Saturday Evening Vermont Snow Update: Little Change In Forecast; Quick, Heavy Snow South, Less North

Increasing clouds looking southwest late this afternoon
in St. Albans, Vermont. Notice the darker clouds on
the southwest horizon, that's the direction the
snow is coming from. 

Clouds overhead were thickening up quickly late this afternoon over Vermont as our next snowfall approaches our doorstep. 

I haven't seen much change in the forecast since this morning.  Most of the southern half of Vermont can expect a solid 6 to 9 inches of snow overnight while the northern half gets two to six. 

The two inch totals still look like they'll be closest to the Canadian border and the six inch totals would happen a little below Middlebury and Montpelier. 

THE PARTICULARS

Even though this thing is moving super fast, the timing of when the snow will start tonight has been pushed back by maybe an hour or so.  

Southwest Vermont should start getting in on the action around 8 or 9 p.m. or so, while most of central and northern Vermont starts to see the flakes fly around 10 or 11 p.m.

The Northeast Kingdom probably won't see much of anything until midnight or a little after.

The bottom line is, if you have early evening plans tonight, you can probably squeak them in.  Any later night carousing and you going to have to deal with snowy roads, snowy sidewalks, just snow.

National Weather Service snowfall prediction map is
little changed form this morning. This update was issued
this afternoon. 

Once it gets there. the snow will really come down hard in southern Vermont. It'll be a lot like Thursday when it'll go from flurries to heavy snow in less than a half hour. 

In the northern half of Vermont, the snow won't come down as hard. But it will be enough to get the roads messy enough, which is why we should just call it an early night.  Rest up for tomorrow's Super Bowl. 

The storm will mostly be in and out of here with eight to ten hours, a real quickie. When the sun comes up, it'll be almost  over in western Vermont and will end by mid to late-morning east. 

If you MUST drive tomorrow, wait until at least mid-morning as the main roads should be getting pretty much cleared up by them. 

SUNDAY

Oh, what a great day for outdoor winter fun!  Just a classic Vermont February day.

The snow will be light and fluffy, so it'll be relatively easy to clean up.  It won't be great for snowball fights and snowmen - the snow is not nearly sticky enough. But for skiing, riding, cross country skiing, snowshoeing or just admiring the scenery, it will be one of the nicer days this winter. 

We won't have much sun, but temperatures should reach the mid and upper 20s, which is pretty comfortable for winter sports. We won't have much of a breeze, either, so wind chills won't be much of a factor. And we won't be annoyed by blowing snow. 

Given the very nice weather we had today, I guess this weekend is the pick of the winter. 

OUTLOOK

Enjoy the pleasant interlude Sunday, because much of the rest of this month is still looking a little cranky in the weather department. Extended forecasts through the third week of the month suggest colder than normal temperatures and chances lean toward above normal precipitation.

Which hints at a chance of a continued snowy month. 

Specifically, we trend somewhat colder Monday and Tuesday. Not absolutely frigid, but you'll notice a nip in the air, and some modest wind chills.

We won't get much snow in the first half of the week, but a few snow showers could appear Monday. And some snow showers and locally heavy snow squalls could make an appearance Tuesday night. That'll add a couple inches of snow to higher elevations, but no more than a dusting to an inch in the valleys. 

Things get interesting Thursday. We're either in for another decent snowfall or a mixed precipitation mess. 

That'll be courtesy of what will amount to two storm systems operating in tandem. One might go by to our  northwest or over us, and another looks like it'll slide by just to our south. At least as forecasts stands now.

If the storm going to our northwest or over us is the dominate of the two, we get a burst of snow followed by a little mixed precipitation. If the southern one dominates, it'll be mostly or exclusively snow. 

Pick your poison. We have time to decide, as we won't have clarification on what will happen Thursday until we get further into the upcoming week.

In the meantime, enjoy the lovely, Champagne powder we're about to see tonight.