Final Word On Vermont Snow, Now For A Quiet Christmas Aside From Bit Of Unpleasant Evening Freezing Drizzle

Map from National Weather Service in South Burlington
depicts how much snow fell in last nights small storm
Click on the map to make it bigger and easier to see,

 The snow ended earlier today as expected, leaving us with a dull Christmas Eve forecast and a little fog. 

Don't worry about the fog, at least in terms of what Santa's doing. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer managed to find his way through fog and mist way worse than this .

However, a bit of freezing drizzle is coming out of that fog across parts of northern and central Vermont this evening, so that could create some unexpected slick spots on the roads this evening,

There's a few flurries mixed in, too.

Do be careful out there! 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington has given us its full list of snowfall reports.  Aside from under-performing in Chittenden County, the forecast proved pretty accurate.

The big winner with this storm was Potsdam, in northwestern New York, with a foot of snow. Nearby Hannawa had 10 inches. 

In Vermont, the snow sweepstakes winner was a tie between Lincoln and Newport Center, with eight inches. Charlotte came in the losing end, with just an inch of fresh powder. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington only managed 1.5 inches of new snow.

For comparison's sake, this is the forecast from 
a few hours before the snow actually started.
Pretty close to reality, actually

One aspect of the forecast for Christmas Day through Friday is whether we'll see any sun. Strong high pressure nearby favors sun. But that strong temperature inversion we've been talking about might trap in a layer of low clouds. 

I'm still thinking that many areas might see a low overcast through the week, but that's not guaranteed. If it does clear out at night, temperatures Christmas night and the next night could get near zero.

Mountaintops still look like they'll poke up above any low overcast. Due to the inversion, mountain tops might well be warmer than the valleys during the next few days. 

We're still watching for the risk of some air pollution trapped beneath the inversion, too. We'll update you if there's any air quality alerts.

Eventually, that stalled, strong high pressure will move off to the east, opening us for storminess toward Sunday. It's still early to say what will happen with that, but odds at the moment favor rain to dampen the enthusiasm of winter sports fans. 

But it's still just the beginning of winter. Even if some rain sets back our snow fun, there's plenty of opportunity for the white fluff to come back in January, February and March. And, ugh. Maybe April