Horribly Timed Snow Squalls Slamming Vermont Late Today

Heavy snow in downtown St. Albans, Vermont
this afternoon.

 An intense line of snow squalls lumbered through the Champlain Valley of Vermont late this afternoon, snarling traffic and causing crashes throughout the region.  

It's not entirely over for Vermont as of 5:45 p.m. The squalls have been showing a slow forward motion, and were entering central parts of the state. And southwestern Vermont as well. Expect trouble on the roads to spread east for the rest of the evening. 

Pretty much all roads were backed up in Chittenden County at rush hour.  A large wrecker trying to retrieve an excavator that went into a ditch along Interstate 89 between Burlington and Winooski before the start of the squalls is complicating things further. 

The late afternoon squalls intensified and expanded as they moved out of New York state into Vermont. They ran into a temperature contrast. It was in the 30s most of the day in northern New York, but it reached the 40s in Vermont. 

The intersection of Main and Lake streets in St. Albans,
Vermont late this afternoon. 

This helped destabilize the air, allowing the squalls and heavy snow showers to blossom.  There was even at least one lightning strike north of Burlington during all this. 

On radar and especially visible satellite, the snow squalls really looked like a line of severe summer thunderstorms. 

The evening squalls weren't even the only ones. Another line of snow squall swept across northern and central Vermont mid-morning. Those caused their own issues, including crashes and slide offs along Interstate 89 in and near Williston. That mucked up traffic too. 

Even as the snow squalls diminish in western Vermont, colder air is moving in. Roads that were just wet will probably freeze as temperatures plunge. 

Overnight, snow showers will become lighter and more scattered, but snow will continue to pile up in the high elevations

From Facebook: Traffic crashes and tie ups along Interstate
89 between Williston and Richmond after the first
batch of snow squalls blew through this morning. 

Total snow accumulation should be one to three inches in most valley locations with this. Up to six inches is likely in the mountains. 

Snow totals from the valleys might seem inflated, but they really aren't. The Burlington area had about an inch of snow from the morning squalls.

 That melted, then another couple inches arrived late this afternoon, so that counts as something like three inches. (Final totals aren't in yet).

It will be quite cold for this time of year Thursday, with highs for many of us in the 20s. We're still watching a potential winter storm for Friday night and Saturday. I'll have more on that in tomorrow morning's post.   

As for this evening, stay in if you can. If you must drive, slow down, and expect delays. Some of those delays might be pretty long. Grab a tankful of gas before you get too far in case you're stuck for a couple hours out there. 

Slick spots on the roads will last into Thursday morning, too, so be aware of that.