Vermont Gets Flurried To Death, Tons Of Snow In Northern Mountains Results

The latest National Weather Service snow forecast map.
Parts of the northern Green Mountains should continue
to pile up the snow, while low elevations in
southern Vermont continue with their snow drought.

 This is one of those winter periods we have so often in Vermont in which nor'easters and big dumps of snow completely pass us by. 

But some of us get our share of snow, anyway, in the form of sporadic snow showers, light snow and random snowflakes in the cold, damp northwest winds of winter. 

Basically, Vermont gets flurried to death. 

The long siege of snow flurries in Vermont that started last Thursday and will pretty much continue all this week is one of the most impressive I've seen. 

It's true that this type of regime brings big snow winners and snow losers.  Deep valleys miss out, while the central and northern Green Mountains practically drown in powder. That type of situation is writ large this week.

Our latest installment of this phenomenon has been going on since last Thursday and will continue pretty much the rest of this week.

Under this regime, valleys don't get all that much snow, but eventually, he ground whitens even there. The mountains, get creamed, though. 

So far, since Thursday. Westfield, Vermont has received a little over two feet of snow. Montgomery has had nearly a foot and a half. Jay Peak, which always does best in this type of situation, has had three feet of snow in the past week. 

Meanwhile, it pretty much didn't snow at all in the Champlain Valley until Saturday and Sunday. The wind shifted and relaxed a little, so the snow didn't bypass the valley. And Lake Champlain offered its second installment of lake effect snow this winter. 

Deepest new snow on Sunday morning included 4.7 inches in Shelburne, 4.6 inches in Huntington and 4.2 inches in Charlotte.

ANOTHER SNOW BLITZ COMING

We get a break from the snow today, as a little bit of high pressure from the west is interfering with the cold, wet north flow of air. 

But that snowy northwest wind is about to re-establish itself big time for parts of Vermont for the rest of the week.  Some of the snow totals we'll hear about by the end of the week will be impressive, but those big totals will probably be limited to the central and northern Green Mountains. 

This will be  enough that the National Weather Service has issued a long-lasting winter weather advisory from a little after midnight Tuesday morning to at least Wednesday evening for the northern Green Mountains of Vermont and parts of the Adirondacks and other sections of northern New York.

That snow will probably keep falling beyond Wednesday. 

The snowfall in the advisory zone will probably never fall all that heavily, but the persistence is what will pile up the fluff. 

If you're near the Green Mountains in northern Vermont, you can generally expected a good three to eight inches of snow, with locally higher amounts. If you're way up high, near the summits, at elevations of 2,000 feet or more, expect one to two feet of snow by Friday. 

A note that all of Franklin County, Vermont is under the advisory, but sections of the county closest to Lake Champlain probably won't receive a boatload of snow. The National Weather Service in South Burlington says the heavier snow will probably be east of a line from Fairfax to Highgate.

Much of Vermont will receive a little snow, it'll be a dusting to a couple inches.  Parts of the southern Champlain Valley, low elevations in western Rutland County and lower Connecticut Valley might not get any snow at all, or if they do, just a few occasional lonely snowflakes. 

By the time you get down to places like Springfield and Brattleboro this week, the sun will be out much of the day during this whole thing. 

Everyone will be windy and cold during this whole week, though.   Winds will gust to 30 to 35 mph, Tuesday, Wednesday and probably Thursday. High temperatures will only be in the teens to around 20, so wind chills are going to be a problem.

Where there's a bunch of snow, blowing snow is going to be a big problem. The snow that falls will be very light and fluffy, which means the wind will pick it up easily. Expect some big drifts on some of the roads exposed to the wind, whiteout conditions at times, and lift holds at the some of the ski areas due to the gusts. 

Toward the end of the week and early next weekend, those of us who will have gotten snow will see it tapering off. Temperatures will moderate a bit, getting up into the 20s, which actually is fairly comfortable for this time of year.