Vermont Snow Update: Remarkably Few Changes In Forecast

That old familiar National Weather Service snowfall map again.
Least snow in the Champlain and Connecticut River valleys
with this one. Southern and northern ends of Vermont and the
Green Mountains do the best. 

Yet another moderate snowfall is coming our way, as we mentioned yesterday.

As of this Saturday morning, forecasts for this storm have remarkably changed pretty much not one iota since yesterday morning.

It was below zero early this morning across much of the region. This even as high clouds from the storm shroud the skies, shutting of the radiational cooling we had overnight to bring on these subzero temperatures.

Those clouds will thicken and lower pretty fast through the morning and snow will break out this afternoon across Vermont.

The snow will overspread Vermont southwest to northeast starting near Bennington early in the afternoon and reaching St. Johnsbury and points north and east later in the afternoon.  So if you've got errands to do today, finish them up before noon.

As we said yesterday, the front end of the storm will bring the heaviest snow.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington says it could come down at a rate of up to an inch per hour, especially in the time frame between about 4 p.m. today and midnight, depending upon where you are.

All this means the worst of this storm will come Saturday evening, so watch it if you have plans later today and tonight. Or just do what you were going to do some other night and stay home. That's what I'm doing. Netflix, anyone?

Given the south and southwesterly flow aloft, southern Vermont, and south facing slopes of other Vermont mountains and the Adirondacks will probably get the most snow, especially from this initial burst this evening.

Because the strong winds aloft will cause a "shadow" effect on the moisture coming in with the storm on the lee of the mountains, places like the Champlain Valley will probably have a little less snow than elsewhere.  Going forecasts call for three or four inches around Burlington, for instance.

As the storm begins to move east of us late tonight and especially tomorrow, winds will turn more southwesterly and westerly. That would limit additional snowfall in the Champlain and Connecticut River Valleys to just spotty light snow and flurries.

On the western slopes and summits of the Green Mountains, though, snow will  probably continue all day, with additional accumulations for you winter sports lovers out there.  It'll get pretty windy, so expect more blowing and drifting snow, like we did near the end of Thursday's snow.

Temperatures will be a bit weird through all this. It'll gradually warm up from this morning's subzero lows, and keep rising well into the 20s to near 30 overnight. But instead of continuing to rise during the day Sunday, like it normally would, readings will start to fall again through the day.

We have another brief semi-Arctic shot coming, with highs in the teens and lows near 0 Monday and Tuesday before it starts to warm up again.

Overall, the National Weather Service is calling for a general snowfall of three to eight inches. Higher amounts than that will be common in southern Vermont, and in the higher elevations of the central and northern Green Mountains.

Some of the big winners in the high elevations in far southern and in northern Vermont could easily see more than ten inches of new fluff out of this.  Overall, it will be another medium size storm, nothing we can't survive if we don't all go out and drive like idiots.