Thursday Afternoon Update: After Today's Hints Of Spring, Vermont Braces For Tomorrow's Snow'

Updated storm total map for tomorrow's storm.
Orange areas get eight inches or more Blue areas
are five inches or less. Expect some changes to
the forecast by tomorrow. The storm might end up
seeming worse than these totals suggest because
the initial surge of snow will come down hard. 

I hope you enjoyed our hints of spring this afternoon. Winter still looks like it will return with a vengeance tomorrow. 

Under strong sunshine, most places got into the mid 30s to around 40 today. An exception was right along the Canadian border, especially in the far northern Champlain Valley where temperatures held near 32 degrees. 

Now for our Thursday evening storm update:

If anything, the amount of snow we'll get has ticked up just a little since this morning's forecast. 

The storm responsible for all this is in the Midwest. It's quite vigorous, judging from the tornado watch in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky this afternoon.  The storm has prompted some flood watch in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, too. 

The storm will be weakened some by the time it gets closer to us, but it will still pack a punch when it arrives. 

 The snow will come at us from southwest to northeast, hitting the Bennington area first early in the afternoon. By 4 p.m give or take it will be along and south and west of Interstate 89. The snow will then fill in toward the Northeast Kingdom by dark or so. Stay tuned for updates as the timing might change a little.

The storm will be more intense than the predicted snow totals suggest. Once the snow arrives, it'll very quickly go from flurries to very heavy snow, piling up at a rate of an inch or more per hour. It still looks it might start off mixed with rain in the lower valleys but will quickly go to snow.

You won't want to be on the roads when this arrives. The initial burst of heavy snow will be wet an heavy. That kind of snow compacts under car tires to create a particularly slick variety of ice. I anticipate big tie ups on the Interstate with a lot of slide offs and potential crashes once this hits.Like I said this morning, if you can work from home tomorrow instead of going into the office, do that. 

As expected, the National Weather Service has updated all the winter alerts for Friday The southeastern quarter of Vermont and the Green Mountains from the Massachusetts border north to about Sugarbush are under a winter storm warning from late Friday morning to Saturday morning. 

The southeastern Adirondacks of New York and southern New Hampshire are also under a winter storm warning. Everybody under the warning should get a storm total of 6 to 10 inches 

Winter storm warnings are usually issued when there's an expectation of at least six inches of snow. The rest of the region is under a winter weather advisory for four to seven inches of snow. (Forecaster think some areas will see six inches of snow in the advisory area, but not everyone will. 

The initial burst of heavy, wet snow will account for most of the accumulation with this thing.  You will be shoveling wet cement when it comes time to clear sidewalks and driveways. 

Overnight Friday and into Saturday, our storm will weaken rapidly as a new storm gets going along the New England coast and then goes quickly out to sea. Light snow will continue into Saturday, mostly in the north and mountains. The consistency of the snow overnight Friday and into Saturday will be nice and fluffy. That will give us a bit of a break, anyway. 

There's no great surge of frigid air coming in after this storm for a change. Highs Saturday will approach 30. Under partly cloudy skies Sunday, we should make it into the mid-30s.

That nor'easter  I mentioned this morning for Monday still looks like a miss for Vermont.