Vermont Storm Over, High Elevation Snow Impresses, Lake Effect Leftovers To Add Bit More

Less than an inch of snow at my place in St. Albans,
Vermont, but still wintertime pretty after yesterday's
storm that dumped heavier amounts elsewhere in
the Green Mountain State. 

 The just departed snowstorm in Vermont turned out to be pretty impressive in the high elevations - and a yawner in some of the low spots. 

Totals I've seen so far are 17 inches in Mount Holly, 14 inches in Barnard and Ludlow; 12 inches in Plymouth and West Windsor and 11 inches in West Topsham.

Reports out of West Rutland show just how different higher elevations are from the valleys. A full 10 inches of new snow was measured at a 1,700-foot elevation on a hill above town. 

Then, judging from a convenient traffic camera on the valley floor in West Rutland (where most of the people in town live), it looks like there's only a couple inches of new snow. 

The Champlain Valley was rainy through most of the storm, with just a touch of snow at the end. Burlington reported no measurable snow - just a trace. If no measurable snow falls in Burlington today and tomorrow, this November will tie with five others as the least snowy on record with that trace total.

At my 620-foot elevation in St. Albans, a spot that's a wee bit colder because I'm away from the lake and a little higher, I managed just 0.6 inches. 

Roads in Vermont early this morning were still slick in some areas. Temperatures dipped below freezing in most spots, so any water and slush  left on roads froze. Take it easy heading into town for work or Christmas shopping this morning.

Or better yet, wait until later this morning when most of the roads should be just fine. Still, traffic cameras as of 7:30 a.m. show vast improvements over how things were on the highways during the storm. 

Power outages are still a problem in some areas. The heavy, wet snow brought down power lines and branches throughout the southeastern half of Vermont. 

The outages peaked at around 7:30 p.m. last evening, with roughly 9,400 Vermont homes and businesses without power. As of 6:30 a.m. today, that number had fallen to about 2,500.

This was also easily Vermont's wettest storm since at least late October, so the moisture it's providing will put a little dent in the drought. At least I hope.

Burlington has a solid 0.55 inches of precipitation, almost all rain. Bennington had 0.66 inches of rain and melted snow, so that's not bad. Springfield had a very nice inch of rain and melted snow.

So, with all the inconvenience it caused on the roads and such, this was a perfect early winter storm for Vermont.

The snow focused itself on mountains and ski resorts.  but at least partially spared valleys. That'll make cleanup easier for us valley dwellers, while the resorts can busy themselves grooming trails and giving their cash registers a nice early season workout. 

Even better, there's some ferocious lake effect snows gathering near Lakes Erie and Ontario in western New York (the subject of a separate post soon). The remnants of those lake effect storms will make their way to the Green Mountains over the next two or three days, starting this afternoon.

That means a few ski resorts might get a couple or a few inches of additional snow, while nothing more than light snow and scattered snow showers hit the valleys. 

A long spell of colder than average air is coming in for an extended stay as well, meaning most of whatever snow is on the ground-  especially in mid and high elevations - will stick around.