The Vermont Ice And Yuck Continue

Turns out those water droplets on these branches outside
my St. Albans, Vermont house this morning were frozen,
Quite slippery underfoot, too. More rain and freezing
rain is on is way to Vermont. 

 We're midway through our rain/freezing rain/drizzle/fog mess here in Vermont and we have one more good round to go late tonight and Friday.  

There's also been some changes to the forecast which I'll get into as we go along here.

The rain and ice played out pretty much as expected last night, with western Vermont mostly avoiding the ice that made the roads slick elsewhere.

But even in what had been some ice-free spots, like here in St. Albans, the temperature fell below freezing just as the rain was ending. That left a bunch of ice on surfaces that just looked wet. Jackson the Weather Dog took a nasty tumble on the deck when he discovered this problem. (Luckily,  he's fine, just annoyed).

I did see some isolated reports of up to a quarter inch of ice in a few spots in central and northeastern Vermont, and perhaps down in Windsor County, as up to 400 homes and businesses lost power for a time down there.  

Those minimal outages pale in comparison to the tens of thousands of Vermonters who were without power in the wind storms on January 10 and 13.  

I noticed quite a few schools in around Vermont today had delayed openings because of the overnight ice.  

The winter weather advisory that was in effect has been lifted since the bulk of the rain has moved out. But I do see some new advisories in our future. 

So what's next?

TODAY

It'll be dark and overcast, of course. We'll see areas of fog, and a few light patches of drizzle with possible bits of  freezing drizzle in eastern and far northern Vermont. Slick spots will remain on the roads, especially back dirt roads overpasses, bridges and curves. 

I'd be careful driving around today, especially away from the Champlain Valley and lowlands of southwestern Vermont.  It's not going to warm up much with expected highs in the 31 to 39 degree range. So ice could remain all day in some areas.  

LATE TONIGHT/FRIDAY 

The next round of rain and ice come in tonight, later than it arrived last night. 

The timing of this is bad, as most of the rain and freezing rain will be coming just prior to and during the morning commute. 

Latest ice forecast for tonight and Friday from the 
National Weather Service office in South Burlington.
Looks like the central and southern Green Mountains
will get the most ice in the next round. 

Once again, the worst of the ice - or the best chance of it will be from the Green Mountains eastward, and possibly the far northern Champlain Valley.

 I expect another round of school delays or closures in Vermont Friday. I'm sure the National Weather Service in South Burlington will hoist another winter weather advisory, too. 

Ice is bad to drive on, of course, but what will make tomorrow morning tricky on the roads is it will seem like some areas will be just wet, then suddenly you encounter ice. 

One trick that doesn't always work but is still good to note:  If the road looks just wet but the vehicles in front of you are throwing up little or no spray, you're driving on ice.  Remember, though, it could be a mix of water and ice on the road, which is just as bad as plain ice

 There's been a few little changes to this forecast. But the cold air in some layers of the atmosphere will re-assert itself a little during the day Friday. Especially very roughly in the northeastern half of Vermont.

That means the rain and freezing rain could mix with or change to sleet and snow in parts of northern and northeastern Vermont.  The sleet and snow probably won't accumulate more than an inch or two. And it might be slightly beneficial in that the mix means a little less freezing rain will cling to trees and power lines. 

At this point, the best chance of another quarter inch or little more of ice is in the Green Mountains and valleys roughly near Killington and the Middlebury Snow Bowl down to high elevations east of Bennington. 

Not everybody in this region will get a lot of ice. It will be patchy, as it looks now. 

The rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow will probably last into the Friday evening commute, too. The precipitation by that point won't be coming down particularly hard. But it takes very little mixed precipitation to make the roads crappy.  

BEYOND FRIDAY

Saturday just looks cloudy and mild for the season.  I suppose there could be light, wet flurries or a few raindrops around, but nothing to get excited about. 

Sunday might feature some light snow, especially south. We're still watching a new storm that looks like it will scoot to far south to give us any major snows.  But an unexpected shift north could change that, so we'll keep an eye on it. 

We'll probably see a quick shot of cold air early in the week (Highs 15-22, lows in the single numbers) before it gets rather mild again by midweek.