Sunday Morning: As Expected, Vermont Power Outages Amid Heavy, Wet Snow, More Coming

Only about 1.3 inches of snow so far in St. Albans, Vermont
but the heaviness of the snow is still weighing down branches

 As we anticipated, there were more than 10,000 power outages this morning in Vermont as that wave of heavy, wet snow blew through the Green Mountain State overnight. 

Snowfall seems to have been roughly in line with expectations, though the heaviest snow band broke up a bit and accelerated as it moved through northern Vermont. 

Judging from VTOutages.org, most of the homes and businesses in the dark are along and east of the Green Mountains from about Montpelier south.  That matches the area that appear to have had the heaviest snow. 

It originally appeared the number of homes and businesses in the dark peaked at about 14,800 at around 5 p.m, but now I see a new surge of power failures starting after 7 a.m.. By 8 a.m., more than 18,000 outages were reported around the state. 

Oh well, at least it's pretty. I'm trying to be positive here. 

Accumulations depended on elevation, as we all expected. 

As I write this accumulation reports are sparse.  I see a report of 6.0 inches in Waterbury Center, and 7.0 inches in Eden, Vermont. 

At my place, part way up a hill at an elevation of about 625 feet on the eastern side of St. Albans Town, I picked up 1.3 inches of wet snow.  Judging from traffic camera shots this morning, it looks like there's still an inch, or just under that, closer to the lake. 

Road conditions were horrible earlier with heavy snow, slick surfaces and very poor visibility. They were starting to improve as dawn broke and snow lightened up. 

As of around 7:30 a.m., main highways looked like they were in pretty good shape through the Champlain Valley and the valleys of southwestern Vermont. Head upward in elevation toward central Vermont, though, they became snow covered and slippery. 

I'm sure back roads have problems with snow, mud, and fallen branches and trees, so I wouldn't take my chances on remote roads just yet. There was even a report of a tree down along the right northbound lane of Interstate 89 near Middlesex, but I'm sure that will be cleaned up soon if it hasn't already. 

TODAY

Road conditions will continue to improve temporarily through the morning and much of the afternoon.  I stress the word temporarily. 

National Weather Service snow forecast map issued
this Sunday morning. It doesn't include the snow that 
has already fallen. As you can see the central and
northern Green Mountains are in for quite a bit more.

We're getting into that forecasted lull in precipitation, which will last through much of the day. We'll still have some light, spotty precipitation all day, but it will be nuisance stuff, not enough to cause  any real migraines

Temperatures will rise some. That means some of the wet snowflakes drifting down out there will change to cold rain drops.  Snow levels will probably rise to nearly 2,000 feet or so during the day. So it will be an unpleasant, but not scary day. 

TONIGHT

Round 2 starts this evening and lasts into Monday, but not everybody will see a new big blast of snow. This will be a classic backside bonus.

As the storm center heads up toward the Canadian Maritimes as we've long expected with this thing, wet, cold air will circulate westward through southern Quebec, then turn southeastward through Vermont and the rest of New England.

That means stiff northwest winds for us. As those winds are forced to rise up the western slopes of the Green Mountains, they'll unload a ton of snow.

The Champlain Valley will get some, mostly east of Route 7.  Accumulations will range from not much at all right along the shores of Lake Champlain to up to six inches in foothill towns like Richmond, Westward, Fairfax, Fairfield and Enosburg Falls.

Some summits along the central and northern Green Mountains should get an additional foot or more of snow on top of what they've already received. 

On the east side of the Green Mountains, snow amounts south of the Northeast Kingdom should be pretty light. The snow is now completely over for the lower Connecticut River Valley. They'll just see flurries at most. 

Road conditions will go downhill, as you can imagine. Many of us should expect a slow commute Monday morning. It won't help that the wind will be gusting to 40 mph. In many spots the snow won't be as wet and heavy as it was this morning, so the wind will blow it around. You might see some areas of white outs on the roads overnight and Monday morning. 

Since there's already a bunch of snow on trees and power lines, the winds and additional snow will probably trigger new outages tonight and early Monday. 

Monday itself will be blustery and cold with continues snow showers, especially in the central and northern mountains. It'll die down Monday night. A thaw will start Tuesday afternoon and intensify Wednesday and Thursday as daytime temperatures reach well into the 40s to around 50.