Weekend Vermont Wintry Storm A Whopper, With More On The Way

From @ABC7NY on Twitter, fall foliage and snow Sunday
near Killington, Vermont.   

That turned out to be a pretty impressive early season rain and snow storm in Vermont over the weekend, with surprising amounts of snow in some spots.

Reports came in of 9 inches of new snow at relatively high elevations in Bolton, Vermont.

Other Vermont towns hitting the snow jackpot include 8 inches in Holland, 7.5 inches in South Starksboro, and 7 inches in Averill, Hyde Park and East Enosburg.

The sun burst through the clouds in all but the Northeast Kingdom in the afternoon, affording us wonderful views of lingering fall foliage with snow on the mid and high elevations.

The storm put a nice dent in the drought, too, though the dryness hasn't been totally erased. Still, most places in Vermont and surrounding states got 1 to 3 inches of rain, with locally more.

As noted previously, the rain came down to hard at once in parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Pennsylvania. Some towns in each of those states had 5 inches of rain in just a few hours over the weekend.

Here in Vermont, nobody got enough rain to trigger flooding, but I notice stream flows in rivers look healthier.

Places that got snow had it fall on unfrozen ground, so that is gradually melting into the soil, too. That will continue to ease the drought slightly.

Satellite imagery at midday Sunday
shows snow in the mountains,  and evidence of
fall foliage. Most of northern Vermont away
from Lake Champlain was still in the clouds
when this shot was taken. 

This week, and into next weekend, there are frequently chances of more rain and snow.

It's an interesting weather pattern coming up, with a series of storms moving through with air temperatures marginal for rain or snow. This is more typical of late November than late October.

A weather disturbance Tuesday will deposit relatively light rain and snow on Vermont. Probably a quarter inch of rain or less in the valleys, and maybe 1 to 4 inches of new snow in the mountains.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington, Vermont is watching the interaction with Tuesdays cold weather system and the still rather warm Lake Champlain waters. That could enhance rainfall a bit in parts of the Champlain Valley.  

The instabililty in the air could also trigger briefly heavy bursts of snow in the high elevations.

The next storm comes along Thursday and Thursday night.  Again, temperatures will be marginal, especially over the Green Mountains and eastward. Some places might get several inches of wet snow before a changeover to rain.

Even warmer places like the Champlain Valley might get a little snow out of this before a fairly quick changeover to rain. Stay tuned, because forecasts could change.

Looks like there could be another rain/snow event over the weekend.

Overall, there's a chance we could get another inch of rain and/or melted snow over the next week, which would put a further dent in the drought. Good news.