Storms Roundup: All Kinds Of Hotspots (Or Coldspots) Cropping Up

Lake Tahoe region buried in snow as of Tuesday,
with more falling this week. 

So far, this winter hasn't been particularly cold across the nation, but it sure has been stormy

Oh sure, there have been so very chilly Arctic outbreaks, but the main story is the storminess, and I don't see that ending anytime soon.

VERMONT WIND

First, a quick recap of the wind here in Vermont last night. It played out pretty much as expected, with the strongest winds in the Champlain Valley and parts of New York's St. Lawrence Valley.

The highest reported gusts from last night were 62 mph at Colchester Reef, Vermont and Malone, New York. South Hero clocked in with 56 mph. Many places had gusts in the 45 to 50 mph range last night. 

That prompted the usual spate of downed trees and power lines. Not the biggest disaster in the world, but still a headache for some.

As of around 9 a.m. today, there were still about 700 homes and businesses without electricity in scattered areas of the state.

Another storm system will drop some rain on Vermont Thursday, with a quarter to three quarters of an inch of rain. Sorry snow lovers, not this time.

After that, Vermont gets a several days break from storms, but that's not true for the much of the rest of the country.

THE WET (AND SNOWY!) WEST

The West Coast continues to have quite a wild ride, though signs are that at least temporarily, the main action is going to shift somewhat north toward Oregon and Washington.

A view of the snow in Portland, Oregon last night. 

Oregon already has its hands full. The Portland area is really having an uncharacteristically rough winter.

They've had a fair amount of snow, two ice storms, most recently this past weekend, and last night, the city came to a standstill amid another snowstorm.

Only four days in Portland have been warmer than normal since December 4. Precipitatio during Portland's "rainy season" which begins around Oct 1 is running more than five inches more than normal.  

The rest of this week in Oregon looks cold, then rainy and/or icy by the end of the week, again.

In the mountains, things are even more gummed up. Crater Lake National Park closed because of heavy snow and an avalanche. 

California and Nevada are still reeling from the past week's rain and snow. Mammouth Mountain in California got mammoth amounts of snow - 15 feet in just six days. Try shoveling THAT!

Three to ten feet of snow has piled up in the highest elevations in the Sierra Nevada the past couple of days.

There's a cohple good videos of the snow in the West at the bottom of this post.

Lower elevations are still experiencing flooding, though rain is tapering off and won't be particularly heavy in California for hte next few days anyway

There was even a small tornado near Sacramento yesterday.

PLAINS ICE?

Forecasters are getting more and more concerned about the possibility of a damaging ice storm somewhere in the southern and central Plains toward the weekend. There's already a winter storm watch up for parts of Missouri starting Thursday and continuing into Saturday

Areas of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas might also be under the gun with this. Nobody is quite sure where the worst of the freezing rain will set up yet, but it appears someone out there is going to get enough ice to bring down lots of trees and power lines.

This could be a long duration event, lasting several days into early next week. This could really be a paralyzing storm for some spots in or near the mid-Mississippi Valley. Damaging ice could eventually extend eastward into the Ohio Valley, too.

The storm will be wet enough to likely cause flooding south of the potential ice zone. Stay tuned on this one. Could be quite a mess!

For videos, here's the scene in snowy Truckee, California yesterday:



Here's a brief aerial view of traffic chaos in Portland, Oregon last night: