Monday Morning Snow Playing Out As Expected; Travel Yucky

The task that faced me and a lot of other people
this morning: Clearing snow off the vehicle so you can try
to get to work. 

As expected, snow overspread northern New York and the northern two thirds of New England early this morning, and the most intense part of the snow is due right during the morning commute

Snowfall rates during the peak of the snow around and just after dawn across eastern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could reach one inch per hour.

The snow has quite a fluff factor, especially the further north you go, so breezes and the cars and trucks on the highway will create near whiteout conditions at times on the highways. Said highways are of course snow covered and slippery.

Before you take the kiddies to school, listen to the radio or look the school's status up on line: There are a LOT of school closings this morning because of the weather.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma (which watches all kinds of severe weather, not just tornadoes) said a particularly heavy band of snow will start out around the Albany and Glens Falls area this morning and move east to northeastward across southern Vermont, southern and central New Hampshire and into Maine.

These areas will get the most snow out of this storm, with five to 10 inches likely.

The heaviest snow region wide will be accompanied by southeast winds, so east and south facing slopes will get the most snow, and west facing slopes, like places not near and just east of Rutland, Middlebury and Burlington might get the least: Maybe just two to five inches there.

Elsewhere, expect three to six inches of snow across the northern sections of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, and southern Quebec.

The snow will come to a very abrupt end later this morning, or early afternoon to the east, as the atmospheric dynamics and lift quickly move east out of the picture and a slot of drier air aloft moves in.

We'll get stuck under clouds, maybe a little drizzle or freezing drizzle this afternoon. Valley locations especially, like around Rutland and Burlington and the lowlands of southern Vermont, will get above freezing this afternoon, so the snow on the ground will become perfect for snowball fights.

It'll be quiet tonight, aside from mountain snow showers, and calm with near normal temperatures Tuesday. That's just a break in the action before that Arctic front comes through later Wednesday which will really put us in the icebox Thursday and Friday.

The cold snap won't last all that long. It'll start to warm up Saturday, though snow or mixec precipitation will start to move into the area by then, too