As Expected Monday Was Very Windy Day, Scattered Outages, Frigid, Windy Tonight, Tuesday

A cold, windy day comes to an end in St. Albans,
Vermont today after I (mostly) finished digging
out of our big weekend snowstorm. My aching 
muscles can take a break, as not much more
snow is in the forecast over the next week. 

 Well, we made it through another windy, cold winter day in Vermont and now we're hunkering down for a  frigid winter night.  

THE WIND

As expected, winds howled from the west and northwest.  Highest gusts reported so far today include 66 mph in Jay, 61 mph in Lowell, 60 mph in Gifford Woods State Park in Rutland County, 54 mph in Springfield and 53 mph in Montpelier.  

I think there were stronger winds in parts of southern Vermont, since power outages today were mostly focused down there. 

I do see a report of a 58 mph gusts early today in Searsburg and 56 mph in West Dover, but I haven't seen any updates this afternoon from that part of the state. 

Power outages wavered up and down in Vermont today as gusts ripped down some power lines, then they were fixed, only to have other power lines blow down in the wind.  

So far today, the most outages at any given time was about 4,100 at around 2:30 p.m.  For most of the day, outages ranged from roughly 2,500 to 3,000.

I imagine there will be a few more outages as winds continue to crank into the evening. They'll gradually diminish overnight, but it will stay gusty all night and through tomorrow. That''ll keep things pretty damn cold. Worse than today.

THE COLD

In some parts of Vermont, the sun came out off and on as skies cleared a little sooner than forecast. That allowed temperatures to climb all the way up to the upper teens to low 20s. That's still way colder than normal for this time of year. 

Those winds made it seem a lot colder than that, though. 

Cold air is continuing to pour in, so it will get even more frigid.  The cold weather advisory for the northeast quarter of Vermont is in effect overnight as temperatures plunge to a little below zero and wind chills reach the 20s below. 

Elsewhere, it'll feel like teens below zero.

There's a decent but not certain chance that Tuesday might be the coldest day until next winter. Many places won't get out of the single digits, and those who do only make it the low teens. 

Wednesday won't be much better with another early morning sitting with temperatures within a few degrees either side of zero and highs only in the teens. 

If you want to look forward to something, a gradual warming trend still looks like it want to take hold toward the weekend. Some areas might even be a few degrees above freezing by next Monday! 

THE SNOW

Not much snow fell anywhere in Vermont Monday, which is good, as we kind of need a break. An inch, two or three inches of windblown snow did come down over the northern Green Mountains and Northeast Kingdom but that was just icing on the cake. 

One weird thing showed up on radar today. An intense lake effect snow band developed all the way over at Lake Huron. The snow band eventually crossed Lake Ontario where it took on more strength. 

The strong winds today kept that snow band going all the way to southwest Vermont and northwest Massachusetts, where occasional mostly light snow fell all day. 

Elsewhere, blowing snow was the big issue, as road conditions remained iffy in many areas due to all that snow blowing back into the roads in wind-exposed areas. 

Meanwhile, back country skiers and ice climbers who want to take advantage of all this new snow ought to be wary. Avalanches are possible in steep terrain of the Green Mountains and Adirondacks, says the National Weather Service in South Burlington.

(Hell, a couple of the huge snowbanks in my driveway that are taller than I am partly avalanched back onto my driveway so I get it). 

I'm making jokes, but avalanches, even in Vermont can be dangerous and/or fatal, so be careful

In New Hampshire, the National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine issued an avalanche warning for the Presidential Range, including Tuckerman and Huntington ravines. 

As far as more falling snow goes, flurries and mountain snow showers will make occasional visits to Vermont this week, but for a change, there's no big storms on the horizon.