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.  

After Wild Ride In Vermont, Quieter Thank Goodness. Same Goes For Scotland

View out the plane window on approach to Edinburgh,
Scotland today. Notice the background landscape is
not that different from the hills in Vermont. The seacoast
in the foreground doesn't look that much different from the
Lake Champlain shore in Burlington. 

 EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - Just arrived at my temporary perch in Scotland, will I will be staying for the next eight days ago.  

It was a challenging trip from Newark, New Jersey to Edinburgh, and we arrived more than seven hours later than scheduled. It wasn't weather problems. 

It was just a cargo door that malfunctioned, then we were moved to another plane, but they didn't re-scan the luggage correctly, and that took time to fix, and then the flight crew ran out of hours so they had to find another crew.

Sigh. But we made it! We just arrived at our hotel.   The city at first glance is, as advertised, gorgeous.  We're too tired to explore today. It's 3:40 p.m here and already getting dark. Edinburgh is as far north as north-central Quebec, so we're up there.

Back in Vermont, there were weather challenges once again last evening, I'm told. For a time it was really puking snow along the western slopes of the Green Mountains and the summits. 

It turned into a real mess when a few inches of snow fell along Interstate 89 between Williston and Waterbury, with a good three inches piling up in short order. Meanwhile, at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington, they just barely mustered a trace. 

The sudden onslaught of snow along Interstate 89 caused a ton of slide offs and such.  A section of the interstate between Williston and Richmond closed for a time. 

Some of the higher snow totals from this latest in a what has amounted to a series of surprise snowfalls this week include 6.0 inches in Montgomery,  4.8 inches in Jeffersonville, 4.1 inches in Huntington, 4.0 inches in Johnson and 3.6 inches in the Nashville section of Jonesville. 

The weather here in Edinburgh looks like it will be similar to that of Vermont over the next couple days. (I noticed while the plane was coming in for a landing that the landscape outside of Edinburgh is similar to that of Vermont. There's snow covered hills, no snow on the ground in Edinburgh proper, and an overcast sky. Temperatures are hovering just barely above freezing. 

Same in Vermont. Highs today under cloudy skies should be barely into the 30s. It'll be a little warmer tomorrow over in the Green Mountain State.

For Vermonters, the next shot at precipitation is on Friday and especially Friday night. This could be another mess like on Monday, except rain or snow should be lighter than it was on Monday. The fast flow aloft will probably shear apart the oncoming storm somewhat, so at this stage it looks like the risk of a few inches of wet snow again in the high elevations, and perhaps more rain in the warmer valleys. 

Stay tuned, as things could change, as they certainly did on Monday.  

The forecast beyond Friday still looks clear as mud, as a continued fast flow aloft will throw all kinds of weather disturbances at us. But I still have no idea whether any of these will be fairly substantial, or just the usual snow and rain showers.

At least it won't be that cold. Temperatures should be near normal - highs in the 30s to around 40.

As I mentioned earlier, since I'm way over in Scotland, some of my posts will come in at odd times, and might not be as consistent as usual. My apologies, but as you might understand, I want to explore this beautiful city whilst I'm here. (Notice the UK affectation in that sentence already!)