Chaos Reins As Snow Thumps Down In Northeast, Including Vermont

Just like everyone else in Vermont, leaving my house in St.
Albans for work was more challenging than it's been lately.

8 AM UPDATE:

Well, I'm glad I drove to work much, much earlier than usual this morning.

I just missed all the roads getting gummed up in parts of the Champlain Valley with a particularly heavy band of snow that extended from New York State into the valley north of Burlington.

I passed a tractor trailer on Interstate 89 that couldn't make it up a hill near the Lamoille River Bridge. I'm told traffic came to a standstill there shortly after I got by.

Route 7 at Sunny Hollow in Colchester was also at a standstill, as was Route 15 near St. Michael's College.

The heavy snow band is leading to some impressive snow totals in northern New York and perhaps into northwestern Vermont.

As of 7:30 a.m., a foot of snow had been reported around Saranac Lake, New York. Seven inches came down in Isle La Motte. The Champlain Islands usually miss out on the heaviest accumulations from winter snowstorms, but it looks like this time will be an exception.

At my place in St. Albans, Vermont, we had 6 inches of new snow just as I left for work at 6:15 a.m. Two inches of that came in the hour and a half before I left.

The forecast as I've outlined below remains pretty much on track, so read on:

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

As expected, snow was thumping down pretty hard across much of Vermont early this morning, as that intense band of snow we watched move northward all day yesterday is here.

As of 5 a.m. the heaviest snowfall extended from central Maine, across northern New Hampshire, the northern half of Vermont, then curling southwestward across the Adirondacks into central New York.

This is the area that is the trickiest as we try, or tried to get to work this morning. The piece of the snowband that was across New York will keep shifting into the Champlain Valley and northern Vermont. Chances are it will be snowing pretty hard where you are if you are anywhere in the northern half of Vermont or northern New York through at least 8 a.m.

A lot of schools were closed this morning. I hope you figured this out before trying to drive the kiddies to their shuttered classrooms today!

The worst of the heaviest snow should move out by mid-morning, but the damage will have been done. A widespread six to 10 inches of snow will have fallen.

Roads, as expected, were nasty this morning. Visibiilty was poor, roads were/are very snow-covered, and some motorists, as usual, were/are exceedingly stupid, so that made things tough for us.  They should give everybody driver's tests in snowy conditions, and revoke the licenses of dumb people. That'll teach 'em.

Or can we tax stupidity?

Chaos in the New York City area yesterday
from snow, poor roads, crashes. Via Twitter
Adriano Espaillat @RepEspaillat

Anyway, I imagine Vermont's experience this morning wasn't anything like the incredible chaos late yesterday afternoon and evening across the New York City metro area. Six inches of snow fell on Central Park in short order, and similar amounts were reported across the region.

That six inches of snow was the most in New York on a single day in November in more than a century.

The timing of the snow at rush hour stung. The heavy, wet snow made things particularly icy on the roads and trees collapsed under the weight of the snow. Road crews appeared to be caught off guard, as the storm was worse than originally expected.

The result was gridlock, and I was almost frustrated reading people's stories. According to the Weather Channel, one man was quoted as saying his commute normally takes 45 minutes, but took seven hours on Thursday. Another driver spent five hours traveling the mere 23 miles between Gun Hill Road in the Bronx to Ossining, New York.

At least back here in Vermont, I heard Vermont Agency of Transportation snow plows banging past my St. Albans house as early as 4:30 a.m.

As noted, the snow will become lighter and more in the form of snow showers this afternoon and evening, so the worst of the storm will be over. Do be careful on the way home later today, though.

Temperatures could get up near the freezing point at midday, then fall this evening, so water might freeze, and additional snow showers will create icy areas.

Winter is now entrenched, as I've been noting this week and we're not going to get out of it anytime soon. The warmest days over the next week will only get into the 30s. The colder days will be in the 20s.

There's still no real signs of another blockbuster snowstorm after today, but we'll still have occasional bouts of snow showers and periods of light snow through the week. That'll add to the already substantial snow pack in the mountains, and ensure that we don't get rid of the early season snow coer in the valleys.