Another Round Of Snow Moving Into Vermont After Overnight Dump

Snow covered roads around Interstate 89 Exit 14 in 
Burlington in this web cam grab from around 8:15 this
morning. Roads and highways should keep looking
like this all day as at least light snow should keep
falling amid continued cold temperatures. 

 As expected, our fluffy, cold snowstorm from yesterday and last petered out before dawn today, but more snow was moving in, especially in central and northern Vermont. 

The most snow I've seen in Vermont so far is 14.5 inches in Woodbury. Generally, most places so far are in the 6 to 12 inch range so far.

At this point I'm guessing snow totals will come in a somewhat less than the 12 to 24 inches that had been expected south, and pretty close to or just a little below the 10 to 16 inch storm total that we thought we'd get in the north.  

The National Weather Service in South Burlington said part of the problem was it was almost too cold for a decent snowfall.  Especially in the early part of the storm, while temperatures were near 0 or just above that level, the snow came as tiny crystals instead of nice, big snowflakes. 

You probably noticed how itty bitty the flakes were in many areas yesterday afternoon and evening.  That kind of snow does't accumulate fast. In northern Vermont, the clouds also weren't quite as packed with moisture as they could have been. So they yielded a bit less snow. 

Also, the period when snow tapered off and the time it is beginning again widened some, which is also cutting down the totals a bit. Those three factors cut down a snow totals a little 

It looks like Vermont was just north of the really heavy stuff. I see widespread 18 inch totals in central and eastern Massachusetts, in northern Connecticut and New York's Catskill region. 

Still, all of Vermont ended up with a decent snowstorm, so we can't complain too much about that. 

I noticed when I went out this morning the snow - again as expected - is light and feathery. I'm so glad it's not the wet cement we've had so often in recent winters. But it's still cold out. Temperatures were still only in the single numbers this morning and will only rise to the teens this afternoon.

The cold takes more out of you when you're shoveling, especially if you're older. So you want to take care while clearing the snow. Or borrow an athletic teenager to do the work. School is canceled due to the weather in many if not most places today in and around Vermont. So it might be easy to find some labor. 

As you might have guessed, pretty much all the roads in Vermont are snow covered, so they are slippery. Sure, it stopped snowing for awhile in many places. But it's way too cold for salt to work, and we have a road salt shortage to deal with. 

So whoever is driving Clearopathra and all the other wonderfully named Vermont snowplows isn't exactly spraying road salt all over the place. 

REST OT TODAY

Forecast for additional snow today. Another two to six inches
with two most in northwest Vermont and along the 
spine of the Green Mountains. 

As of 8 a.m., it was starting to snow again here in St. Albans. The snowflakes are bigger than those tiny crystals and needles from yesterday, so it will accumulate nicely. Especially since the snow will continue to be light and fluffy. 

Radar imagery at around 8 a.m. showed snow both pressing in from New York, and blossoming on its own in the Champlain Valley. 

So I think the early morning break in the snow is pretty much over. The snow will spread into the rest of Vermont during the morning. It'll probably be lighter south of Route 4. 

The snow should shut off pretty quickly this evening once the last piece of this complex storm says bye-bye and heads on off to the east. 

Another two to four inches is likely in southern Vermont today with there to five inches north. The five inch amounts will mostly be in the northern Champlain Valley and central and northern Green Mountains.  

REST OF THE WEEK

It'll be a cold one all the way through the week. 

Daily daytime highs today through Saturday at least will be in the teens. Lows will be near or below zero. Fresh snowfall tends to make the bottom drop out of the thermometers at night. If we get a clear night, a lot of us will get into the teens below zero. Some places might get into the 20s below if one of those clear nights happen.

We will have little if any new snow during the week. A few lame disturbances might throw a few snowflakes at us, but that's about it. Maybe the northern Green Mountains will catch a couple additional inches of snow after today. 

But at least we have enough powder now to play in, right?

Almost all signs point toward continued cold weather into mid-February and quite possibly beyond that. 

The next shot at a storm would be next Monday as some computer models are hinting at a nor'easter. But most of the models that do develop such a storm keep it too far east of Vermont to give us much of anything. But we've been surprised before. Sometimes the models change their minds and bring the storm a little closer to the coast. As always we'll keep an eye on it. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: We haven't done an update yet today on the much worse weather elsewhere in the U.S. this morning. That will come in a post later today.