New England's Turn To Get Hammered With Snow Today

Digging out in Chicago on Sunday.
Photo by Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune.  

As expected, that heavy snowstorm rolled through the Midwest Sunday, dropping incredible amounts of snow in just a day in some areas.

Chicago, for instance, got 19.3 inches of snow out of the storm, good enough to become its fifth biggest snowstorm on record.

Things are tapering off in the Midwest now, but New York and New England are getting the brunt of this today.

All of that region, except around New York City and the southern reaches of New England, are getting some pretty heavy snow this morning. The areas I just mentioned are getting an ugly mix of precipitation.

Speaking of ugly, the morning commute this morning is a mess in the Northeast. Including in the normally winter-hardy reaches of northern New England.

According to what is known as a mesoscale discussion from the Storm Prediction Center, eastern New York, pretty much all of Vermont, and parts of western Massachusetts are under the gun for the heaviest snow this morning.

The Storm Prediction Center, which normally deals with severe thunderstorms and tornados, says snowfall rates in the area I just described will be on the order of 1.5 inches per hour, which is pretty impressive.

I can tell you as of 7:30 a.m., snow had intensified noticeably at my house in St. Albans, Vermont over the previous half hour. It's probably worse furthern south in Vermont, where the very heaviest snow is expected.

Another unusual aspect of this storm is how cold it is in northern New York and northern New England. It was still below zero in most spots in the region at dawn, which is unusual, but not unheard of in a winter storm.

Web cam grab of Vermont Agency of Transportatoin
image along Interstate 89 in Bolton, Vermont
shows heavy snow around 8:15 a.m. Monday.  

Temperatures won't get out of the single numbers today up in northern New England. Gusty winds this afternoon will drop the wind chills, making it ridiculous, and will blow all that fluffy new snow around.

In northern New York and most of New England, total snow accumulations will be four to 10 inches near the Canadian border and eight to 16 inches elsewhere.

Pretty much every school in New England is closed today. I guess you can stay home and celebrate the Patriots' Superbowl win last night.

Down around New York City, it is a gawdawful mess this morning. Earlier snow has changed to freezing rain, and that freezing rain is coming down pretty hard. The roads are horrible, and there might be enough freezing rain in parts of the New York metro area and New Jersey to bring down tree branches and power lines.

Out on Long Island, where there was about 20 inches of snow in that blizzard last week, it was pouring rain, really hard with temperatures in the mid-30s. Awful.

And guess what? When the storm's cold front blasts through later today, there's going to be a flash freeze in that region. Hard, awful, rough ice freezing onto everything. Have I depressed you enough yet?

In southern New England, the precipitation should remain all snow north of the Mass Pike, but mix with or change to sleet and freezing rain to the south. The changeover will be brief close to the Mass Pike, and a little longer down on the south coast.

Still, they're getting a few hours of heavy snow before the changeover even in the south, so even down toward Rhode Island and the Cape, they'll get a good six inches of snow, probably, then some ice.

Near and north and just west of Boston, they could easily pick up about a foot of snow atop the three feet they got last week. Winds gusting over 40 mph will cause a LOT of blowing and drifting.

Roads are basically canyons between tall snowbanks in that neck of the woods, so the wind will easily fill these "canyons" with windblown snow in very short periods of time. What a mess!

Maine is screwed, too, with another 8 to 15 inches expected atop the nearly two feet of snow they got a week ago, AND the nearly one foot of snow they got Friday and Saturday.

I'd love to go up to Portland and watch them figure out where they're going to PUT all that snow.

The good news, I guess,  is that this storm is moving right along, and should be mostly done tonight.

But bitter cold Arctic air is settling over the Northeast. And there are several chances of snow in New England over the next 10 days or so, though it's still not possible to say whether any of those storms will be blockbusters or nuisance flurries.

At least two more Arctic outbreaks of subzero weather are coming, too. One comes in around Thursday, and another, potentially stronger one next Sunday.

They say New Englanders are hardy. Here's the test, I guess.