As anticipated, more snow fell overnight in Vermont, but not nearly as heavily as it did yesterday.
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| The fresh springtime beauty of April in Vermont, as seen this morning in St. Albans, Vermont. |
As of midnight, Burlington had received an even 10 inches, its fourth snowiest April day on record. With that even 10 inches, April, 2024 in Burlington is now tied with 1904 as the 10 snowiest April on record.
The National Weather Service no new snow fell there overnight, so 10 inches looks like the final total.
What makes this storm wild is that Burlington is actually kind of on the low end of total snowfall with this storm. So far, I've seen numerous towns statewide report totals in the 14 to 17 inch range.
Here in St. Albans, Vermont, we had another inch of snow overnight, so my storm total is 14.0 inches. I doubt I'll see any real additional accumulation here. That will be more limited to the mountains. More on that below in the forecast section of this post
The highest totals I've seen so far are 24 inches at a 1,450-foot elevation in Moretown; 23 inches at a 1,950 foot elevations in Killington, 21 inches in Underhill and Eden; 20 inches in Brookfield and Stowe; and 19 inches in Belmont and Chelsea.
Electricity
After dropping from a peak of 33,000 outages to around 20,000 by evening, the number of Vermont homes and businesses without power leveled off at around 15,000 to 17,000 overnight.
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| Looks like this cedar tree in my St. Albans, Vermont yard didn't make it through the 14 inches of wet, heavy snow. |
There might be a few new outages today. That's mostly because snow loaded trees could spring back upward as the snow falls off amid thawing temperatures. Those could take a few new power lines.
However, as the day progresses, a blitz by repair crews should overwhelm those new outages and we'll see power restored to more and more people.
It might be hard for Vermont to get help from neighboring states with restoring power. It looks like electricity was still out for close to 100,000 New Hampshire residents early this morning. Central Maine Power also reported about 100,000 outages there as dawn broke today. Late last night, 67,000 customers were without electricity in Quebec.
I still wonder whether everyone in Vermont will have their power back by Monday. Most people certainly will, but some remote areas might still have issues.
Roads
Driving conditions are understandably much better than they were yesterday. Interstates 89 and 91 looked fine this morning on traffic cams. Other main highways in valleys looked good, too. High elevation roads, and many back roads will probably remain in iffy shape at best today.
There's still probably fallen branches and such on some back roads this morning. Those that have been cleared of snow are becoming mud bogs again. That muddy state of affairs should continue as the heavy snow begins to melt over the next several days.
Today
In the valleys, a tiny bit of melting will start, while the Green Mountains continue to collect snow.
It's interesting in these spring snow events how often the temperature stays locked in at 33 degrees. All but one of the 25 hourly reports from the Burlington International Airport between 6 a.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. today were at 33. The exception was 4 p.m. yesterday, when it snuck up to 34 degrees.
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| A "Sword of Damocles" snow buildup this morning over my front door. It threatened to smush my poor weather observing dog Jackson when he went out to take snow measurements so I later hacked away at the snow to make it safer. |
With far less precipitation falling, the high angle spring sunshine should send a little heat through eh clouds to get the valleys well into the 30s today. That's still quite chilly for this time of year, but better than yesterday.
That big old lumbering nor'easter is still there, just off the coast of Maine, sending plenty of clouds and precipitation our way.
Much of the light stuff that comes down in the valleys today will be cold rain drops. Elevations above roughly 1,500 feet should stay snow.
Snow showers should continue tonight. Those valley raindrops should change make to snow showers in most places.
By dawn Saturday, valleys will have less than an inch of new snow. The Green Mountain spine will take up an additional two to five inches of snow between now and Saturday morning, with locally higher amounts on some central and northern peaks.
This is a bonanza for winter sports enthusiasts who finally have their shot at snowy fun after a dismal winter. This is the second time this spring you have lots of snow to play in.
You need to be really careful in the back country, though. Steep terrain in the Green Mountains, Adirondacks and especially the White Mountains are now prone to avalanches.
In Vermont, there was lingering hard packed snow up high from the late March storm, plus previous storms. This storm started as sleet, which can be thought of as millions of little casters for the deep snow that fell yesterday to roll on.
The result is a great chance of snow slides on steep slopes, you know, places like Smugglers Notch and Underhill State Park. The National Weather Service in South Burlington put out an advisory on this issue earlier today.
If you're at a ski resort, stick to marked trails and resist the temptation to go back country. Even if avalanches are not a problem there, getting stuck in the cold deep snow certainly is. The marked trails at Vermont ski areas are safe for you to enjoy.
Saturday will not be a particularly pleasant day, either. Forecasters are still sticking with clouds, light valley rain showers and a little snow up high. It'll be a couple degrees warmer than today, though.
We'll probably break back into the sun Sunday, but it still will be a little cool for this time of year with highs in the 40s.
Eclipse day is still looking at least partly clear. If we do get clouds, chances are they will be high and thin, meaning you can still see the celestial show through those clouds.
I'll have more on all this snow and eclipse and excitement in upcoming posts, as this one is long enough for now!
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