Another Round Of Snow Moving Into Vermont After Overnight Dump

Snow covered roads around Interstate 89 Exit 14 in 
Burlington in this web cam grab from around 8:15 this
morning. Roads and highways should keep looking
like this all day as at least light snow should keep
falling amid continued cold temperatures. 

 As expected, our fluffy, cold snowstorm from yesterday and last petered out before dawn today, but more snow was moving in, especially in central and northern Vermont. 

The most snow I've seen in Vermont so far is 14.5 inches in Woodbury. Generally, most places so far are in the 6 to 12 inch range so far.

At this point I'm guessing snow totals will come in a somewhat less than the 12 to 24 inches that had been expected south, and pretty close to or just a little below the 10 to 16 inch storm total that we thought we'd get in the north.  

The National Weather Service in South Burlington said part of the problem was it was almost too cold for a decent snowfall.  Especially in the early part of the storm, while temperatures were near 0 or just above that level, the snow came as tiny crystals instead of nice, big snowflakes. 

You probably noticed how itty bitty the flakes were in many areas yesterday afternoon and evening.  That kind of snow does't accumulate fast. In northern Vermont, the clouds also weren't quite as packed with moisture as they could have been. So they yielded a bit less snow. 

Also, the period when snow tapered off and the time it is beginning again widened some, which is also cutting down the totals a bit. Those three factors cut down a snow totals a little 

It looks like Vermont was just north of the really heavy stuff. I see widespread 18 inch totals in central and eastern Massachusetts, in northern Connecticut and New York's Catskill region. 

Still, all of Vermont ended up with a decent snowstorm, so we can't complain too much about that. 

I noticed when I went out this morning the snow - again as expected - is light and feathery. I'm so glad it's not the wet cement we've had so often in recent winters. But it's still cold out. Temperatures were still only in the single numbers this morning and will only rise to the teens this afternoon.

The cold takes more out of you when you're shoveling, especially if you're older. So you want to take care while clearing the snow. Or borrow an athletic teenager to do the work. School is canceled due to the weather in many if not most places today in and around Vermont. So it might be easy to find some labor. 

As you might have guessed, pretty much all the roads in Vermont are snow covered, so they are slippery. Sure, it stopped snowing for awhile in many places. But it's way too cold for salt to work, and we have a road salt shortage to deal with. 

So whoever is driving Clearopathra and all the other wonderfully named Vermont snowplows isn't exactly spraying road salt all over the place. 

REST OT TODAY

Forecast for additional snow today. Another two to six inches
with two most in northwest Vermont and along the 
spine of the Green Mountains. 

As of 8 a.m., it was starting to snow again here in St. Albans. The snowflakes are bigger than those tiny crystals and needles from yesterday, so it will accumulate nicely. Especially since the snow will continue to be light and fluffy. 

Radar imagery at around 8 a.m. showed snow both pressing in from New York, and blossoming on its own in the Champlain Valley. 

So I think the early morning break in the snow is pretty much over. The snow will spread into the rest of Vermont during the morning. It'll probably be lighter south of Route 4. 

The snow should shut off pretty quickly this evening once the last piece of this complex storm says bye-bye and heads on off to the east. 

Another two to four inches is likely in southern Vermont today with there to five inches north. The five inch amounts will mostly be in the northern Champlain Valley and central and northern Green Mountains.  

REST OF THE WEEK

It'll be a cold one all the way through the week. 

Daily daytime highs today through Saturday at least will be in the teens. Lows will be near or below zero. Fresh snowfall tends to make the bottom drop out of the thermometers at night. If we get a clear night, a lot of us will get into the teens below zero. Some places might get into the 20s below if one of those clear nights happen.

We will have little if any new snow during the week. A few lame disturbances might throw a few snowflakes at us, but that's about it. Maybe the northern Green Mountains will catch a couple additional inches of snow after today. 

But at least we have enough powder now to play in, right?

Almost all signs point toward continued cold weather into mid-February and quite possibly beyond that. 

The next shot at a storm would be next Monday as some computer models are hinting at a nor'easter. But most of the models that do develop such a storm keep it too far east of Vermont to give us much of anything. But we've been surprised before. Sometimes the models change their minds and bring the storm a little closer to the coast. As always we'll keep an eye on it. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: We haven't done an update yet today on the much worse weather elsewhere in the U.S. this morning. That will come in a post later today. 

Sunday Evening Vermont Storm Update: Some Of Us To Have An Exciting Round 2

Some of the snow that fell last night and this morning
melted away during the day's thawing temperatures
Sunday in St. Albans, but it looks like we're in for a 
few inches of replacement snow tonight. 

 Round 1 of our big storm ended by late morning today on schedule, leaving behind lots of downed power lines, trees, branches and wet, heavy snow.  

Pretty much as advertised.

Power outages peaked at a little over 28,000 in Vermont at around 10:30 a.m. today and have been declining as crews got right to work fixing them.

 I do think they'll start to rise again tonight and I'll get into why below in the forecast update.

So far, the deepest snow I saw from Round 1 was 14 inches in Rochester. There were several other reports of around a foot of snow. This is all in high elevations. Lower elevations saw about one to four inches. 

I said last night that forecasts had a very high bust potential. But in the end, those forecasts turned out to be very accurate. 

The water content of the snow - not surprisingly - was really high.  Quite a few towns in Vermont reported the water equivalent in the snow was over an inch.  That stores up water for possible snow melt floods later in the spring, though I don't see any signs of that happening soon. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington
mapped out snowfall totals from overnight and this
morning. Areas in orange had eight or more inches of snow.

In the valleys, above freezing temperatures and drizzle melted some of the snow, but as of 4 p.m. Round 2 was moving in

ROUND 2

Drizzle changed to a wet snow in St. Albans around 3 p.m. It was still warm, so it wasn't accumulating much yet as temperatures remained just above freezing.

But a cold front embedded in the northwest flow behind the storm was coming in from New York, and that promises to change any remaining rain to snow this evening. 

Wind 

Some of us are going to get absolutely dumped on. A few mountain locations should have near blizzard conditions at times overnight and for at least part of Monday. 

That's because the winds that were pretty light this morning will start to howl overnight and especially on Monday. . West of the Green Mountains, they'll gust to around 40 mph at times.

East of the Greens, the winds will gain a little momentum heading downhill. That has prompted a wind advisory for these spots as expected winds will gust to 50 mph starting early Monday and lasting through the day.  

 Places east of the Green Mountains won't see as much additional snow as those lucky enough to be in the Green Mountains or the western slopes.  But a little additional snow, plus the heavy, wet stuff from this morning still glued to some of the trees will combine with the wind to create additional power outages.

An exception to the not much snow east of Greens outlooks is the Northeast Kingdom. A number of places out that way could easily see an additional six inches of snow. 

Even as the snow becomes lighter, spottier and more confined toward the mountains as Monday afternoon wears on, the winds could actually increase to their peak in those hours. The atmosphere will allow high winds aloft to mix down toward the surface.

Snow

We're still look at a LOT of snow in the Green Mountains starting now and going to about Monday evening. Higher mountain slopes and the summits can expect another 12 to 18 inches on top of whatever they got last night and this morning. 

National Weather Service forecast snow map through 
8 a.m. Tuesday shows tons of additional snow in the
Green Mountains and Adirondacks. Towns in the
western slopes of the Greens can expect 6 to 12 inches
of new snow, while close to 18 inches new is
a good bet near the summits. 

Towns along the western slopes the Green Mountains - especially the eastern halves of Addison, Chittenden and Franklin counties, can expect another six to 12 inches.  All these places are under a winter storm warning until Monday evening, for obvious reasons. 

Once you get really close to the lake, amounts will decrease to near an inch. Judging from traffic cameras, any snow that fell near Lake Champlain this morning has melted completely away, so they're not sharing in the winter wonderland. 

Combined with water that will have frozen onto roads, more snow, and blowing and drifting snow, the morning commute should be lousy for a lot of us Monday morning. That's especially true east of Route 7 and areas well west of Interstate 91. 

Interstate 89 between about Brookfield and Williston ought to be extremely interesting Monday morning. Route 100 looks fun, too.   

For the ski areas, this is the snowstorm they wanted in January, or at least February. The cement like stuff from last night laid down a base. The stuff coming overnight and Monday will be much more powdery.  Skiers and riders and finally going to have a blast for the next couple of days. 

It is March, and it's warmer. And we are going to have another balmier than average week after we get past Monday. The next storm due at the end of the week or weekend looks smaller than the one we just got, and will probably be mostly rain, as it looks now.

But winter isn't done. After a months of a weather pattern that gave us such a record breaking warm winter, it's going to trend colder after next weekend, possibly for the rest of the month. We'll have several snow chances in that colder regime as well.