Um, happy spring?
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| Road conditions and visibility were horrible on Route 15 in Colchester, and in the rest of the Champlain Valley this afternoon |
Spring arrived at 10:46 this morning and it started snowing literally minutes after that.
As I noted this morning, the Champlain Valley was going to be the wildcard with this brief but pretty intense storm.
The hope was we'd get a fair amount of rain in addition to some slush coming out of the sky But temperatures ended up just a little cooler than everybody expected.
So, it really puked snow for awhile. Visibility was down to almost zero at times during the peak of the snow this afternoon.
Burlington got 4.9 inches of snow, most of it in just three hours. That was actually a record snowfall for today's date. The old record was 3.4 inches in 1951. As of early this morning, Burlington was only forecast to receive an inch of snow today. Oops.
Although mostly snow was expected in northern Vermont along and east of the Green Mountains, the snow fell with such vengeance that there was trouble there, too.
A partial list of road closures because of today's snow include Route 74 in Cornwall, Route 100B in Moretown, Route 302 in Orange and Route 114 in East Burke.
Back in the Champlain Valley, traffic slowed to a crawl. And backed up epically in some places.
The 4.9 inches that Burlington got might not be the final total, as it was still snowing lightly when that accumulation was announced.
The good news is that this blast of snow is pretty much done. The snow was leaving northern Vermont as of 5:30 p.m. and we have only flurries to look forward to tonight.
Road conditions in the Champlain Valley were rapidly improving. Secondary roads were slushy for the most part as of 5 p.m. Interstate 89, which was a snow covered mess most of the afternoon, was pretty much just wet by 5 p.m. in the Champlain Valley. It helped that it got a little above freezing late this afternoon and this evening after the snow tapered off.
Do be careful overnight and early Saturday, though. All that slush and water will refreeze, especially on untreated surfaces
Precipitation will keep going at a good rate further into the evening in southern Vermont, but most of that was falling as rain, as expected.
Clouds will start to break up tomorrow morning and we'll get some sun at least some of the time.
And yes, we're at risk still of another storm Sunday that has a good chance of giving at least part of Vermont more snow. I'll have much more on that forecast today, along with news on continued fairly chilly and sometimes potentially snowy weather again in the upcoming week.
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