Vermont: Now Back To Our Regularly Schedule Oddly Early Spring

The departing storm today created an interesting
satellite photo, with the thick snow band 
visible in the western Green Mountains. You
can also see snow cover in the Adirondacks
under the clearing skies 

 The long-lasting snow in northern Vermont has come to a quick end this afternoon, as the air dried out, and clearing skies have entered western parts of the state.  

The clearing is abrupt. From my perch in St. Albans, Vermont at 5:30 p.m. the sky is completely cloudy except when you look at the western part of the sky. It's completely clear over that way, and the sun came out brightly just moments ago. 

The satellite photo from this afternoon is really cool to look at. Click on it to make it bigger and easier to see.

The photo was taken at around 3 p.m. this Monday afternoon. In the clear skies to the west, you can plainly see the snow cover in the Adirondacks, with adjacent bare ground in the St. Lawrence Valley to the west and the Mohawk and Hudson valleys to the south. 

You can also see spots of snow in the high elevations of the Catskills. 

There's a striking north to south band of thick clouds along and and just west of the Green Mountains of Vermont. That was the west winds hitting the mountains, being forced to rise and creating the sometimes heavy snow in very roughly a 20 to 30 band along the western slopes and summits of the mountains. 

Winds heading down the east slopes of the Green Mountains dried the air, making the clouds thinner and broken. 

Notice how the clouds east of the Adirondacks, east of the Greens, and in New Hampshire and Maine are arranged in thin lines. 

The mountains are causing that.  If you've ever watched a fast moving river with water racing over a submerged rock, you see sort of "echo" waves downstream from where the water was rushing up and over the rocks

The same thing happens to the air. The mountains are the submerged rocks and the bands of clouds are the peaks of the echo waves downstream. 

THE SNOW/WIND

We saw quite a range in snow amounts today as the snow was focused on the west slopes of the Greens. Burlington managed a storm total of 2.7 inches between yesterday and today. But just to the northeast, in Essex Center and Westford, totals were just under nine inches.

Where skies began to clear in the very late afternoon, temperatures snuck upward. Burlington hit 39 degrees, normal for the date, so it wasn't such a wintry day after all. 

Temperatures in cloudier, snowier central and eastern Vermont held near 32. 

Winds are continuing to gust and will remain blustery all evening. Those gusts could still reach 45 mph in spots. On the bright side, power outages never really increased today despite the winds. Just around 500 Vermont homes and businesses remained without power as of 5:30 p.m

Winds will gradually subside late tonight as temperatures dip into the 20s.

SPRING RETURNS

After lows in the 20s tonight, sunshine will boost temperatures right back into the 40s tomorrow.

That will start a quick thaw, especially in the valleys. The Northeast Kingdom might see a delay to the warming as lingering clouds could  hold temperatures down.

At least the freeze the past couple of days will recharge the maple sugaring operations.

The good news is it will get pretty toasty for this time of year, with daily highs in the 40s and 50s through at least Friday, with lows mostly staying above freezing. That might feel nice for those shocked by the winter weather.

The bad news is it will get pretty toasty for this time of year, with daily highs in the..... yeah, same sentence as above. It's bad news because our vicious mud season will come roaring back. 

The melting snow, and the risk of showers late week and next weekend will make the mud bath on the back roads all that much worse. 

So, either enjoy the sun or or enjoy the mud, your choice.