Vermont Sunday Evening Update: Storm Briefly Got Better Behaved, But Blizzardy Night, Strong Monday Winds Due

Getting pretty snowed in at my house in St. Albans,
Vermont after today's snowstorm. 

As we got into the late afternoon, our big storm got slightly better behaved. 

Temporarily. 

ASSESSING THIS AFTERNOON

Winds along the western slopes of the Green Mountains diminished as we headed into the mid and late afternoon. That was expected. 

Not much sleet infiltrated northern and parts of central Vermont, so this turned into a mostly snow event. Here in St. Albans, sleet mixed with the snow for about a half hour early this afternoon, but otherwise it was a pure snowstorm. 

As of 5 p.m. 9.5 inches snow had accumulated here in St. Albans. There's now about 20 inches of snow on the ground here, which is the most I've seen in several years. 

We were correct that the northwest corner of Vermont would be the big snow winner. Highgate Center has so far reported 14 inches of snow. Alburgh reports a foot of snow. 

With all the snow in Burlington, the city reached a milestone of sorts today. All winter, snowfall was running behind normal.  As of late this afternoon, Burlington has had 59.4 inches of snow, which is nearly two inches more than normal for this date. 

Also, Burlington was just 0.3 inches of snow away from making this February become the 10th snowiest on record. 

Judging from this traffic cam grab shortly before 5 pm.
Sunday of Route 108 in Stowe, the line of cars coming
off the mountain suggests a lot of people braved the
storm to go skiing and riding today. 

You can see how the easterly downslope winds on the western side of the Green Mountains suppresses precipitation. North Shrewsbury and Underhill, on those western slopes only had five or six inches of snow as of late afternoon. 

They'll at least partly make up for the snow deficit tonight and Monday as strong west winds will encourage snow showers on the western slopes. 

Gusty winds earlier today that blew the snow around even away from the western slopes diminished, so it became a more gentle snowstorm in northern Vermont. It kept accumulating and the roads stayed miserable, but at least it wasn't especially scary.  

In southern Vermont there was a good amount of sleet and freezing rain but the freezing rain didn't seem to be as widespread as feared. 

As of late afternoon, power outages in Vermont were extremely few and far between. There was never more than 122 outages at any one time, and as of 4 p.m. everybody had electricity.  I'm pleasantly surprised by this. 

The southwest corner of Vermont even managed to have a thaw of sorts. It got as warm as 37 degrees in Bennington. 

However, pretty much everyone else stayed below freezing. That was also expected.

THIS EVENING/TONIGHT

Any lingering sleet or freezing rain in southern Vermont should get flushed out soon if it hasn't already. 

The colder air aloft is moving in. It got into northwestern Vermont a little early, and it's slightly ahead of schedule as it moves eastward and southeastern over the Green Mountain State. Colder air aloft ensures snow, not schmutz.  

Traffic cams showed sleet was turning to snow around White River Junction shortly before 5 p.m., and we know that trend will continue. 

Traffic cam image from shortly before 5 p.m. shows
very heavy snow up in Alburgh, Vermont. The 
northwest corner of the state, including Alburgh
were the big winners of the snow sweepstakes today 

The snowfall rate might intensify for awhile this evening as the cold air begins to move in and squeeze more moisture out the clouds.  But the snow will turn more showery later tonight and through the early morning hours 

This evening through dawn tomorrow, it looks like southeast Vermont will see less than an inch of additional snow. Southwest Vermont looks to get one to three inches.

 Northern Vermont is in for another two to five inches, with locally high amounts in the Green Mountains, and possibly near the Canadian border

Winds will be increasing late tonight as temperatures plunge, so blowing snow will become a problem. Which sets the stage for Monday. 

MONDAY

In some respects, Monday might actually be the worst day of this storm.  There won't be much additional snow. A dusting from snow showers in the valleys, a couple inches in the Green Mountains, maybe several inches in the northern Greens. 

But gawd, the wind! Not to mention the cold. 

Bennington and Windham counties are under a high wind warning for gusts as high as 65 mph on Monday. Windsor County has its own high wind warning for gusts reaching 60 mph. 

Elsewhere in Vermont, we're under a wind advisory for gusts to 50 mph. Those gusts might actually be a little stronger than that on the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains. The west to northwest winds will gain momentum as the descend those eastern slopes. 

Monday might well be the day we see the power outages with all that wind. That might be especially true in southern Vermont, where the winds will be a little stronger and there is some ice on the trees.

The lack of sleet and freezing rain today in much of northern Vermont, and the additional snow tonight makes the winds especially problematic. 

Gusty winds in open areas will create ground blizzard conditions, where you can't see hardly anything in front of you. Also, there's now a LOT of snow on the ground. Most of it powdery. It'll blow around. 

I think a lot of north/south oriented local roads in open areas, especially in the Champlain Valley, will drift in easily. You can get drifts several feet deep in a surprisingly short amount of time with these winds.

I don't think the drive to work Monday morning will be fun for anybody. Build in extra time to clear the snow from your car, and to deal with slow going on the streets and highways. 

The Monday winds will also create a horrible wind chill. Highs will only be in the teens, so wind chills will easily be below zero. 

TUESDAY AND BEYOND

Winds will only slowly diminish and it will stay much colder than normal Tuesday and Wednesday. 

If you're sick of storms, we're going to get a break. A pretty strong storm will pass far to out southeast on Thursday, and we don't expect anything from that. 

It's going to be a cold week. But average temperatures are rising as we head toward March. This is uncertain, but starting about a week from now, we might have several days with highs in the 30s in the valleys. That would settle the deep snow just a little. Those 30s are also normal for the closing days of February and the opening of March.