Winter Storm Making Travel Weekend Miserable In U.S., Especially Midwest

A must-vehicle crash amid on Interstate 70 in western
Indiana on Saturday. A huge swath of the Midwest
is under winter storm warnings today as heavy
snow delays travel for many. 

While we here in Vermont await a minor bout of winter weather tomorrow, the same storm is spreading snow over a huge area of the Midwest. 

Since so many people are traveling this holiday weekend, the Scrooge mood has hit early for many. 

The winter storm warnings Saturday stretched from eastern South Dakota to Michigan. 

The relative center of this winter weather zone is Chicago, The windy city serves as a hub for American, United, Frontier, Southwest and Spirit airlines. 

You can imagine the mess.

As of Saturday morning, more than 1,000 flights were canceled at Chicago airports, CBS News reported. I imagine things later got even worse for flights in and out of Chicago   as heavy snow with very poor visibility lasted all afternoon. 

As of 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, FlightAware said the number of flights today canceled at just O'Hare was 1,038.

For the U.S. as a whole, FlightAware said there had been 2,166 flight cancelations and 18,322 delays as of late this afternoon. So if someone you expected to arrive at your house today says it won't happen, they're probably not lying. It's nothing personal. Just the weather.  

Of course, highways are slow, too. As many as 30 vehicles crashed into each other on slick Interstate 70 in western Indiana. Social media is rife with images of cars in ditches and vehicles with smashed and dented fenders, or worse.   

The winter storm warning affected 32 million people and winter weather advisories along the storms edges covered another 20 million, USA Today reported. 

The snow is expected to dwindle off and end by late tonight in places from Chicago west, and during the morning in locations farther east, like northern Indiana and most of Michigan. 

A new winter storm is expected to hit a large swath of the Midwest and Northeast on Tuesday.  

A Brief Monday Evening Vermont (Snow!) Update

Most of tomorrow's snow will be in the mountains
But that inch or so of snow you see in this forecast
for places like the Champlain Valley will be timed
just perfectly to screw up the 
Tuesday morning commute

 Just figured I'd update you quickly so you can plan your Tuesday morning.

Because the roads are going to crappy, snowy and maybe icy for your morning commute. 

We're still not expecting much snow in most of Vermont late tonight and tomorrow, except in the mountains. 

The amount of snow isn't the problem. The real problem is the timing and intensity of the snow might well end up being the worst possible combination. 

If the timing in the forecast holds, the combination of a burst of heavy or at least heavy-ish precipitation,  a rain to snow scenario in many spots and a rapid drop in temperatures will hit just perfectly for the Tuesday morning commute.

The disturbance coming in will have a pretty potent cold front with it. As that cold front blusters in,  it will have a fairly narrow but heavy band of precipitation with it. In the Champlain Valley, it might start out as rain, but quick turn into a snow squall-like thing.

So, the roads will quickly get covered with a slush coating of snow. As this happens, temperatures will take a quick nosedive and go below freezing very quickly. So the slush will turn to ice on many surfaces. 

It doesn't take much snow to cause a scene. A half inch to an inch will do it. 

Add to this scenario the idiots driving 80 mph on the ice because they're "late" for work and it's a recipe for a mess on the roads. Of course, they don't consider that if they hit three other vehicles in the process, they'll really be late for work. Or worse. 

If you're planning on being anywhere on Interstate 89 and maybe Interstate 91 and some other Vermont highways tomorrow morning, plan on being stuck in a traffic jam as crashes gum up the works. 

The best guess is this will come into the Champlain Valley between 5 and 7 a.m. and then move west to east across the rest of Vermont between 7 and 11 a.m.

The rest of the day will not be nice.  There might be a lull after that main blast goes through during the morning commute in which the sun might even make an appearance and the wind will temporarily diminish slightly.

But the rest of the day will feature clouds, gusty winds, snow showers and temperatures that will hover right around the freezing mark. 

The snow showers won't add up to much in the valleys, but the Green Mountain are still looking at what amounts to a moderate-sized snowstorm. The ski areas in the central and northern Green Mountain should see a good four to eight inches of snow before things taper off later Tuesday night. 

All this really isn't that unusual for early April. It's just too bad we couldn't time this little late slap of winter to make it more convenient for us. But Vermont weather is seldom convenient. 

Biden Grants Disaster Approval For Vermont NEK Floods On July 30; FEMA Money In Question

President Biden just declared three Northeast Kingdom
counties disaster zones due to intense flash flooding
back on July 30.  This frees up assistance funds, but
that money might be slow in coming due to
federal funding shortfalls and delays. 

In a widely expected move,  President Joe Biden has declared three Vermont counties disaster areas due to catastrophic flooding in the Northeast Kingdom back on July 30.  

It seems like every time we turn around, part of Vermont is declared a disaster zone. 

This declaration involves Caledonia, Essex and Orleans counties affected by a rather localized but intense storm on the night of July 30. 

The overnight storm dumped over eight inches of rain on St. Johnsbury and surrounding areas in just a few hours, causing catastrophic flooding. 

This declaration, like the other ones declared this year in other parts of the state, means federal grants and low cost loans are becoming available to fix homes and businesses. 

Local municipalities, and the state government, along with some non-profit outfits might also get some funds on a cost-sharing basis to repair or replace damaged roads and other infrastructure. That money can also be used to build some mitigation projects to help fend off future disasters. 

Earlier this summer Lamoille County was declared a disaster area due to flash flooding and severe storms on June 23.  And of course seven Vermont counties were declare disaster zones due to July 10 and 11 flooding. 

NO FEMA MONEY?

The money for this newest disaster declaration - along with those two other declared for summer flooding in Vermont - might be slow in coming. 

Congress just passed - and Biden just signed - a bill for stopgap federal funding to keep the government lights on through December 20.  That prevented a partial government shutdown. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, had requested additional funds in the stopgap bill to cope with all the disasters that have been happening this year around the nation. That money was not included in this bill. 

On top of everything else, Hurricane Helene hit right after this bill lacking FEMA money was signed into law. Helene will likely be the nation's biggest and most expensive disaster this year, so I don't know how everybody in Vermont and elsewhere who needs the assistance will receive it. Or it might take forever to arrive. 

FEMA has money left to meet immediate needs. They can swoop into places like Florida and North Carolina this week to ensure the very short term emergency needs of disaster victims. 

But those kind of loans and grants to help businesses get back on their feet or to towns that have run out of money after fixing destroyed roads will probably have to wait. 

Under these lack of funding circumstances, "They delay anything that is not an urgent spending necessary for protection of life and property, and that means people return to their homes slower," Peter Muller, a senior officer with the Managing Risks Projects at Pew Charitable Trusts told Marketplace. 

"It means that businesses will reopen slower. It also means that projects that are intended to reduce the impact of the next disaster are going to be delayed." 

Will Brief Vermont Spring Yield Back To Winter?

Somewhere beneath this snowbank and snow drifts in 
St. Albans, Vermont, a perennial garden awaits 
spring weather to bloom again. Given the forecast
for the next week or two, that wait will go
on for awhile yet. 

Most of Vermont had a nice warm spring day Wednesday, although, as explained yesterday, the northern Champlain Valley kind of missed out on that. 

Today, spring rains are falling across Vermont.  Not a nice day, but hey, spring-ish, right?  

So does that mean we're over the winter weather? Uh, no.

There's always flashbacks to winter well into April, sometimes in May in Vermont, so it's no surprise that more snow or a mix is in the forecast.  Winter is being a little more persistent than it has in recent years, I guess. 

THE WEEKEND

We're still looking at a storm that looks as if it will produce a mix of slush, snow, ice and yuck Saturday and Sunday. This, by no means will be anything as big as the snowstorm we had mid-month. But it will still cause a few problems. And like most storms this time of year, it's kind of unpredictable.

The current thinking is we'll be cruising along late Saturday morning or early afternoon with temperatures above freezing - at least in the valleys  - when the initial burst of precipitation arrives. Oh, goody, rain, right?

Probably wrong. The arriving storm will bring a surge of deep moisture that will collide with relatively dry air over us. As the snow arrives aloft at first, it will evaporate into the dry air, cooling it.  Then as moisture continues to flow in, the now cooler air will be chilly enough for snow, not rain. 

Sometime on Saturday, we could see a pretty heavy burst of snow which could at least temporarily slicken the roads. Though most of the snow accumulation will happen on either grassy surfaces or on existing snowpack. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington says they're thinking that more warm, wet air will continue to flow in Saturday night. That would change the snow back to rain, or rain and a little sleet in the valleys. Mountains would continue to get a an ugly mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and perhaps a bit of rain. 

Vermont Agency of Transportation traffic cam along
Interstate 89 in Williston this morning shows us 
what we have to put up with in the odd season between
winter and spring: Fading snow, brown grass, 
mud and roadside litter that accumulated all winter. 

Projected accumulations are so, so subject to change I almost don't want to mention it.  But people like early estimates, so here we go.  I imagine a lot of valleys could get one to three inches of glop, mostly from that initial burst of snow Saturday afternoon or evening.  

The early guess is some of the mountains would get two to six inches of schmutzy snow. 

Those of you (like me!) with travel plans on Sunday should be OK.  I imagine there will be some lingering issues in mid and high elevations in the morning, which should get cleared up. At this point, with fingers crossed, main roads in the valleys should be just wet Sunday morning and through the day, as scattered, light rain showers continue through the day. 

MIDWEEK STORM?

Some of you might have seen some breathless posts on social media of a possible bigger snowstorm next Wednesday or so. 

Let's seriously underline the word "possible."  Yes, some of the computer models suggest a decent snowstorm for Vermont that day. But a lot of other models either take the storm out to sea so that it entirely misses us. Or they give us a bit of light rain and snow.  We won't know for a few days how this will play out. 

Unfortunately for people chomping at the bit for spring, it looks like it will be reluctant in these parts. Long range forecasts call for generally below normal temperatures and odds slightly tilted toward above normal precipitation. That would mean more chances of snow to delay the daffodils even more.