Christmas Day In Vermont Is Wintry, Will Get Even More So

Henry the Weather Dog is seen here wishing 
everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
He's staying inside as temperatures plunge'
through the teens today. 

Merry Christmas, Vermont!!

As you're opening your presents this morning, the landscape outside is nicely covered in snow. In some areas of the Green Mountain State, more light snow is drifting down. 

The white Christmas we're experiencing is mostly due to that storm we had Tuesday and Tuesday night, which behaved pretty much as expected, at least here in Vermont. 

Almost everyone in Vermont got three to six inches of snow, so it was a pretty uniform distribution. Everybody had a piece of the snow party. There were a couple exceptions, both on the high and low end of the tally.

The most snow I could find out of the storm was nine inches in Northfield and eight inches in both Woodbury and Moretown.  Parts of southwestern Vermont got cheated a little. Western Rutland and Bennington counties, along with the extreme southeastern corner of the state only got 1 to 2.5 inches of snow.

TODAY

It's wintry out there, and it's going to get more even more wintry.   

Map showing total snowfall from the storm that 
ended yesterday. Click on the map to make it
bigger and easier to see. Most of the state 
received three to six inches of snow. 

The scattered snow this morning is due to an Arctic cold front pressing down on us from the north. As the frigid air starts to blast in this afternoon, the temperature will plunge and the winds will pick up.

Temperatures in most of the Green Mountain State are in the 20s this morning and will fall through the teens this afternoon. 

Winds will pick up and gust to 35 mph tor so his afternoon. If you're doing anything outside today, like taking a walk, or a quick ski or snowshoe, it's best to do it this morning. 

The snow will stop by this afternoon in most of the state but there will be a few exceptions. The mountains could continue to get flurries, that's not weird. 

The weird part is some lake effect snows. Parts of the Champlain Valley and adjacent hills to the east could get some lake effect snow off of Lake Champlain. This could affect road conditions a little in southern Chittenden, Addison and maybe northwestern Rutland County. 

Tonight, the wind will eventually die off,  and skies will clear out. The combination will help cause temperatures to plunge to zero or below in most of the state.

SATURDAY

Skies will tend to cloud up on Saturday due to a weird storm passing by to our west, and there might be some weird wrinkles to it. Most storms travel from southwest to northeast, or sometimes just west to east. Sometimes, Alberta clippers, those small, quick moving storms with light precipitation, do move southeastward to some extent.

The next storm in the pipeline is heading toward the southeast. Current projection have it in Michigan tomorrow morning, and somewhere around New Jersey early Saturday. The difference is this storm has more oomph to it than most Alberta clippers.

Most of Pennsylvania and New Jersey are under winter storm watches because several inches of snow, -plus dangerous amounts of freezing rain are likely to assault those areas Friday into early Saturday. 

I'm bringing all this up because this might affect at least parts of Vermont. Earlier forecasts indicated we would only see some light flurries south. Now, the computer models have edged the projected path of the storm northward a bit. 

At this point, the forecast has a little snow falling Friday night south and west of Interstate 89. Areas down around Bennington County would get one to three inches of snow. 

But if the trend continues with a more and more northward path for this storm, more of Vermont might get more snow. Stay tuned.

There's still yet another storm for later on Sunday, and this one looks like it will probably consist of a messy mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain. We'll have more details as we get close to that icky, icy storm. 

Our Annual Darlene Love Christmas Greeting To Everyone

Darlene Love performing this year's rendition of
"Christmas Baby (Please Come Home) on the Tonight
Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" I hope everybody
has a great holiday!

It's Christmas Eve. That means we're upholding tradition, and presenting you with our Darlene Love holiday greeting. 

"Christmas Baby (Please Come Home)" is my favorite holiday song so every year, I send out a greeting with that song. 

Love has been on TV every Christmas for decades, doing the song perfectly every time. 

This year, she was on the "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."  She's 84 years old now, but still looks fantastic and sounds amazing. She was rocking sort of a 1970s look this year with those bell bottoms. 

Old pros like Paul Shaffer, Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul made the performance complete. 

It's been a rather tough year for many of us, including myself. I've had a few setbacks, some life complications, but with wonderful people surrounding me, everything is still worth it. 

I hope (almost) all of you have a great holiday, with calmness, love, laughter, warmth and a break from life's worries. I say "almost" because there's a few people in Washington who decidedly are not in the Christmas spirit.  I don't wish any of them harm, other than receiving a lump of coal in their stockings. 

Now, let's let Darlene Love do her thing.  Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.  

Trump Finds New Way To Stop Clean Energy: "Security Concerns" Over Offshore Wind

The Trump administration's latest tack to stop offshore
wind generation is to claim "national security"
Not everyone is buying that argument. 

 The Trump administration has found a new excuse to halt his nemesis: offshore wind installations 

He hates "clean energy" and for some reason loves just LOVES oil and coal. 

He's put out all kinds of false narratives about wind turbines causing cancer, killing off all birds and, being unreliable because the wind doesn't always blow. Maybe he's never heard of batteries? 

Trump keeps losing court cases in which entities sue his administration over efforts to shut down the turbines. Now, we have the latest effort.  

Here's Fox New's lead on the report:

"President Donald Trump's Department of Interior announced on Monday that, effective immediately, leases for all large-scale offshore wind projects being constructed in the United States will be paused.

In a press release, DOI wrote that the pause is due to 'national security risks' identified by the Department of War in 'recently completed classified reports.'"

There were not many hints as to what those supposed security risks are. 

As an aside, Trump and Pete Hegseth want to call it the Department of War, but the legal name of the agency is still Department of Defense

Anyway. the Department of Interior gave these details, which aren't very detailed: 

"Today's action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers."

Well, that word salad doesn't help much. 

The pause on offshore wind farms affect projects off the New England, New York and Virginia coasts

The Interior Department referenced unclassified reports that large offshore turbine blades can cause "clutter" which is radar interference that can obscure moving targets or generate false radar returns. 

In some radar images, wind farms do cause clutter. For instance, on some days, you see what appears to be a persistent, stationary shower on Doppler weather radar over northeast New York. That "shower" is a large wind installation.

However, the Trump administration has been so untrustworthy, you have to wonder if this national security story is legit. Wind turbines have been around for a long time. You'd think the Defense Department would have figured out how to deal with them by now. 

This "national security threat" might be just another tactic to stop the offshore wind installations  

As the Associated Press reports:

"The pause.....is the latest step the administration has taken to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald' Trump's executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful."

There are other indications that the "national security" might be just an excuse to scuttle wind projects. "The record of decision all show that the Department of Defense was consulted at every stage of the permitting process," said Kirk Lippold, a national security expert and former Commander of the USS Cole. 

Cole noted that the projects had been awarded permits following years of review by state and federal agencies.  You'd think the Department of Defense would have raised red flags ages ago if these wind projects were interfering with our defense capabilities. 

I imagine there will be lawsuits out of this. 

We're already hearing grumblings of some sort of court action. Probably from more than one source. 

The Conservation Law Foundation called the offshore wind development pause "a desperate rerun of the Trump administration' failed attempt to kill offshore wind."  The Foundation, in their statement, already noted courts have already rejected Trump's attempts to kill offshore wind.

Then there's this from Ted Kelly of the Environmental Defense Fund: 

"For nearly a year, the Trump administration has recklessly obstructed the build-out of clean, affordable power for millions of Americas, just as the country's need for electricity is surging.....Now the administration is again illegally kneecapping America's largest source of renewable power, especially the we need more cheap, homegrown electricity"

 Kelly said the Trump administration's actions are especially rich since they're propping up aging, expensive coal plants "that rarely work and pollute our air."

Speaking of things that rarely work, the Trump administration seems to lose most of their court cases, except in the Supreme Court, which is solidly MAGA.  The new roadblock is the "classified documents" The Interior Department claims. It sounds like it could be a way to avoid sharing documents in the discovery phase of any lawsuits.  

In any event, some lawyers are going to have a great 2026, thanks to the Trump crowd.  

Christmas Eve Vermont Weather Update: Snowstorm Mostly Over, But Busy Weather Regime Continues

It's a winter wonderland out there in St. Albans,
Vermont this morning. Same for the rest of the 
state as yesterday and last night's storm ensures
a white Christmas. Weather conditions going
past Christmas will be kind of harsh. 

 Our small snowstorm behaved about as forecast, as the few initial reports that have come in so far indicated a lot of people got four or five inches of new snow. 

We have our White Christmas, 2025 in the bag.

The most new snow I've seen so far is eight inches in Woodbury and  6.5 inches, in Moscow, which is right near Stowe. Where I'm at in St. Albans, we collected 4.7 inches of new snow.

Burlington had five inches of snow on the ground this morning. White Christmases had been declining in the Queen City, but with this storm, four of the past five Christmases had snow on the ground.

If there's still five inches on the ground tomorrow, that will be the deepest Christmas snow since 2017.

DEPARTING STORM

The storm is consolidating now along off the Maine Coast. The southwestern part of that state is getting a good dump of snow, with a total of 6 to as much as 14 inches expected in that part of Maine by the time it ends later today.

Back here in Vermont, some of the storm's upper level support was still over us so area of light snow were continuing even after dawn broke. Traffic cameras show most main roads aren't perfect, but pretty good. 

As of 8 a.m the biggest area of lingering snow was slowly moving south through the Champlain Valley, mostly in southern Chittenden and Addison counties so the roads are probably in the worst shape there. 

Secondary roads statewide are still not fully cleaned up, either.  So, as usual, take it easy this morning wherever you're going. 

It got a little above freezing overnight in the Champlain Valley, so the snow you're shoveling this morning might feel a little wet and heavy.  

It could get a little windy at times as the morning goes on. It won't be anything wild like we had last week. But it will blow snow off the trees, so if you're driving through areas that have a lot of pine trees, for instance, you might have brief problems with visibility. 

Today and tonight will be mainly cloud, with a few places getting some clearing. It will be seasonably cool in the upper 20s today, so no big deal there.

WINTRY FORECAST

 This is turning out to so far be the harshest winter in a decade, and there's no rest for the weary. 

But it looks like we're about to get back into the regime we had in early and mid December. That means frequent bouts of frigid air extending into January. In between those Arctic blasts, we'll have mostly small to medium-sized storms. We'll also have those dreaded windy days fairly frequently, too. 

Christmas Day will bring us the start of those series of cold blasts.  The first half of the day will be OK, with temperatures in the 20s to near 30 and some scattered snow showers. But a cold front will come through in the afternoon. That's when temperatures will start to crash and wind will pick up.

By late in the afternoon and the evening, winds will be gusting to 30 or 35 mph again. Overnight, temperatures will tumble and end up close to zero by Friday morning. On Friday itself, highs will only be in the upper single number to mid teens. At least the winds will die down by then.

Friday night and early Saturday, a storm diving down from the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic states might clip southern Vermont with just a little snow. Then, temperatures will hold roughly steady Saturday night and rise into the 20s Saturday. That'll give us a quiet interlude until the next storm.

That one will probably come in later Sunday, as it looks now. Details on this are fuzzy, but it looks like we might be in for that dreaded mixed precipitation later Sunday, into Sunday night. and maybe into Monday morning. 

The computer models are still arguing amongst themselves as to whether will be mostly snow, ice or mostly rain. We'll have this nailed down a little better in a couple days. At least I hope so.

The storm could also bring some gusty winds. Then, on the back side of Sunday night's storm, it looks like we'll have more gusty winds and plunging temperatures. Those cold temperatures looks like they'll last most of next week.

Enjoy or at least endure this year's flashback to what winters used to be like. 

 

Quick Tuesday Evening Vermont Snow Update: Road Conditions Going Downhill

Traffic cam grab shows slushy roads in Burlington
late Tuesday afternoon as the snow continued to fall

Here's our quick Tuesday evening snowfall update for Vermont:

The snow arrived about an hour or so later than forecast in much of Vermont this afternoon, but it did arrive.

As of 5 p.m., it was snowing lightly statewide. This evening, we're in the peak of the storm, though this isn't exactly a scary one. 

Still, the roads for the evening commute, or going shopping, or to holiday events won't be great. Temperatures in some areas were at or just above freezing in some warmer valleys for part of the afternoon. But those temperatures have fallen a degree or two as darkness arrived. 

The snowfall rates also picked up a little at sunset, too. Highways that had been just mostly wet at around 4 p.m. were getting snow and slush covered, and more slippery by the minute. 

The steadiest snow in the valleys should last until around midnight, give or take, depending on where you are. Forecast total accumulations haven' changed, with two to five inches expected across most of Vermont. The mountains are still likely to do better than that, with roughly four to eight inches up there. 

Christmas Eve continues to look as if it will bring us quiet and rather cloudy weather. Forecasts for Christmas Day have changed a little, with a bit more snow than originally forecast. But it won't be much, with maybe an inch or two north and less than an inch south. 

Los Angeles Bracing For Scary Christmas Storm

The most severe Christmas storm since at least 1971
looms in the Los Angeles area as atmospheric 
rivers continue to batter the West Coast. 

Perhaps the scariest of the barrage of atmospheric rivers tormenting the West Coast is now targeting the Los Angeles area. 

The heavily populated, sprawling area around Los Angeles, the coast north and south, and the mountains to the east all face torrents of rain and strong, damaging winds. 

In their forecast discussion this morning, the National Weather Service wrote in all caps, that I'll avoid, "This is a very dangerous holiday storm. Anyone traveling on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day will need to exercise extreme caution. Make sure to take the proper action before the storm hits."

The rain is starting today, then turn more intense tonight, and peak tomorrow morning. Rainfall rates during the peak hours of the storm in and near Los Angeles will be somewhere around an inch per hour. 

Total rainfall between now and Christmas in southern California is forecast to be in the four to seven inch range, with locally higher amounts. 

NOAA's Weather Prediction Center has put parts of the L.A area under a rare high risk zone for a "significant  threat of flash flooding, landslides, rock falls and mud slides. The greater than normal travel during the Christmas holiday will likely expose a potentially larger number of people to these life-threatening hazards."

On Tuesday, as light rain began making inroads in Los Angeles County, residents were stacking sandbags and other barriers in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Malibu and other areas where there were big fire last year. They're hoping debris flows won't outmatch these efforts. Crews were also installing Jersey barriers in hopes of diverting landslides away from vulnerable homes. 

Some debris-prone roads, like Topanga Canyon Boulevard, were closed even before the first drops of rain fell. 

Thousands of people have been told to pack "to go" bags and be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.  

High winds will complicate this whole mess. In the L.A basin, winds could reach up to 55 mph, and in the foothills and mountains nearby, those winds could reach as high as 80 mph. 

As the soils get soggier and soggier, it'll be easier and easier for the wind to blow trees over. 

The intensity of the storms should wane somewhat by Christmas Day, but scattered downpours will continue to vex the L.A basin.

Further north in California, atmospheric river storms that caused serious flooding in the Sierra Nevada foothills have diminished somewhat. But more rain, sometimes heavy and mixed with thunderstorms, will continue the flood risk.  There's even a low risk of brief spin-up tornadoes with the thunderstorms. 

High winds warnings remain in effect until the afternoon of Christmas Day for a wide area of central and northern California. 

Meanwhile, in the Sierra Nevada, several more feet of snow are expected in the next few days. 

A Follow-Up To Donald Trump's War On Colorado: Now Denying Disaster Aid

The NCAR building in Boulder, Colorado. There's been
more fallout related to this, including Donald Trump
denying disaster relief from Colorado, and a 
looming brain drain from the United States. 

You might remember my post a few days ago, in which the Trump regime is breaking up an important and renowned climate and weather research center in Colorado. 

The Trumpsters said they plan to break up the National Center For Atmospheric Research or NCAR which conducts a wide array of meteorological and climate research. 

The Trump people said they want to break up the science center because they are guilty of "climate alarmism," whatever that is 

The timing of the announcement was interesting, to say the least. 

Former Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters is still cooling her heels in state prison, having been found guilty in a state court for giving Trump supporters unauthorized access to a voting machine after the 2020 election. 

Trump earlier this month tried to pardon Peters, but he can't do that because she's convicted on state charges. Colorado refuses to touch Peters' nine-year prison sentence. So, it appears Trump might be exacting revenge on Colorado for this unforgivable slight - insert major eye roll here).

Well, there's even more signs of possible revenge by the Trump folks. President Trump has rejected requested disaster declarations for two wildfires and a serious flood earlier this year in Colorado. 

The denials got strong responses from Colorado's governor and the state's congressional delegation. 

"President Trump's decision to deny Colorado's request for critical federal assistance is unacceptable," said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado. "Trump continues to use Coloradans for political games; it is malicious and obscene. A disaster is a disaster, regardless of what state in the country in took place."

Gov. Jared Polis said: "Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing."

Colorado will appeal Trump's decision.  

Trump's denial of disaster assistance echoes what he's done in other blue states where he is especially unpopular. In October, Trump denied federal assistance for flooding in Illinois, Maryland and Vermont, all blue states. But Trump did approve disaster aid in red states like Alaska, Nebraska and North Dakota. 

In their joint statement today, Colorado's Polis, Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper hinted that they could play Trump's game, too. 

The three pointed to a recent study that showed that for every $1 Coloradans pay in federal taxes, the state only receives $0.90 in federal investments.  

Meanwhile, the potential breakup o NCAR could well contribute to a brain drain from the U.S. brought on by Trump's virulently anti-science agenda. 

Canadian climate scientists say dismantling NCAR would not only harm climate science worldwide, it would also cause a loss of expertise on emergency responses, and innovations in weather forecasting.

But as CTVnews.ca reports, Trump's actions could be an opportunity for Canada and Europe. American scientists have already left the U.S to work elsewhere. Canada has already announced funding to attract top talent to the nation, including U.S. researchers. 

"This is an opportunity for Canada to really establish itself as a leader," said Anna Soer, co-president of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada.