Northeast April Snowstorm On Saturday Was Big; Northern Vermont's Turn Coming Midweek?

Traffic camera grab shows it looking pretty 
blizzardy around 9 a.m. Saturday along 
Route 7 in Shaftesbury, Vermont. 

 Only parts of the Northeast had snow Saturday, but some areas had some pretty impressive totals for the middle of April.   

SATURDAY SNOW

The snow extended from the high elevations of northwestern New Jersey, through the Catskills and the hills near the Hudson Valley of New York and on into much of New England. 

Central Massachusetts was the big winner. Nine inches of snow landed in Princeton, Massachusetts, in Worcester County. 

Ashburnham and Leicester, Massachusetts had eight inches and there were many reports of more than six inches.

Worcester, Massachusetts had 6.4 inches of snow,   The high temperature there only reached 33 degrees, a record low high for the date. 

There was even some thundersnow in central Massachusetts and snowfall rates briefly exceeded two inches per hour. This would have been a decent snowstorm in January,  never mind April.

The snow of course extended northward here into parts of Vermont, mostly in the high elevations along and south of Route 4. 

Vermont reports include six inches in Landgrave, 5.2 inches in Woodford State Park and five inches in Mount Holly. Even valley locations across southern Vermont had some snow, with two inches reported in Bennington. 

As expected the northward moving band of snow weakened and largely turned to rain as it worked its way across Vermont Saturday. A few high elevations in northern Vermont got a little snow, but definitely nothing impressive. 

The band did have more staying power than many thought, making it all the way into northeastern New York and extreme southern Quebec. Amounts were light, though. Burlington had only 0.11 inches of rain and no snow. 

BRIEF SPRING

Saturday's snow is over, but believe it or not, some parts of our region look like they just might be in line for even more snow in a few days. But not in the same places that saw it on Saturday. 

We'll get into that in a minute. But first, let's talk about spring weather. Yay!  

Today won't exactly be nice, with lots of clouds and cool temperatures. Skies might brighten some this afternoon in western Vermont but stay pretty gloomy east. It'll get into the reasonable low 50s west but stay o the 40s east.

Monday will be your one truly spring day this week so enjoy.  Highs in many areas should get into the low and mid 60s, with sunshine and light winds. I noticed tree buds and perennials have been slowly expanding despite the recent chill, and Monday will give both the plants and us humans a welcome boost. 

Enjoy it, as it will be brief.  Cold fronts start to work their way in Monday night and Tuesday. At first, it won't be so bad, with bouts of light showers and near average temperatures for most of Tuesday (Highs in the 50s). 

SNOW AGAIN

But by Tuesday night and Wednesday, another snowfall is coming to Vermont - but only for some of us.

The storm that will swing those cold fronts through on Tuesday will slow down and nearly stall for a time over southeastern Quebec.

That will set up a classic wintertime upslope snow type situation in Vermont. That's when cold,  moist northwest winds hit the west slopes of the Green Mountains, forcing the air to rise and wring out snow over the high elevations. 

Valleys tend to get some snow out of these situations, too, but usually not as much.

This episode is hitting in April, so even if snow showers on Wednesday make it to the valleys, it'll be warm enough to maybe  mix with rain. Or, if it stays snow, not really accumulate readily. 

It's a little soon to get into specifics, but it looks like pretty much everyone north of Route 4 should see some snow and rain showers Wednesday and Wednesday night. Even the Champlain Valley could easily get some snow and rain showers, but amounts should be very light in that area. The valley usually misses out on these "upslope" events. .

It's the central and northern Green Mountains we'll need to watch.  Again, it's too early to be specific about accumulations. But I can see the potential for some of the central and northern Greens, along with parts of the Adirondacks in New York and White Mountains of New Hampshire, to see six or more inches of snow out of this. 

I'll have more details as we get closer to the event.

After that, it'll get a little warmer, as it can't stay chilly forever this deep into spring.  I still don't see any big bursts of spring warmth coming, but there's hope for at least some average temperatures for late April after we get through the upcoming week.  

That means highs in the 50s to low 60s if it comes true. Which is good enough for me.  

Snow To End Later This Morning; Clouds, Chill To Linger

Managed to shovel part of my driveway in St. Albans,
Vermont before work this morning.  Will finish
after short work day this afternoon. Easy job, as
it's only two or three inches and it's not wet or heavy.

As of 8 a.m., this Christmas Eve morning, we're almost done with our latest bout of snow, but road conditions remain tricky, as you can imagine with snow still falling.  

Radar images at 8 a.m. showed the back edge of the snow just crossing the Canadian border into northwest Vermont, so most places will be done with this by midmorning. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington will probably drop the winter weather advisories and winter storm warning, also by midmorning. 

Best early guess is most of the forecasted amounts of snow will come to fruition, except maybe in the Champlain Valley  

Both upper level winds from the southwest and strong surface winds from the south up the Champlain Valley cut back on snow accumulations. 

The southwest winds a few thousand feet up meant the Adirondacks of New York blocked some of the moisture from getting into the valley. 

Winds on the ground gusted to around 40 mph at times, stronger than forecast. That created a lot of blowing snow, but messing up whatever snow was falling. The blasting gusts smashed snowflakes apart, causing smaller fragments to all, which don't accumulate as readily as regular, intact snowflakes.

The winds were diminishing as we approached sunrise, so most of the snow in the Champlain Valley will have fallen at the end of the storm.  Still, I imagine places like Burlington and Middlebury might end up with only one to three inches of new snow.

Eh, those places got some Lake Champlain-effect snow Saturday, so they're OK. 

 It was hard to measure how much snow I got at my place in St. Albans, Vermont because the snow blew around quite a bit overnight. Good measuring spots ranged rom 2.5 to 3.2 inches of new snow around my yard.

Northern New York appears to be the big winner of this system, with a couple of 7 inch reports coming in from there. So far reports from Vermont are sparse. Preliminary reports include 6.7 inches in Albany, Vermont, 6.5 inches in Morrisville 5.3 inches in Cabot and 4.1 in Topsham.  

OUTLOOK

As expected, road conditions were iffy for what amounted to this morning's commute. Traffic cams showed snow or slush covered highways statewide.  

Screen grab of traffic cam on Interstate 89 near Exit 16 in
Colchester shows not great conditions. If you have
holiday travel today, probably best to postpone
the start until late morning or afternoon. 

This should improve pretty fast later this morning and afternoon.  Temperatures should either stay in or get into the 20s by this afternoon, so not terrible.

Although strong high pressure is moving in, we might not see a huge amount of sun during the day, or starlight at night, especially in the valleys. 

That inversion we've been talking about will set up.  An inversion is when it's warmer a few thousand feet overhead than it is down in the valleys, which is the opposite of how the atmosphere is usually set up. 

An inversion traps a layer of moisture a couple thousand feet up, which means you often see a low, dull overcast in the valleys with this type of thing. Especially this time of year, when the sun's low angle isn't powerful enough to mix the atmosphere and clear out the clouds. 

Pollution can get trapped beneath the inversion layer, too, so we'll have to watch and see what air quality does Christmas through Friday. 

If you venture up to the ski resorts, you might be treated to an undercast, rather than an overcast. That cloud layer could end up below you, so if you're up on the mountain, you might be in bright sunshine while a layer of clouds spread out below you. 

After today, the next chance of any kind of storminess looks like it might come along about Sunday. By then it will be warmer, so at this point, it looks like that stuff might end up being rain, with possible areas of freezing rain.

Ah, yes, the joys of a Vermont winter!

Small Snowfall Over-Performs, White Christmas Guaranteed Vermont/Much Of New England

A nice little coating of snow has appeared around St.
Albans, Vermont. A little over two inches of snow fell
since Friday afternoon, and it was still snowing a
little as of 8 a.m Saturday 

The snow that hit New England Friday afternoon and evening was by no means a blockbuster - nobody ever thought it would be - but it did over-perform. 

By that I mean the snow was a bit more persistent and in some cases deeper than many of us thought it would be. That lead to some trouble on the roads, but also guaranteeing a white Christmas for many of us in New England, and large swaths of New York and Pennsylvania.

I don't yet have many snow reports as of early this morning. 

But as of midnight, Burlington, Vermont had received 2.5 inches of new snow.  A little more fell after midnight. As of 7 a.m. today, my place in St. Albans had 2.2 inches of new fluff.

It was still snowing a little in both cities as of 8:15 a.m,, and in fact, the pace of the falling snow had temporarily picked up a bit since dawn.   

Forecasts ahead of the snow called for one to three inches in Vermont, and it looks like a number of places will go a little past that amount.  

Especially since parts of Vermont and the Adirondacks could see another one to three inches of snow today. 

It was still lightly snowing there and in most of Vermont and adjacent New York, New Hampshire and southern Quebec as of dawn today. 

The snow yesterday and last night was never intense enough to trigger any kind of winter weather advisories, but it did make a mess on the roads for the Friday evening commute.

Traffic was heavier than usual, what with the people coming home from work and school and people heading to and from Christmas activities and shopping. 

The snow was deceptive, too.  You get an attitude, "Ah, it's only light snow." But all those car and truck tires often compacted that little bit of snow into a thin, hard to see sheen of black ice. 

The result was traffic back ups around crashes and slide offs. Interstate 89 southbound near Exit 17 in Colchester, Vermont was briefly closed Friday afternoon due to a crash.

It was slow going in the Boston area, and much of the rest of Massachusetts yesterday afternoon, too. 

Eastern Massachusetts ended up getting an unexpectedly good thump of snow, guaranteeing a surprise white Christmas in Boston and environs. Boston saw 5.2 inches of new snow Friday.  A few places in that area got around six inches of snow.

New York's Central Park received 1.8 inches of snow as of this morning. That opens the possibility of the Big Apple's first White Christmas since 2009.  (Though there was a trace on the ground in 2017. And in 2010, there was no New York snow on Christmas, but 20 inches fell on Dec. 26-27 that year).

Roads around the region were still iffy this morning, so be careful out there Road crews are out, but some falling snow is still sticking to the roads, 

 FORECAST

We've got a traditionally frigid pre-Christmas weekend underway in New England, a contrast to recent past balmy Christmas times.

As mentioned, it'll keep snowing in Vermont today. Just flurries in the valleys, really. Some of the western slopes of the Green Mountains and ski areas could get another couple inches of super light fluff today.     

The temperature continues to fall, - a trend that started Thursday. It was mostly in the teens across Vermont as dawn broke this morning, and readings will barely rise through the day.  A steady north wind will make it feel colder. 

The temperature still looks like it will fall to within a few degrees either side of 0 tonight.

The sun will come out tomorrow, as the song goes, but it won't heat us up at all. Temperatures will stay in the single numbers to maybe low teens in some of the milder spots. Those readings will crash tomorrow night, with everybody below zero by late Sunday night and towards dawn Monday A lucky few near Lake Champlain that will hold near zero.

We do see a bit of a milder trend heading toward Christmas and beyond, but it won't be as much of a warmup as earlier forecast.  Highs should reach near 20 Monday, in the 20s Christmas Eve and maybe near 30 or so Christmas.

Another weak system looks like it will spread some more light snow across the region to grace our surroundings on Christmas Eve. Gotta keep things looking traditional, so of course some Charlie Brown Christmas Special snow as we await Santa.

 

Pesky Light, Wet Snow For A Vermont Friday; Questions Still On 2 More Storms

UPDATE 8:30 a.m. 

If you've made it work on the mostly 

Forecast map fort additional snowfall today shows it'
won't amount to much, with an inch or so in the 
Champlain Valley and perhaps a little
over three inches in some parts of southeast Vermont.UPDATE: 8:30 a.m.

just wet Vermont main roads this morning, congratulations,

Now, a band of snow is moving into Vermont from west to east, so road conditions will probably deteriorate some for the next couple of or few hours.

This isn't super heavy snow, but it will be enough to make roake road conditions go downhill somewhat. 

Let's be careful out there 

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION 7 am. 

 Most of the storm we are currently technically still in this Friday morning came in a three or four hour thump last night. But last night's short round of heavy snow was the bulk of the storm. 

Generally speaking most of us received three or four inches of snow out of it. It looks like, as expected, mixed precipitation held down accumulations in parts of southern Vermont. 

I'm going to stop here for a second and once again express my frustration with a lack of funding for the National Weather Service. Once again, their web sites were junky early this morning. Opening pages within the web site usually yielded error messages. 

If you were persistent and kept trying, you could certainly get their forecast page. But a lot of the deep dive pages, like clicking on a specific town to see current conditions and that of the last several hours, or looking at their forecast discussion or other data, either didn't work and gave error messages, or did work only after multiple tries.

This issue has happened on multiple occasions over the last couple of years. Sometimes when dangerous weather lurked. 

The National Weather Service needs funding to upgrade its public facing technology, as they are such a critical agency.  Instead of providing adequate (not lavish!) funding, Congress is posturing over debt ceiling nonsense.

OK, that's the end of my political rant. Back to the weather. 

Depending on your viewpoint, today will either bring nuisance snow or a little icing on the cake. In other words, we'll get a little more snow, but not much. 

As of this morning, the drive to work for those of you out on the roads doesn't look awful. The lull in the precipitation early this morning has left main roads either wet or slushy.  More rural roads look slick. 

The great job Vermont highway crews did on the roads still might deteriorate some at times today as light snow redevelops. 

Far southern Vermont might recoup some of the snow it lost out on last night, as the most accumulation today will be down in that region with perhaps two or three inches of new accumulation. But even there, the warmest valleys could easily still see rain.  It was 36 degrees at 6 a.m. in Bennington, for instance.  

That's not a recipe for accumulating snow, though temperatures will probably drop a bit later today in southern Vermont. And Vermont Agency of Transportation web cams showed some wet snow in the air along Route 7 in Bennington as of 7 a.m. 

Further north, it will still be warmish today with temperatures in the 30-34 degree range in the valleys. That's definitely cold enough for snow, but there won't be much. Today's accumulations will range from a little less than an inch to up to three inches in favored mid and high elevations. Not a biggie, really. 

MORE STORMS

There's still two more storms in the pipeline, as mentioned yesterday. 

Forecast models are still trying to figure these storms out. '

The next one, Sunday night, seems to be favoring southeastern Vermont with the most snow. That said, the predicted path of this storm keeps windshield wipering back and forth, inland or near the coast. Expectations on its strength keep varying, too. So it's too early to honestly hazard a guess on how much snow will come with Sunday night's system. 

It will be a fast mover, so it won't linger long enough to drop blockbuster amounts of snow. 

The other storm after that, coming midweek is even more of a wild card. It could go inland, giving us in Vermont a mix of precipitation types, or it could go far enough east to dump mostly snow.

We'll just need to keep watching those two systems. And of course I'll provide updates on them.