Vermont Wintry Weather This Morning Goes Badly, But Record Warmth Around The Corner

Webcam grab from nashvillevtweather.net shows a
gorgeous snowy morning today in Nashville, which
is part of Jericho, Vermont. 

Vermont's first minor bout of winter weather did not go well this morning.

Many places in northern and central Vermont had their expected dusting to an inch of snow last night, preceded by some light rain showers.

 As skies partly cleared early this morning in much of the region, temperatures went below freezing.  

Some of the water on highways froze. Especially on bridges and overpasses, where things tend to freeze up first. 

That's always a nasty recipe, as people cruising along over wet pavement suddenly hit ice as arrive at an overpass. Often at too-high speeds.

Combine this with the fact the first icy morning of the season means motorists aren't accustomed to winter driving and you get havoc.

Which is what happened this morning.  I'm actually feeling smug early today because I had arranged to take a vacation day today, so I didn't have to get caught in the traffic jams caused by the mess on Interstate 89.

And it was a mess this morning,.

Apparently, there was some crashes on the Winooski River bridge on Interstate 89 between Winooski and Burlington probably because of black ice there. Other slide offs and crashed were reported further south toward Williston and South Burlington. 

The result was the usual epic traffic backups on Interstate 89, especially the southbound lanes between Colchester and Burlington.  It looks like those traffic backups had largely cleared by around 8:30 a.m. or so. 

Web cam grab from this morning shows southbound
traffic backed up on Interstate 89 in Colchester due
to crashes, probably caused by ice on bridges
and overpasses.

Other roadways in northwestern Vermont had icy areas, too. For instance, Route 15 near Joe's Snack Bar in Jericho was reportedly glare ice. 

All this and just a little snow that froze. Burlington reported a trace of snow, but nothing measurable. 

It was Burlington's first October snowflakes since 2020. Other snowfall reports include 3.0 inches in Underhill, 2.5 inches in Calais, 3 inches in Jericho Center and 1.5 inches in Walden.

Web cameras in much of northern Vermont show what looks to be widespread areas of about an inch of snow. 

Where skies cleared just before dawn up in northern areas, temperatures really bottomed out this morning. I noticed Lyndonville and Newport were down to 20 degrees as of 7 a.m. Lake Eden, Vermont reported 18 degrees as of 8 a.m.

At least the early morning sun shining on the new snow, with a couple patches of leftover fall foliage gave us a very pretty morning, if you weren't on the roads. 

MUCH WARMER TIMES AHEAD

The snow and ice will quickly melt as the sun asserts itself today. It'll be a chilly day for the season, but still gorgeous. It'll only get into the 40s, but bright sun and light winds will make it feel better.

After another very chilly night tonight, especially in eastern Vermont, we're in for a very sharp temperature reversal over the next few days. And dare I say we might also enjoy a bit of beneficial rain.

A strong warm front will approach Vermont tomorrow, so we'll see increasing clouds and winds during the day. Temperatures should get up into the seasonable 50s. 

That warm front will manage to push some showers through Vermont Tuesday night. It looks like southern Vermont could get more than a tenth of an inch of rain with northern areas seeing maybe a quarter to a third of an inch.

That's not much, but it's dry. Not as bad as in southern New England but bad enough to create some fire worries in the Green Mountain State. Over the weekend, a forest fire in Barnard, Vermont, a little northwest of Woodstock, destroyed two camps and injured one camp owner, though the injuries aren't thought to be serious. That fire was expected to continue burning today.

After the warm front blows through, we have a potentially a couple days of record warmth. Wednesday should get to around 70. Highs on Halloween could get well into the 70s.  If it makes it to 77 in Burlington, which is definitely possible, that would be the hottest temperature for so late in the season.

A cold front Thursday evening will bring more showers. It's dicey, but there is hope the showers in Vermont might hold off until the trick or treaters are done spooking up our neighborhoods. Rainfall again won't amount to much, maybe a quarter to a half inch as it looks now, but that will still be needed.

Temperature by Friday and the weekend should be back down to normal for early November - Highs near 50, lows near freezing.