If You Thought New England Snow Was Bad, Try Eight Feet In One Day In Italy

Clearing more than eight feet of snow in
Capracotta, Italy last week. How
would you like to shovel that?  

It's going to snow in New England again this weekend.

Yay! As if the region needs it.

The heaviest snow will come down in the higher elevations of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, where anywhere from four to 10 inches could accumulate.

In the valleys, and in southern New England, the storm will start off Saturday with a cold rain, possibly mixed with sleet or freezing rain for a couple hours at the onset. It'll gradually change to snow Saturday night.

Boston needs a little less than two inches of snow to break its all time record for snowiest winter, but I don't think it's going to do it with this storm. It's possible enough snow could fall there Sunday, but it is iffy.

The National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont is considering putting up winter weather advisories for the mid and high elevations of the state Saturday night and Sunday.

The National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine might be tempted to hoist winter storm watches for part of that state later today to go into effect over the weekend.

If you're in New England and can't stand the thought of more snow, it could be worse.

Last week, an Italian town called Capracotta reported received nearly eight and a half feet of new snow in just 18 hours or so.

If that's true, it would break the world's record for the most snow within 24 hours. The current generally accepted world's record is 90.6 inches in a day on Mount Ibuki, Japan on February 14, 1927.

The United States record for 24-hour snow is 76 inches at Silver Lake, Colorado in April, 1921.

The Capracotta snow measurements will have to be verified for accuracy, probably by the World Meteorological Organization. 

As the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang notes, we may never really know if this weeks Capracotta snow is the world record.

It's hard to measure snow, as it drifts, compacts and melts. Also, different nations have different standards on how to measure snow. Do you wait until the storm ends, then measure it? Or do you have, as we do in the United States, guidelines that have you measure an area every six hours, wipe it clean and start over, until you geta storm total?

With the different ways of measuring, you get different amounts of snow compaction, so it's hard to say really how much fell.

One thing I can say for sure. Nobody in New England will get eight feet of new snow this weekend

That, my friends, is a promise.

Below is a video slide show of the scene in Capracotta this week: