS TORNADOES
I have to put in a word about the rough weather this same storm has been causing near Houston today,.
What looks to have been a rather powerful, long lasting tornado swept through largely industrial and commercial areas east of downtown Houston.
This area is rife with oil refineries and chemical plants. But I'm sure a big tornado going through someplace like that is just fine. 😬
Shell Deer Park Chemical in Texas tweeted out, "We're currently experiencing an incident due to severe weather. We're taking steps to minimize any noise, light and smoke associated with this flaring activity. This is being handled within the boundaries of the facility. There is no threat to the community."
I'm uh, reassured?
This Texas tornado stuff is breaking news and will of course need updates. The dangerous weather was spreading into Louisiana and had its sights on southern Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment