Saturday Evening: Vermont Storm Wrap Up And Latest On The Blizzard Of '26

This is what the National Weather Service was predicting
Thursday for our just-ended snowfall 

From my perch in St. Albans, Vermont, I was in a winter paradise this afternoon. 

Bright sun broke through to light up deep, fresh snow on the ground and the tree branches decoratively weighed down by the snow from last night. 

Places near the Canadian border cleared up nicely, while much of the rest of Vermont stayed mired under clouds and flurries. 

A pretty steep temperatures contrast held all afternoon in Vermont, too. While the Champlain Valley held in the low 20s, the Connecticut River valley all the way to Lyndonville and far southern Vermont were in the low to mid 30s. 

Meanwhile, that forecasted blizzard menaces far to our  south. I'll provide a quick Saturday evening update that expected huge nor'easter in a moment, but let's clean up the results of last night's storm. 

The forecasted snow amounts were almost spot on everywhere in Vermont and surrounding areas except in the far southern Green Mountains. There, snow totals were mostly near five or six inches, instead of the seven or eight that had been anticipated. 

And this is the amount that actually fell. Pretty darn
close to the forecasts, You can click on both maps
to make them bigger and easier to see. 

Most places in Vermont got five to 8 inches of snow, with a few reports of snow in the 8.5 to 9 inch range; There was a report of a foot of snow in Warren, but I don't 100 percent trust that, as nobody else came close to measuring new snow that deep.

BLIZZARD OF '26

As things fall into place with what will be an incredibly strong nor'easters, some of the warnings ahead of the storm have expanded. 

By late this afternoon, most of New Jersey was under a blizzard warning, not just the immediate coast that was under the warning this morning.

In New York, the blizzard warning was pushed further up the Hudson Valley to about Peekskill. As expected, blizzard warnings went up this afternoon to southeastern New England. The blizzard waring in and around New York City is their first one since 2017.

Winter storm warnings are also further inland, extending as far west as Harrisburg and Scranton in Pennsylvania, and almost to Albany, New York. Winter storm warnings extend to through all of Massachusetts not covered by the blizzard warning.

And, due to continued uncertainly as to how far north this might go, winter storm watches are up for far southern New Hampshire and Vermont. 

Governors of New York and New Jersey declared states of emergency. New York City residents and others in the blizzard zone were urged to go out today and stock up on three days' worth of food and supplies. 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents to stay at home during the storm. 

Henry the Weather Dog measuring the deep accumulation
of snow outside his St. Albans, Vermont home today.
Last night's snowstorm brought the overall snow depth
to about 15 inches. Henry says he is thankful that it
looks like the expected huge East Coast blizzard
looks like it will largely miss far northwest Vermont

There were already about 430 flight cancellations today as airlines moved planes away from the storm zone. FlightAware.com reported about 1,100 flights had already been canceled for tomorrow. 

Most areas in the blizzard warning can expect 15 to 25 inches of snow driven by wind gusts of 50 mph or more. 

In some areas, like New York, it probably didn't feel like a blizzard was on the way as temperatures hovered in the mid-40s under partly sunny skies. But as the storm winds up tomorrow it'll pull in more than enough cold air to create the blizzard. 

Coastal flooding is also a big concern from Virginia to New England as intense northeast winds push Atlantic Ocean water into East Coast shorelines. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Because of another westward shift in the expected storm track today, Vermont's southernmost two counties are now under a winter storm watch from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon. It won't be as bad as in the blizzard zone, but at this point four to eight inches of snow are  expected in far southern Vermont with wind gusts to 40 mph. 

Central Vermont could get one to four inches of snow. A dusting to an inch might get to Route 2 or even a wee bit north of that. 

All of Vermont should have blustery winds Sunday night through Monday night. 

I will have much more on all this in tomorrow morning's post.