Vermont Midwinter in November - Continued

Beautiful satellite photo from Friday afternoon showing streaks
of clouds, many of them snow showers as cold air
blasted into New England. 

So, that was a quick plunge into winter wasn't it?

Around the Champlain Valley of Vermont, Friday morning was basically a complete societal breakdown, as we seem to get every year during the first snowy morning commute of the winter season.

Yes, it was icy and we all had to drive slowly.  But, as always, there were a few people panicking and a few people who thought driving on bald tires on ice at 100 mph was a good idea. So the rest of us sat, like forever, in the resulting traffic jams. Most of us were late to work.

We got through that, only to face more winter coming up. Nastier than Friday, for sure.  I'll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday truly was a harsh, sudden introduction to winter. Considering that Burlington's high temperature Friday was only 30 degrees, tying a record for the lowest high for the date. The 2.6 inches of snow in Burlington was also a record for the date, just squeaking by the 2.5 inches on November 8, 1968.

Check out the satellite photo in this post (Click on it to make it bigger and easier to see). Most of those streaks of clouds are snow showers produced by the cold air blasting into New England Friday afternoon. If you look closely, you see clear skies in the immediate western shore of Lake Champlain near Plattsburgh.

Winds from the west flow downward off the slopes of the Adirondacks.  Sinking air dries out, causing the little patch of clear skies. If you look even more closely, you can see an enhanced streak of clouds from about Burlington southeastward into southern Chittenden and northern Addison counties. That's a lake effect snow band off of Lake Champlain.

You can also see larger patches of clouds near and north of the Quebec border, which were heavier snow squalls.

It was cold this morning, too, with most of us down in the teens. It will still be much colder than  normal this afternoon. It'll only get into the 30s, so bundle up.

On Sunday we get a brief January November thaw, as it will get into the 40s ahead of the next Arctic front that we've been advertising for days.

It's also still looking like a storm will get going along this front just after it pushes through Vermont.  There's nothing definite with this yet, but there is quite a high chance of a pretty big snowstorm, especially for November.

I'm purposely being vague on expected snow accumulations Monday, Monday night and Tuesday because a lot can change in the forecast between now and then. I'm only mentioning it so you can get your snow shovels, snow blowers, skis are whatever else you need ready for the potential.

Nobody has locked in what the potential accumulation will be, but the general consensus is much of Vermont, including the valleys could easily wind up with six or more inches of snow.   This will be followed by one of the sharpest November cold waves on record for the eastern half of the United States, including Vermont.

All this is bad news for people still trying to recover from last week's destructive storm in Vermont. A lot of roads were badly damaged or washed out entirely, and it is taking a long time to put them all back together. I know there are still local roads closed or partially so because of damage. Like Dugway Road in Richmond, for instance, or the southbound off ramp at Interstate 89 Exit 18 in Georgia.

This bad weather will just make the job harder, and make it take longer.

It's not like everybody's cold. Around normally frigid Anchorage, Alaska, it's been such a warm late autumn that a few trees and bushes are trying to bud like they do in the spring. And already hot Miami suffered through its hottest September, October and first week of November on record.