First Widespread Vermont Snow Wednesday Was "A Very Pretty Snoliage" Surprise

Everybody gets excited about the first snow of the season. 

Snow falls in Burlington Wednesday afternoon. Some trees
still have leaves on them, making for some pretty scenes.

Like on Wednesday, when snow fell across most of Vermont. It didn't amount to much in most places, though a few places in southern Vermont did pick up a surprising amount of snow.   

People were thrilled to go out into the snow when it arrived. Never mind that many of these same people will be cursing the snow by the time March and April roll around. 

The first snow of the season is usually pretty benign, and so it was Wednesday.  Pavement was mostly too warm to freeze amid the snow, so there weren't a lot of traffic problems.

That said, temperatures were below freezing in most of Vermont early this morning, so there's probably some icy patches here and there on the roads. 

We got an added treat with this snow due to the warm autumn we've had. In low elevations, colorful leaves are still clinging to some of the trees. This resulted in a classic "snoliage" day in which the snow dusted orange and yellow and red leaves to make Wednesday a very photogenic day.

Video is below to give examples of how pretty the day was. 

This snow was an over-performer.  We knew a weak weather disturbance was on its way, and we knew it would trigger some scattered snow showers.

However, a  particularly heavy batch of snow went through southern Vermont and western Massachusetts Wednesday morning and early afternoon. Most places down there got just a dusting to an inch, but a few spots were nailed, all things considered. A location near Ludlow saw 5.3 inches of snow. Perennial snowy spot Shrewsbury, Vermont picked up two inches. 

Snow dusted St. Albans, Vermont on Wednesday.

A second batch of somewhat heavier than expected snow hit the Champlain Valley and some other parts of northern Vermont during the early to mid afternoon. 

Although the word "heavy" is an overstatement, since most places in northern Vermont had an inch or less of snow.   North of Burlington, the snow didn't melt immediately, and was still on the ground this morning.

It was quite a pretty drive on the way home from Burlington yesterday afternoon as dark clouds contrasted with the white snow on lingering oak leaves and on the dark green pine trees.  It looks like my place in St. Albans picked up about 0.8 inches of snow. 

There were some climatologically oddities in Wednesday's snow. That Vermont would receive a trace to three inches of snow in early November isn't weird - that's not it. 

The stat that stands out is Burlington. Almost always the first snow of the season there (and pretty much anywhere) is a trace.  A few flurries fall, but nothing sticks, and accumulation is regarded as a trace.

In Burlington, the first snow of the season was actually measurable. True, it was only 0.1 inches which is practically nothing. But the fact that the first flakes of the season actually amounted to something - albeit very minor - is odd.

There's been weirdness in snowfall in the region this season. Montreal had its first measurable snow of the season on Monday. But according to some reports, it was the first time on record the first measurable snow of the season in Montreal came before the first freeze of the season. 

This, of course, was just a foretaste of winter. We're not going to see anymore snow for at least a few days.  It'll be too warm. We do have a risk of showers Saturday through Monday, but it won't rain all of the time. In fact we have a shot at a pretty decent Saturday all in all. 

However, a relatively cold weather pattern looks like it will return next week, bringing us renewed chances of light snows,.

Here's a video of yesterday's pretty snow in Burlington and St Albans, Vermont. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: