Vermont Sunday Morning: Back To The Slowly Deepening Snow Pack Amid Cold December

The next round of snow this afternoon and tonight
looks light and fluffy, but will add to the deep snow
in the mountains. As you can see in this National
Weather Service map, many places in northern
Vermont can expect a good two inches of new
snow by tomorrow morning, while southern
Vermont valleys get very little. 

It snowed a little again last night in much of northern Vermont, part of a slowly deepening snowpack that has been really piling up in the Green Mountains since early November. 

Most places got an inch or less last night, with a few places receiving nothing at all. But a couple more inches hit the central and northern ski areas.

The difference between valley and mountain in terms of snow cover is always wide. This year, it's extreme. 

In the Champlain Valley, Burlington has had 13.3 inches of snow this season as of yesterday, which is 4.4 inches above normal. Respectable enough, but some of the Green Mountains are absolutely bonkers with snow.   

Jay Peak is always basically a snow globe, but this year it's ridiculous. The ski resort there reports 22 inches of new snow in the first week of December for a total so far of 141 inches. 

Even if you factor in ski resort snow report inflation, they've had an impressive early winter so far. Jay Peak has  definitely dropped the warning, "early season conditions exist" from their snow report, since conditions are more like midwinter.

Up on Mount Mansfield, there was four feet of snow at the measuring stake just below the summit. That's close to a record depth for this time of year. On average, snow cover at the Mount Mansfield stake does't reach four feet until late January. 

Between the persistent cold weather that's been great for snowmaking and the manna from the snow gods, this is Vermont's best start to ski season in years, maybe even decades. 

NEXT UP

Coming up: A, little more snow. 

This afternoon will only make it into the 20s - maybe upper teens in the high elevations north. If you saw glimpses of sun this morning, that's it for bright skies today as that next wave of light snow moves in this afternoon.  

This will be another mostly northern Vermont thing, with two to as much as four inches of fluff overnight. Even northern valleys should get at least two inches of snow. Amounts will taper off once you get into the valleys in southern parts of the state. Those places will get a dusting at best.

The cold regime we've been enduring will continue big time as we start the week, too. Burlington - and numerous other valley towns - managed to sneak above freezing briefly Saturday. That was our big thaw, I guess.

The snow should pretty much end before dawn in most spots. But that new snow, and blowing snow, and temperatures plummeting into the single digits means we'll once again deal with a crappy morning commute on the roads Monday morning. I know. Sigh. 

Monday itself will be another frigid day as we only make it into the teens during the afternoon. That's about 20 degrees colder than average for this time of year.  Then, tomorrow night, it's back below zero for many of us. 

Tuesday looks quiet and cold, as temperatures recover into the 20s. 

The next storm comes along Wednesday. Again, it'll be a not-that-big affair. And since it's going by to our west, it'll push another brief squirt of warmer air into the region. By "warm" I mean near normal for this time of year. 

Since the warmer valleys might get into the 30s, some rain might mix in during the day. But the mountains will pretty much remain snow through the entire storm.

Starting Wednesday, a gigantic blast of Arctic air will come into the U.S., eventually affecting everyone north and east of a line from Montana to Georgia. 

Yesterday I mentioned we might get a second storm on Friday. It's beginning to look possible that the g huge gush of frigid air might be so strong that it would suppress that second storm to our south, and we'd miss out. It's a little soon to tell for sure. 

We do know that temperatures will be heading downhill later in the week once again. Plus, there will be disturbances in that icy air flow that will trigger more snow from time to time, especially in the northern Green Mountains. So the snow will continue to deepen in those mountains through the entire upcoming week.