Thursday Evening Update: Dreary Day, Icky Evening In Vermont

After this morning's snow, a combination of temperatures in
the teens, periodic snow showers, moments of freezing
drizzle and a low overcast made for a 
dreary February day in St. Albans, Vermont. 

After last night's and this morning's snow, and a dreary day of low overcast, fog, light, grainy snow showers and freezing drizzle - let's call today's weather snizzle - we're now gearing up for Round 2 of our latest Vermont winter storm.  

Round 2 won't be huge. And though this has definitely not been the biggest winter storm ever to hit Vermont, it still caused its share of problems.

The worst was a likely weather related car crash on Interstate 91 in Hartland this morning that killed one person. 

Slide offs and more minor crashes were reported statewide. 

The latest list of storm reports indicate areas kind of between Route 4 and Route 2 got five to eight inches of snow out of this. Amounts tapered off as you headed toward the Canadian border because dry air won out. Only 1.5 to 5 inches fell north of Route 2. My place received an additional 0.3 inches of snow during the day, bringing my total so far to 3.5 inches as of 5 p.m. I got off easy. 

Or not so easy, as you'll learn further down in this post. 

South of Route 4, mixed precipitation cut back on snow amounts. 

TONIGHT

A new winter weather advisory has been posted for along and south of a  line roughly from Vergennes to White River Junction as Round 2 moves in. 

Though temperatures are remaining quite cold near the surface, another strong push of warm air is coming in aloft. It will ride over the cold air. 

In the winter weather advisory zone, snowflakes from way high up will melt on the way down when they encounter that layer of warm air.  Some of those raindrops will re-freeze on the way down when they hit the cold air a little above the surface. That would be sleet.  Other raindrops won't freeze until they hit the surface. That's freezing rain. 

Luckily, this next push of moisture this evening isn't as vigorous as the one last night. So precipitation will be light. But it will be enough to make road conditions deteriorate again, and make things extra dicey underfoot. 

A sign of spring, believe it or not. The sun shone very 
weakly through the clouds around noon today in St. 
Albans, Vermont while temperatures were in the upper
teens. But with a higher sun angle, the sun's rays
were briefly able to melt a small amount of snow'
and ice on my driveway. 

A tiny amount of freezing rain or drizzle can cause real problems. I learned the hard way today. I shoveled the driveway at my house in St. Albans, Vermont today. Then we had a period of light freezing drizzle which froze onto the pavement. So, clumsy me slipped on that thin layer of ice and took a nasty fall. 

Luckily, the result is only a headache, a slightly scraped and bruised arm and an even more seriously bruised ego. So let this be a warning. Be careful out there! 

A sign of spring, though. Toward noon, the sun shown weakly through the clouds. It was only 18 degrees, but still, the sun was enough to briefly melt some of the ice on the driveway. The increased sun angle as we head toward spring is  making a difference. That brief melt would have never happened in December.

Back to the forecast: 

Near Route 2, any mix will probably be just sleet, but we can't rule out any freezing drizzle. Way up north, within, say 20 or 30 miles from the Canadian border, there should be little if any mixed precipitation. Just snow. That's why there's no winter weather advisory in the north. Because there's not much ice to talk about. 

These northern spots should  receive another one to three inches of snow. Some higher amounts will probably fall in the Green Mountains from near Bakersfield to the Canadian border.

FRIDAY

It'll be all over except for scattered snow showers on Friday. As advertised, it will be a frigid, blustery day. For the fourth Friday in a row, temperatures will hold near study or more likely fall slowly through the day. That's, of course, opposite of what you'd expect, with temperatures rising toward a peak in the afternoon. 

But we insist on being half-assed backwards again. 

Friday night and Saturday morning will be by far the coldest since February 4. Almost everybody will be below zero. The cold spots will make it into the teens below zero. This isn't record cold, but it is quite nippy for late February.  

WEEKEND/NEXT WEEK

Saturday will stay cold - not getting out of the teens. There's a risk of a few lame snow showers, too. Sunday brings us a better chance of snow showers, but it will warm up to the 20s to around 30. The snow showers Sunday will probably only give us two inches or less of snow.

I somewhat more substantial storm seems to be in the cards for Monday night and Tuesday. But we don't know how much or what kind of precipitation we'll get. Odds at the moment are leaning towards light to moderate snow, but that could easily change.