Saturday Evening Vermont Winter Storm Update: Worst Over, Light Snow To Accumulate Yet

Map of reported snow totals from our latest winter storm,
issued by the National Weather Service office in South
Burlington mid-afternoon Saturday. Less snow than
expected fell over northwestern Vermont, but some 
of those areas will partly make up for that deficit as
light snow continues tonight. 

 If you don't like the inconvenience of a winter storm in Vermont, the month of March can be your friend. 

The sun angle is higher and when the snow tapers off some, the travel trouble the storm caused erases pretty fast. Even if it stays cloudy and it continues to snow a little, the roads, driveways and such improve mightily.

That's definitely what happened in Vermont today. No question the roads were awful this morning. By noon, the main roads were just fine. 

In much of Vermont, the snow kept falling all day, at least lightly.  But it did stop accumulating. Temperatures rose to a little above freezing, and a little of the sun's warmth pierced the clouds. After about mid-morning or so, road conditions improved hugely, and things were just fine all afternoon.    

As we lose what little sun is coming through the clouds and temperatures cool this evening, some snow will start to accumulate in northern and central Vermont again.

Road conditions will go downhill a bit, too. 

More on that in a moment.

ASSESSING THE STORM

As far as statewide accumulations go, the storm under-performed just slightly. Totals in central and southern Vermont were mostly in the 6 to 12 inch range, as expected. But so far, at least, I don't see any spot amounts of 18 inches, which I had anticipated on the eastern slopes of the Greens between Okemo and Sugarbush. 

The most I've seen so far is 14 inches in Rochester and East Brookfield. A later report from Maidstone in the Northeast Kingdom also came in with 14 inches. 

It's still snowing in the mountains a little, so we'll see additional accumulation.

Wet snow, mostly south of Route 5, along with gusty winds along the west slopes of the Green Mountains in Rutland and Bennington counties, contributed to about 2,000 power outages. But those have been resolved and everybody is pretty much OK now. 

Once snow was cleared from my St. Albans, Vermont driveway
this morning, continued snow melted as it hit the pavement due
to slightly above freezing temperatures and a higher
March sun angle. 

Franklin County had a less snow than anticipated, too. Most of that area had four or five inches. 

I predicted 7 inches at my place in St. Albans. But I ended up with 5.2 inches.  It continued to snow continuously, if lightly, all day after I measured that 5.2 inches. But the temperature was a little above freezing, and any new snow melted as it hit. It was glorified rain. At least on the pavement and deck.

 On top of the cold, existing snow that fell this morning, St. Albans had another inch and a half of snow this afternoon. But that technically doesn't count. March is weird that way.  

The area of Vermont that was the biggest forecast bust was eastern Chittenden County. Downslope winds off the Green Mountains  really dried the atmosphere, so only two or three inches of snow fell there.

A BIT MORE SNOW TONIGHT

Even though snow melted on my deck today, I still might might achieve my seven-inch prediction. However, I still might make the seven inch prediction tonight. 

The eastern Chittenden County towns that got "cheated" out of snow this morning look like they'll partially make up for that tonight. . 

Here's why: The ongoing light snow looks like it will keep going well into the night. As I noted, the snow will soon start to accumulate again, where it hasn't started already. Snow accumulates much more readily in March during the night. Hello darkness my old friend, the snow will accumulate once again. (Sorry Simon and Garfunkel!) 

Unlike this morning, the northwest winds favor relatively decent snows along the western slopes of the Greens. The National Weather Service is only forecasting an inch or two of new snow tonight and tomorrow in eastern Chittenden and Franklin counties. I honestly think there might be slightly more than that, perhaps as much as three inches. Not a lot, but something. 

In Franklin County, I don't anticipate anything more than an half inch to an inch at most of additional snow near Lake Champlain. But where I live on St. Albans Hill, and points east of here toward Fairfield and Bakersfield, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a couple inches accumulate this evening and tonight, once the temperature starts to drop. 

A few inches might pile up around Jay Peak. 

This additional snow won't have nearly as big an impact as the snow this morning did. But road conditions will go downhill some this evening and overnight. The pavement was just wet late this afternoon,  but it will turn somewhat slushy, and icy in spots.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Sunday will be similar to today, except the light snow won't steadily fall, like it did today.  Instead, a few wet snowflakes might come down in the valleys, and snow showers could provide another dusting of snow to the mountains. 

The upcoming week still looks like it will feature boring weather, but with a caveat. The mountains, especially from Killington north, will get flurried to death. 

That means persistent snow showers will pile up one to three inches of snow daily through most of the week. So some of the mountains could get another half foot of snow between Monday and Thursday. 

In the valleys, we'll just see some light snow showers or flurries all week. You might wake up to a dusting of new snow most mornings, but that will probably melt off your driveway on its own during the day as afternoon temperatures creep above freezing. 

The next chance of any kind of substantial storm is at least a week away, and even that is really iffy.