Vermont's April Winter Storm Over-Performs, Especially In the Champlain Valley

Buried driveway, snow covered vehicles, dangerously 
sagging trees as snow totals top 10 inches in St.
Albans, Vermont. This storm is really over-performing.

 I spent the morning really watching the snow pile up here in St. Albans, Vermont while the tree branches sagged lower and lower under the weight of what seems like wet cement.  

This is easily turning out to be one of the more impressive and biggest Vermont April snowstorms on record. Maybe not THE biggest, but right up there for sure. 

Around the time I posted this morning, the National Weather Service upgraded the winter weather advisory in the Champlain Valley to a winter storm warning. Bands of snow with occasional accumulation rates of more than an inch prompted that. For good reason. 

I'm not sure whether I'm more impressed with the accumulations or the power outages. In any event, this is something else for April. Even by Vermont standards. 

The Vermont power outages had increased to 33,000 by 12:30 p.m. and scattered throughout the state,  not in just one region. That'll stretch repair crews thin. The number of outages was still rising as of 12:30 

Snow totals are still coming in of course. As of noon, I had an impressive 10.2 inches here in St Albans and it was still accumulating. Trees here are sagging dangerously.  I managed to shake the snow off some of my more prized trees, but I won't save them all. 

As of noon, The National Weather Service at South Burlington reported 6.2 inches of new snow. If they get another 0.3 inches, that will mean no winter days this year had more snow. It will mean the two snowiest days of the "winter" in Burlington happened in the spring. The other snowy day was March 22. 

Other storm reports so far include 15.2 inches in Greensboro; 11.8 inches in Northfield, 11 inches in Belvedere and 10.8 inches in Underhill. We'll surely see reports of deeper accumulations than this later today. 

AFTERNOON PESSIMISM

Worse, it looks like the heavier bands of snow aren't tapering off as early as first thought. I'm writing this at noon, and I thought things will be tapering off by now.

But the nor'easter continues to throw bands of moderate to heavy snow northwestward through New Hampshire and Vermont.  That'll continue this afternoon, as it looks now. It's hard to tell whether subsequent bands will weaken and give us a break.

Cedar trees threatening to snap under heavy, wet
snow at noon today, St. Albans, Vermont. 

That's the positive idea. The negative idea, which is also possible, is one of these heavy bands might stall over a particular location for a few hours. That would really make a big mess worse. 

At noon, one relatively  heavy band of snow was over northwestern Vermont, and it looked like it was continuing on into New York and Quebec, we'll see. 

There was an area of lighter snow in central and eastern New York that could help give us a slight breather in northwestern Vermont, but that's not cast in stone.

  There was another heavier area of snow in central New Hampshire moving northwestward toward central and northern Vermont. We'll see what that does! 

Since afternoon temperatures are slightly warmer than earlier today and the high sun angle is helping, snow might not accumulate quite as fast as it did this morning. But it will still pile up.  Main roads might remain just slushy, or even just wet during lulls in the snow. 

But back roads and everything else will continue to see some added accumulation.  That'll probably keep the power outages going all day. I'm not seeing as much of a break this afternoon as I thought earlier. t

A few locations could end up with two feet of snow out of this. The Champlain Valley is obviously getting more than the four to 10 inches I predicted this morning.  A few Champlain Valley towns could get a foot of snow. 

Many towns at elevations at or above 1,000 feet can now expect a storm total of 12 to 18 inches, with locally higher amounts. 

Far southern Vermont seems to have seen precipitation taper off for now. They might not get much more, but this nor'easter is a tricky devil, so stay tuned. 

Expect more power outages and travel trouble and tree damage throughout the afternoon in much of Vermont. 

Snow will continue tonight, but I THINK it will be lighter, at least in most valleys.