Mount Mansfield, Vermont Now Has More Snow Than It Has In Seven Years; And Did Lake Champlain Freeze?

Matthew Parrilla's Mount Mansfield snow chart
shows the depth is well above average for this
time of year. Red line is this year, black line
is average. 

 While the amount of snow on the ground in most Vermont valleys has diminished a little due to recent thaws, the flakes keep piling up atop the state's highest peak. 

As of Saturday, there was 102 inches of snow on the ground at the stake on Mount Mansfield, not far below the summit. 

It's the second highest snow depth on record for that date atop the mountain. They've been keeping track of the snow depths up there since 1954.

This is the first time snow depth has exceeded 100 inches since April 18. 2019, when late season mountain snows brought the depth up above 8.5 feet. 

It looks like the April 18, 2019 figure hit as the snow on Mount Mansfield was just beginning to melt. A few weeks earlier, the snow depth was right around 119 inches. 

Judging by Matthew Parrilla's excellent Mount Mansfield snow charts, the deepest snow on record atop Mount Mansfield was around 145 inches around April 1, 1969. 

By Sunday, the snow depth on Mount Mansfield had increased to 103 inches. That might be a peak depth, but perhaps only a temporary one. 

Rainfall is expected even at summit level Wednesday and part of Thursday which would settle the 102 inches back somewhat. However, the snow depth on Mount Mansfield typically peaks around the third or fourth week in March. 

  Even if some of the snow melts or settles this week, more snow later in March could bring the snow depth to even more than they have now. 

LAKE CHAMPLAIN

Satellite view from Sunday shows a snow-covered
northern New England. That dark patch of blue
is an ice-free area of Lake Champlain Sunday afternoon.
Early this morning, we're waiting for new satellite
photos to determine if any or all of that open
water froze over last night and early this morning. 

If Lake Champlain didn't freeze over in last night's calm, frigid weather, it won't completely freeze over this year.

It came close in mid to late February, when only small open pockets were visible on the broad lake. Last week's thaw left a huge section of the broad lake open by Sunday ice-free, as satellite photos under Sunday's clear skies revealed. 

However, the water temperature is right near 32 degrees, so that big area of ice-free water could entirely freeze. It's unlikely, given it was such a huge area, but it could.

As temperatures plunged to near and below zero, skies remained clear. Those clear skies will help later this morning as satellite photos will be able to tell whether the lake froze over. 

An early look at the satellite photos ag 8:15 a.m. today seemed to indicate there was still open water in Lake Champlain this morning, but I'll update if I receive any confirmation later. 

If the lake didn't freeze over by early today, it won't this season.  Even though it will be below freezing today, enough sunshine and light breezes will prevent a daytime freeze over.  Then, a big warm spell is due midweek, which will erode away more of the lake ice.  

The last time the lake completely froze over was on March 8, 2019. The lake has never frozen over later in the year than March 11.