Vermont Thursday Snow Thump Set To Arrive; Sunday Storm To Focus On Southern Parts Of State?

A gray an ominous sky over St. Albans, Vermont this
morning as we await that quick thump of snow that
will come through midday. A little freezing drizzle
later today will be the literal icing on the cake.

UPDATE 9:30 a.m

Boy, that snow came into Vermont awfully fast, faster than I thought it would.

At 9 a.m. I could see a wall of snow just blotting out the Adirondacks from my viewing point in St. Albans, Vermont.

By 9:15 it was starting to snow, and by 9:25  a.m. it was coming down at a good clip.

Radar seems to show the band of snow might wax and wane as it comes through, but you'll see bursts of heavy snow and poor visibility on the roads.

Sometimes the snow will come down torrentially.   Traffic cams showed near white out conditions at 9:25 a.m. in places like Route 7 in Shaftesbury and Route 9 in Woodford, both in southern Vermont.

Those road conditions should deteriorate awfully fast in the next hour, if they haven't already. If you're on the roads, I'd get home now and wait it out. If it's not snowing where you are, it'll go from nothing to pretty heavy within 10 minutes. At least in some areas if not all.

Be prepared for a very snowy few hours, but it won't last long.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION 

 Skies were growing dark and ominous in Vermont as that anticipated quick thump of snow rapidly approaches from the southwest. 

Looks like the snow was just creeping into far southwest Vermont at around 8 a.m. and it will rapidly advance northeastward through the morning. 

At least the snow will warm us up. It was another frigid one before dawn today. Burlington in the banana belt managed to stay just above zero with an overnight low of 1 degrees.

 Elsewhere, it was 8 below in Montpelier and as low as 13 below in Morrisville and Lake Eden. 

You can see how the push of snow will eventually warm us up by looking at Bennington. It was 5 above there at 5 a.m. and up to 22 at 7 a.m. 

The snow still looks like it'll come down pretty hard late this morning and early afternoon, but will be in and out of here in a flash - like four hours or so.  That's why accumulations will be limited to one to three inches, or maybe four in some of the mountains and in a few parts of southern Vermont. 

Forecasters also haven't budged from their expectation we'll see some spotty freezing drizzle this afternoon and evening once the band of snow races out of here.  Temperatures look like they'll hold steady or even keep rising slowly late this afternoon through about midnight. 

This mornings snowfall prediction map for today. Aside
from adding a tiny bit more snow than previously
expected in southern Vermont, the forecast is pretty
much the same as that issued yesterday. 

Your drive home this afternoon or evening still looks like it could be dicey 

Warmer towns could get a couple degrees above freezing this evening.  But the ground is frigid from those cold nights. 

Even if your thermometer ends up saying it's 34 degrees out, any drizzle you're also seeing will probably be freezing onto your driveway and sidewalk. 

Overnight, the storm's inevitable cold front comes in with its snow showers and local squalls. Accumulations won't amount to much, but will keep some roads tricky for Friday morning. 

We'll have the added fun of some lingering snow showers (especially mountains) and blowing snow as west winds will start gusting to 30 or even 40 mph in spot starting early Friday morning and lasting pretty much all day.  Gusts could even reach higher than that in spots across northern New York and near some of the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains. 

Temperatures will be seasonably cold Friday and Saturday with highs in the 20s, lows in the single numbers

 NEXT STORM

It still looks like it will snow pretty much statewide later Saturday night and Sunday, but it's increasingly looking like this will be a southern Vermont focus.

Through virtually all of December and January, southern Vermont has missed out on snowfalls. They've mostly focused on northern Vermont mountains.

Now, the script seems to have flipped as the weather pattern is a new one that features storms racing across the nation and going off the East Coast.  Those tend to favor southern Vermont. 

Last Friday night, southern Vermont got a decent snowfall while the north missed out. Today's event looks slightly more impressive in the south than in the north.  

The early look on this Sunday's storm suggests six or more inches of snow south of Route 4, with less than five inches north of Route 2.   Now, this could change. The storm could jog north and give everybody in Vermont a big dump.   But as of this morning, the betting is on the south. 

This new southern bias in the snow is a good thing really. The effects of last autumn's drought are still most noticeable in southern Vermont. All that snow melting in the spring will help recharge ground water for the spring and summer. 

Like all the other storms in this parade, the Saturday night/Sunday system looks like it will race past us, so it won't have time to dump incredible amounts of snow.  But these things add up if you keep getting them over and over again. 

Long range forecasts have fast storms coming near us every third day or so.  It's impossible to tell from this vantage point how those quick hitters will affect us here in Vermont, but forecasters will need to really remain on their toes, probably for at least most of this month. 

I also so far don't see any signs of a huge thaw, which is a departure from recent winters.  It has not been above 45 degrees in Burlington since December 31, and it doesn't look like it will get that warm for awhile yet. Whatever snow you have is going to mostly stick around, and you're also going to get more installments. 

Keep those shovels handy.