Winter Asserts Itself In Southern U.S. .And Up Here In The Great White North

Snow blows off my St. Albans, Vermont roof today as
we continue to get flurried to death under cold,
moist northwest winds. 

Yet another winter storm is gathering forces in the South, likely to lay down another stripe of heavy snow and ice just south of the path of a similar storm a few days ago. 

Meanwhile, up here in Vermont, our "flurries" have amounted to a bonafide snowstorm in a handful of lucky towns, while the ground has at least gotten white most (but not all places) in the state.

Before we get into that, the next big winter storm. 

SOUTHERN STORM

This one promises to stretch from Texas and New Mexico, the plow through parts of Arkansas, in through Tennessee and Kentucky then northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia and finally on to northwestern South Carolina and a decent chunk of North Carolina.

Dallas, Texas could see its first three inch deep snow cover since February, 2021. Raleigh, North Carolina could see its first inch of snow on the ground in three years. 

This follows the first storm Sunday and Monday that left impressive amounts of snow.

Snow totals from the first storm include, 20 inches in Carrollton, Ohio, 19 inches in Thomas, West Virginia, 18 inches in Chapman and Alta Vista, Kansas, 15 inches in Mount City and Weatherby Missouri, 12.5 inches in Bridgeville3, and Milton, Delaware and McHenry, Maryland, 

The southern winter storm will completely miss us here
in Vermont, but our light snow and flurries will
continue to pile up in northern Vermont and
New York mountains for the next couple days 

As of early this afternoon, winter storm warnings extend from around Dallas/Fort Worth on through Arkansas. All this areas can expect three to eight inches of snow, locally more, with some sleet and freezing rain thrown in for some spots.

Winter storm watches extend all the way east to the mountains of North Carolina.  Those watches will probable extend eastward to near the Mid-Atlantic coast eventually. 

On the western end of this storm, things should go down hill tomorrow morning and remain nasty until Friday morning at least. By the time you get to Tennessee and North Carolina, the storm will wait until Friday night and Saturday. 

While it's been awhile since these areas have had snow, this type of thing does happen from time to time. It'll probably end up being all over the news because these southern storms hit areas where people aren't used to it, and they don't have the snow and ice removing equipment we have up here. 

I notice Atlanta is under the winter storm watch Friday and Saturday because they are expecting a boatload of snow and ice. That'll shut down the city, even though they're only expecting a few inches of snow and a glaze of ice. 

NEW ENGLAND/VERMONT

You might have heard rumors this storm would ultimately create a big nor'easter for New England, maybe extending into Vermont.

Ain't happening. 

Traffic cam shows a snowy, cold and desolate looking
stretch of Route 105 in Berkshire early this afternoon.

A minority of computer models did indicate a nor'easter would blow up this weekend and blast across the New England coast. But those were outliers. Everything else indicated the storm would pass out to sea well south of our region.  

That's still very much true. It's going to be a miss, by a wide margin for us in Vermont and other sections of northern New England.

Instead, we're still getting flurried to death.

Between late Sunday night and Tuesday afternoon, most places in Vermont only got an inch or two of snow. 

But the Green Mountains and some of the western slopes got clobbered. More than flurries, that's for sure. 

I saw reports of 10 inches in Waterville, Starksboro and higher elevations in Waterbury, and just shy of 10 inches in Huntington, Underhill/Jericho and Enosburg. 

By my counting, Westfield, not far from Jay Peak, has collected 31 inches of snow since January 1. Jay Peak says they've collected 40 inches of snow in the past week. 

This persistent light snow is surprising motorists. It's cold, and the light snow often packs down under car and truck tires into a barely discernible, thin layer of black ice. It often looks like dry road until you hit the brakes, and then you're in trouble.

Or, roads remained snow covered, as the falling flakes were pretty persistent. The result was plenty of car accidents and slide offs.

After a lull, the snow is picking up again this afternoon, especially across northern Vermont and really, super especially on the mountains. Another wave of deeper moisture is working its way down from Quebec.

The snow will continue well into tomorrow morning most spots. It'll never snow hard, but once again, the northern mountains can expect at least a half foot, maybe a foot by noon tomorrow. 

It's really cold and windy today, too. So for the rest of today and tonight, expect lousy road conditions in much of northern Vermont, snow, blowing snow and a nasty wind chill. Isn't January wonderful?

I anticipate more of the same as the snow picks up in many areas this afternoon and evening. 

Although the snow might diminish for this weekend, it'll stay on the chilly side.  This won't end up being another mild January.