Snow Squalls Roaming The Northeast This Afternoon Could Be Dangerous

Lines of snow squalls had emerged from Ontario Thursday morning and were marching across Pennsylvania and New York, heading toward Vermont and the rest of New England.

From CP24 in Toronto: A very heavy snow squall
bears down on the Toronto metro area this morning.  

The squalls only leave an inch or so of snow and last a half hour or less, so no big deal right?

Wrong. It can be a big deal.

Think of squalls like this as severe summer thunderstorms, except with a lot worse visibility and lot more ice.

When a snow squall hits, visibility on the roads drops to zero. The pavement dry a second ago, gets wet, then freezes instantly, turning into a dangerous sheet of ice. It's snowing and blowing so hard you can't see anything in front of you when you're driving.

From CP24,  a highway pileup Thursday morning
resulting from that blinding snow squall in the photo above.  

That is, until you see the crash in front of you and the road is icy and you can't brake in time and you crash into the ever-expanding pileup.

So be extra careful out there on the roads and be ready for changes in the weather that could come in a second.  The risk of these snow squalls will last in Vermont and surrounding New England, and New York the rest of the afternoon.

 If you can safely do so when a squall hits, it might be best to pull off the road into a safe area where you won't get hit by other cars.

Then just wait there until the squall passes. Like I said, it will last less than a half hour. Which is a lot less time wasted than if you were part of a car crash or road pileup.