Vermont To Get A Share Of Big Maine Snowstorm After All

National Weather Service in South Burlington is  upping
expected snow accumulations. Now 6-10 inches of snow expected
above 1,000 feet in northern Vermont, two to six inches
northern Vermont at elevations under 1,000 feet away from
Lake Champlain and dusting to two inches Champlain Valley. 

UPDATE, 3 PM WEDNESDAY

The snow forecast has been updated for the worse in parts of Vermont.

The winter storm watch that had been in effect for much of Maine and the northern tip of New Hampshire has now been extended westward to include northeast and north central Vermont.

Two to six inches of wet snow are now forecast between Thursday afternoon and Friday evening in the valleys of this region with six to 10 inches above 1,000 feet.

Travel will of course be hazardous and the wet snow could snap trees and power lines.

It now looks like there will be some light accumulations all the way down into the Champlain Valley, which is another change.  At this point, the Burlington area is expecting an inch-ish covering by Friday morning, with up to two inches near St. Albans.  Light mixed rain and snow will probably continue Friday in the valleys, with additiona snow in the higher elevations

Winter doesn't want to give up quite yet

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

Gawd, yesterday was a gorgeous spring day, especially in the northern half of Vermont. We enjoyed lots of sunshine, dry air, temperatures well up into the 50s and a bit of a pleasant breeze.

Daffodils in my yard are this close to blooming, and my lawn is rapidly turning green up here in St. Albans.

Time for a good slap of winter to get me and everybody else out of their spring stupor.

That dynamic storm system that will blow up into a powerful nor'easter near Maine turns out to have a few tricks up its sleeve for Vermont, it seems.

While the storm's wintry fury will focus on Maine and maybe northern New Hampshire, Vermont is in for some snow out of this, too. Not nearly as much as Maine will get, but still some for most of the state. Higher elevations could get quite a bit out of this.

Peaks in the northern Green Mountains could wind up with up to a foot of new snow by Friday evening.  Elevations above 1,500 feet are in for two to six inches of wet snow, says the National Weather Service in South Burlington.  Some of these spots could get more.

Little snow is expected in the Champlain and lower Connecticut River Valleys, but even there, Vermonters could well wake up to a slushy coating Friday morning.

THE SET UP

As the storm hits its early stages on approach to New England today, it'll help create a broad area of severe thunderstorms risks centered on the mid-Mississippi Valley. Huge hailstones are the biggest threats with these, along with strong winds. A tornado or two might also touch down in this region.

While we're waiting for the storm, today's weather will be OK. It'll get to near 50 degrees, and there will be a fair amount of sun, especially north. Enjoy it while it lasts.

The developing storm will have plenty of energy to work with as it crosses New England roughly from west to east Thursday. Here in Vermont, a cold rain will break out with this. But as the storm begings to consolidate along the coast the air above us will cool.

Precipitation will still be coming down at a good rate Thursday evening, and especially above 1,500 feet in elevation, rain will turn to wet snow.

This lovely white crocus now blooming in my St. Albans, Vermont
garden might get an unwelcome coating of more white from
possible snow Thursday night. 

Combined with gusty winds, the wet snow in mid and high elevations might be substantial enough to bring down some trees and power lines.

Thursday night, the storm will explode along the Maine coast, and that state is in for a literal blast. Much more than we Vermonters are in for.

Inland Maine could easily get up to a foot of wet, heavy snow out of this along with strong winds, so this will be really disruptive there.  Winter storm watches cover all of Maine except the coast.

The Maine coast doesn't escape the problem, though. There, high winds and coastal flooding are the major threats.

As the storm slowly grinds northeastward into the Canadian Maritimes Friday, moisture wrapping  around the back side of the storm will keep the snow going in the Green Mountains and Adirondacks, with several more inches of snow likely.

Even in the valleys up in the Northeast Kingdom, storm total snowfall looks like it could be around six inches, which is fairly impressive for mid-April.

This certainly won't be the worst Vermont April snowstorm on record. Not even close. On April 16-17, 1983, Burlington got more than 15 inches of wet snow, part of an April total that year of 21.3 inches. Burlington got 14.3 inches of snow on April 9, 2000. So you see it could be worse.

Another pretty strong looking storm looks like it might swing through Sunday night and Monday, but that one looks like it will produce mostly or exclusively rain around here.

Interesting Big Storms Around, But Vermont Mostly Spared

Powerful Tropical Cyclone Harold smashed into parts of Vanuatu
in the South Pacific Sunday and Monday 

The past day or so, and the forecast, calls for a few odd - and strong - storm systems both in the United States and elsewhere, especially in the South Pacific.

TROPICAL CYCLONE HAROLD

The nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific comprises about 80 islands stretched out over 800 miles. Part of that island chain was hit by an immense hurricane named Tropical Cyclone Harold.

Hurricanes are called tropical cyclones in that part of the world and this was an extreme one.

Tropical storm Harold hit Vanuatu's largest island with winds estimated at 145 mph.  According to the Category 6 blog, the island has about 40,000 residents, mostly scattered in small villages across the island.

Harold had earlier killed 27 people in the Solomon Islands, the Weather Channel reports.

The coronavirus pandemic is going to complicate relief efforts in Vanuatu.  The island nation had not yet reported any cases of Covid-19, thanks in large part to restrictions at international borders and on tourism.

However, relief workers won't be allowed to come to Vanuatu to assist, unless they do a 14-day quarantine first, notes the Weather Channel. The economic and social toll of the pandemic will probably also interfere with relief efforts.

Harold is still out there, and is threatening the island nations of Fiji and Tongo.

BLIZZARDY MAINE?

A winter storm watch is up for western and central, and parts of northern Maine Thursday into Friday for what could be a doozy of a storm.

A storm system and cold front will move through New England Thursday, including here in Vermont.  The good dynamics with this storm will create plenty of showers, gusty winds, maybe a rumble of thunder and then some snow showers here in the Green Mountain State Thursday and Friday.

Once the storm gets to the Maine coast, Pow! It looks like it will blow up rapidly into a late blooming nor'easter.  Even the normally staid meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine are wowed with the storm's potential.

"This is an impressive winter storm for any winter month, let along mid-April," they wrote in this morning's forecast discussion.

The storm will be pretty compact, at least at first, so the big storminess will focus mostly on Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the far southeastern corner of Quebec.

Maine and adjacent Quebec will be on the colder northwest side of the storm. Current forecasts call for a good seven to 10 inches of heavy, wet snow, along with strong winds. If that comes to pass, there will certainly be some nasty power outages in that neck of the woods.  Luckily the storm won't hang around for a long time, so conditions in Maine will start to improve later Friday.

Even so such a nasty winter storm is a bit of a shock to the system in April, even by Maine standards.

SOGGY S. CALIFORNIA

The winter rainy season in southern California is usually ending by now, but don't tell that to residents down there now. Flood watches are up for southern and southeasternn California, mostly south and east of Los Angeles.

A slow moving storm will dump heavy showers and thunderstorms, mainly in the usually dry deserts inland from the southern California coast. Those storms could easily cause some flash flooding.

Los Angeles got into the act yesterday with 1.22 inches of rain, the most for that date on record. It's a cold storm, so winter storm warnings are up for the mountains east of the city.

Forecasters are carefully watching what this storm does once it ejects out into the southern Plains of the United States toward Saturday.  If conditions come together right, the storm could produce a nasty tornado outbreak in the Southeast.

However, forecasting models are all over the place with this system, so nobody yet knows if the storm will turn into a monster or a nothing burger once it gets out into the south and middle of the nation.

Nor'easter Recap: A Memorable Humdinger Could Have Been Worse

A road washout after heavy rains from yesterday's nor'easter near
Lincoln, Vermont. Photo from WPTZ-TV

It was damp and still a little gusty outdoors in St. Albans, Vermont when I let the dogs out before dawn, but the persistent and strong nor'easter is getting out of our  hair after creating a very, very storm New England day Thursday.

One surefire way to measure a storm's relative strength is to measure its lowest air pressure.  (Storms are always areas of lower pressure.  By this measure, Thursday's storm in many areas of New England was the strongest October one on record.) 

For instance, the pressure at Boston fell to 975.3 millibars or 28.80 inches.  That's a very low pressure, and is something you might get if a dying hurricane from the south came across New England. Pretty impressive.

As noted yesterday, these kinds of storms produce lots of wind, and more than a half million people in the Northeast lost power during the storm.

Here in Vermont, Green Mountain Power, easily the state's largest utility, reported 25,000 homes and businesses without power.

Things were a lot better early this morning. Vermont Outage Map reported about 1,100 homes and other Vermont buildings without electricity just before dawn today.

Aside from lots of fallen trees and branches and broken power lines, the storm wasn't as damaging in Vermont as it could have been. In most places, the highest wind gusts stayed under 50 mph. (There were several exceptions, with less than a dozen Vermont towns reporting gusts higher than 50 mph.

Burlington looked like a mess yesterday, with tons and tons of small twigs and branches down, and minor street flooding from leaf-clogged storm drains. But as chaotic as the Queen City looked, there wasn't a whole lot of damage. Only a few trees came down and there was very little structural damage. if any.

We dodged a bullet with flooding, too. The heaviest rain fell in southern and western Vermont, mostly from  Burlington south.  Several towns reported well over three inches of rain, which a LOT for a single storm in Vermont.

Springfield had 4.4 inches, Rutland clocked in with 3.78 inches, Bridport was close with 3.72 inches and Bethel had 3.2 inches.

The heaviest rain seemed to fall on the parts of Vermont that before the storm were the driest. (northern and especially northeastern Vermont were drier than further south and west before the storm. And the nor'easter dropped less rain in the Northeast Kingdom than elsewhere in the state.

Had it been very wet before this storm, there would have been significant flooding. This time, only minor flooding and relatively inconsequential washouts were reported. The Otter Creek hit minor flood stage and a couple roads near Middlebury closed due to high water.

WPTZ-TV also reported a road washout in Lincoln, high water on the New Haven River and water across the road along Route 116 in Bristol.

With this storm and others, October, 2019 is turning into a wet month in Vermont, especially in the north. Burlington has so far had just under four inches of rain so far this month. Normal for all of October is a little over three inches. The wettest October in Burlington was in 1918, with 6.75 inches.

Here at my house in St. Albans, I've unofficially collected 4.8 of rain this month, including 2.25 inches from the nor'easter yesterday.

On top of that, more rain is on the way. Possibly a fair amount, too. A messy system in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to become Tropical or Subtropical Storm Nestor later today and the weekend.

This will cause heavy rain, storm surges and other severe weather over the weekend near the Gulf Coast.. Meanwhile, another strong storm and cold front will start to march toward us from the Midwest early next week.

By Tuesday into Wednesday, moisture from the Atlantic, Gulf and maybe wannabe Nestor, and the dynamic cold front from the west  could dump a good bit of rain on us. Nobody knows precisely how much yet, but early indications are it won't be as much as we got yesterday.  Which is good, because a repeat of Thursday would bring us a flood problem.

Longer range forecasts are iffy, but for what they're worth, these forecasts predict wetter than normal conditions in Vermont through the end of October.

Nor'easter Slams New England; Vermont Very Wet And Windy

Lots of damage from last night's nor'easter in Lynn, Massachusetts
Photo via Twitter, @marshallhook.

Boy, this nor''easter really packed a punch in southern New England overnight!

It's a mess down there, with fallen trees everwhere. No wonder, with reported gusts of 90 mph in Provincetown, 89 mph in Wellfleet and 88 mph in Fairhaven, all in Massachusetts.

The Weather Channel reported that more than 500,000 people were without electricity in different parts of the Northeast overnight.

The nor'easter then moved inland and early this morning was on the New Hampshire/Vermont border, a little below White River Junction. 

That means we in Vermont, as expected are in for a miserable day.

The worst of it will be in western Vermont and eastern New York, as a pretty good rain band has set up there, and could linger for a good part of the day.  In eastern Vermont, the rain might be more showery.  Strong storms like this often ingest a band of drier air into the system, leaving parts of the storm area with less rain.

Rain in the western half of the area could be enough to cause some mostly minor flooding, especially along the Ausable River in New York and possible a little bit along the Otter Creek, Mad and Winooski rivers and maybe a couple others.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington  has flood watches up for most of Vermont, except the Northeast Kingdom.

Flood warnings are already up for the parts of the Capital District of New York, around Albany, as two inches of rain had already fallen as of early this morning and more downpours were coming.

In Vermont, it won't be a huge flood, but something to watch out for regardless.

The heavy rain will cause local street flooding, especially given that so many leaves have fallen to clog storm drains.

Strong winds might be the real story today.

Winds were really starting to pick up in Vermont before dawn this morning. This will be a problem for much of the day, especially over the western half of Vermont and especially between now and, say, mid-afternoon.

High winds have already blown throught southern and eastern Vermont overnight.  Winds gusted to 66 mph around Bennington, for instance. As of early this morning, about 10,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Green Mountain State. Most of those outages were in the southeastern half of the state.

However, those power outages will probably spread into the northwestern half of the state during the rest of the morning, as wind gusts could reach as high as 55 mph in a few spots. Shortly after dawn, the wind gusted to 54 mph at Thompson's Point in Charlotte, which is on Lake Champlain.

So yeah, bottom line is this is a pretty damn impressive storm.

Starting this evening, the storm will begin to wind down. Rain and wind will both diminish. It'll be a cool and somewhat cloudy day Friday.

Another soaking rain is possible during the middle of next week. We'll have to watch that one. Things are soaked down now, and a particularly heavy rain could cause flooding problems. It's too soon to say how hard it will rain next week, so we really can't be specific on whether a flooding risk will come up.

Big Storm About To Sock Vermont, Rest Of New England

Red sky in the morning, sailers take warning. True in this
case as a big storm is coming to New England tonight.
True, this view from St. Albans, Vermont this morning is
more pastel than anything else, but you get the point. 

A powerful nor'easter is poised to hit New England later tonight and Thursday, promising oodles of rain and wind for the entire region, including here in Vermont.

The nor'easter will develop off the Virginia coast today and track northward, making landfall on Long Island and probably going up through central or eastern New England tomorrow.

It will strengthen rapidly as it does so.  This could be among the strongest nor'easters to hit New England in October on record.

With a track and strength like that, the broad-brush forecast for Vermont is easy-peasy. Expect some heavy rain later tonight and tomorrow, and some gusty winds.

The devil is always in the details, though, so there are a couple interesting things to look for. The onset of precipitation will come in slowly.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington is thinking rain will make it into the western Adirondacks by 4 p.m. or so today, but not get to the northern Champlain Valley until perhaps 10 p.m..

Once the rain gets here, though, it will come down at a pretty brisk clip.  Converging winds in the Champlain Valley Thursday could enhance the rainfall. Many areas of Vermont, especially west of the Green Mountains,  will probably get close to two inches of rain, if the forecast plays out as expected.

A few spots could clock in with three or more nches, especially in southwestern Vermont That's a lot of water for an October storm.  The White Mountains of New Hampshire will block some of the storm's moisture from getting into the Northeast Kingdom, so less rain will fall there. Probably an inch or less.

Luckily, it's not that wet out there to begin with, so flooding should be minor.  The big problem will probably be in urban areas.  A lot of leaves will be falling during this storm, and that will clog up storm drains.

Watch out for flooded streets and deep puddles on your way to work Thursday morning.

The National Weather Service forecast for rainfall from this
upcoming storm. Some stpots could get more than two
inches of rain

As I said, it will be windy.  Ahead of the storm, southeast winds will gust as high as 35 mph today, even as Vermont pretty much remains precipitation-free.

Many nor'easters cause strong downslope winds on the western slopes of the Green Mountains and it looks like this will happen with this one. It won't be nearly as bad as the downslope wind havoc of October, 2017, but it will still be an issue.

Winds tonight could gust in the 55 to 60 mph range, possibly a bit more, in some downslope wind prone towns like Mendon, South Lincoln, Huntington, Underhill, Cambridge and maybe as far north as Belividere.

As the storm moves east and then north of us Thursday, everybody in Vermont will share in the usty winds, probably going to 40 mph in gusts or even a little more.

Thursday will surely be a yucky day, with lots of rain, especiallyin the morning, strong, chilly winds and temperatures holding in the 40s.

If this were a little later in the fall, say mid to late November, we'd probably be getting an immense early season snowstorm out of this.

Even with this storm, you have to be a little careful.  Intense storms like the one that we are about to have can generate their own cold air aloft, which can turn rain to snow if the precipitation is heavy enough.

Although I think it's possible but unlikely a few snowflakes could make it down into the valleys, it looks like any snow with this will be confined to the highest elevations.

Right now, the National Weather Service in South Burlington is only calling for light accumulations along the ridge lines, it's possible a couple high spots in the Adirondacks and Green Mountains could end up with a surprising amount of snow.

We'll have to wait and see on that one.

Elsewhere, this strong early season storm will probably produce some damaging winds along parts of the New England coast. Some areas of central Massachusetts could get locally up to five inches of rain, which could produce some flooding.

Since the storm looks like it might go inland over interior New England, there might be a risk of some severe storms or even a coastal waterspout or two overnight in far southeastern New England.

Coastal flood advisories and flash flood watches are up for the New York City metro area, too.

Spring Brings, Odd Snows, Fire Risks, Possibly Thunderstorms, Wind, You Name It

Springtime snow in North Carolina Tuesday.

It's spring, so here in Vermont and in much of the rest of the nation, it's the season to expect the unexpected more so than any time of year. I think we're now in the peak "anything goes" weather time of year, so there's all kinds of relatively odd things going on.  

For the most part, there's no super extreme weather to talk about for the next couple of days here or anywhere else in the East, but it sure is interesting for a weather geek like me.

There has been, or very soon will be, snow in unusual places for this time of year, a beautiful nor'easter, fire weather risks, some possible thunder, and some throwbacks to winter.

Many but not all of these are affecting us here in Vermont.

A NEAR-MISS NOR'EASTER

Yesterday, as an impressive nor'easter got going off the coast of North Carolina, the storm manufactured its own cold air pocket, which allowed rain to change to snow in many parts of North Carolina. Charlotte, North Carolina picked up 0.1 inches of snow, only the second time in the past 100 years they had measureable snow in April.

Some areas of the state picked up more than an inch and a half of snow. This is an area where trees are already leafing out, so it is unusual.

The nor'easter was beautiful, at least to us weather geeks. It did manage to stay offshore enough to minimize its impacts. That's a good thing because this was a strong one. Hurricane force winds were reported offshore. There were probably some intense waterspouts out there over the open ocean, and on satellite photos, the nor'easter developed a feature that looked like the eye of a hurricane.

Impressive nor'easter off the North Carolina coast yesterday.

Had this storm hugged the coast, there would have been a terrible snowstorm all the way up the East Coast into our neck of the woods, with flooding rains, and battering wind and storm surges in along the Northeast coast.

The nor'easter did produce gusty rains in eastern New England overnight and was dumping some snow in eastern Maine.

WIND AND FIRE

Behind this storm and ahead of a cold front coming in from the northwest, it's windy in the Northeast, or at least becoming so. The air is quite dry in much of the Mid-Atlantic states and in the southwestern half of New England.

This is the time of year when vegetation from last year is drying out and new green stuff hasn't really gotten going yet. The dry air and wind and the dead weeds and brush can easily go up in flames in this weather.

There's a big area including all of New Jersey, most of Pennsylvania, most of Maryland, parts of southwestern New York and other places that are under a Red Flag Warning today.

A Red Flag Warning means there's a big risk of fast moving, dangerous grass, brush or forest fires. It's kind of unusual to have this kind of a warning in this area, especially one that covers such a big area. But you do get these alerts in the Northeast from time to time around now. Red Flag Warnings are much more common in the West.

There have already been a lot of brush and forest fires in the area covered by the Red Flag Warning in recent days, so more are likely.

In parts of Vermont, particularly the Champlain Valley roughly south of Burlington and the Connecticut Valley floor south of White River Junction, the snow has melted. There is a risk of brush fires in these areas of the Green Mountain State, too, due to winds and dry air today.

THUNDERSTORMS? THEN WINTER AGAIN

A sign of spring is coming from the north today. But it being spring, so there's some wintry aspects of this, too.

That cold front coming in from the northwest is pretty starved for moisture, but does have a lot of energy with it. This looks like it will produce the first band of convective showers and possible thunderstorms of the warmer season in northern Vermont later today.

Convection is basically those towering clouds you see mostly in the summer that produce showers and thunderstorms.  They're mostly a creature of the warm season.

So, it's a sign of spring I suppose that we might get some convection today, especially near the border with Canada. There won't be anything severe, but there might be some rumbles of thunder, some gusty winds, maybe even a tiny hailstone or two in the stronger ones.

It will be windy anyway this afternoon, with gusts over 45 mph, but the stronger storms racing across northern New York and Vermont could produce gusts stronger than that.

As the cold front goes through, it will produce a few more scattered showers, and those will turn to snow in the mountains as it gets colder. Winter will kind of come back. Tomorrow will be windy and cold, with highs in many areas not getting out of the 30s. The coldest valleys of the Northeast Kingdom could reach the single digits above zero again tomorrow night.

A weather system coming through Friday and Friday night could put down a slushy light accumulation of snow in the mid and high elevations, though it will probably be cold, light rain in the valleys.

EARLY SPRING CANCELED

It also is beginning to appear that long range forecasts suggesting that spring would really blossom in our neck of the woods in April were wrong.  Many extended forecasts issued in late March indicated April would mostly be on the warmer than average side here and in much of the rest of the nation.

Although there will probably be some relatively pleasant days here and there, the trend will be unsettled and on the chilly side most days going forward through most of the month here in Vermont.

Blame, in part, this ridiculously resilient ridge in Alaska that has kept that state unusually warm for months. For some reason, these northward and incredibly persistent bulges in the jet stream have been forming repeatedly over the past decade in the eastern Pacific or in western North America for the past decades.

I know climate scientists are looking into this. Are these "ridiculously resilient ridges" at least partly a product of climate change or just chance? Some preliminary science suggests that climate change can create "stuck" weather patterns, so we shall see.

Winter Really Wants To Cling To Life Here In New England

The snow isn't entirely out of the perennial beds in my yard in St.
Albans, Vermont and we might get a fair amount of replacement
snow at the end ofthe week, so no spring clean up yet!

We're slowly trying to climb out of winter here in Vermont and the North Country, but once again, like so many recent springs, it's turning out to be a slow slog.]

Some potential surprises in the forecast toward the end of the week and the weekend might sour our moods even more than they already are. At least for those of us who are pining for daffodils.

More on that in a second.

We seem to have fallen into a pattern in recent years. After the insanely warm March of 2012, which was by far the hottest on record and brought us  week of summer temperatures in the mid 70s to low 80s, we've been faced with mostly reluctant early springs in Vermot since.  

In fact, it seems we never have springs anymore, practically. In the past half decade or snow, we seem to snap from winter to spring. March in 2014, 2015, and 2017 were quite cold. The only warm one in the bunch was 2016.

We managed to eek out a near normal March last year, temperature wise, but we had one of the snowiest Marches on record, and deep snow cover lasted through the end of the month, only to bring us into a cold, snowy first half of April.

The trend seems to be repeating itself this March, in part so far. At least up to this date, it's not as bad as recent Marches, as the temperature is running only about two degrees colder than normal and snowfall is actually a shade below normal. Still, we haven't had too many hints of spring yet.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it, that could change in the coming days. Maybe.

Today and Wednesday won't be bad. It'll be a bit on the chilly side this afternoon for this time of year, with highs only in the 30s, but the sun will be out. Tomorrow is the pick of the week, as sunshine and sugaring season highs in the 40s are likely after a necessary overnight freeze to recharge the maples.

Then it gets complicated. And probably wintry. A pretty decent cold front will be coming at us from the west and northwest Thursday. That's not at all strange for the second half of March. However, some energy off the Southeast and Middle Atlantic Coast will generate a nor'easter, and more energy from that cold front will energize that storm. If the cold front arrives near the storm in time.

This potential nor'easter is a bit of surprise. Until about Sunday or so, most weather forecasting models indicated we in northern New England were safe from any big storms. But it's never that simple, and winter always has to find a way to hang on longer than it is welcome.  We might or might not get a snowstorm out of this, but there's at least a chance of it, especially in the mountains.

There have been strangely few nor'easters this winter, but this will be a bonifide one. The question is, how close does it come to Vermont to produce a lot of precipitation? And will it be cold enough for snow?

Computer models are all over the place with this thing, so nobody can yet say with any precision what this thing wants to do.  The general consensus is it will be at least a fairly strong nor'easter. Some models are weaker with it and make it pass well off the coast, and we in Vermont will be just left with gusty snow showers that could still pile up to several inches, especially in the mountains.

If the nor'easter comes closer to the coast and trends stronger, we could be talking about as much as several inches to a foot of snow in parts of Vermont, especially in the mountains and perhaps the Northeast Kingdom. Again, that's still very iffy, but within the realm of possibility.

If this storm were to come closer to the coast and it were midwinter, we'd expect a snowstorm region wide.  But it's late March, and warmer. That leads to a better chance of rain, especially in the valleys.

As you can tell, I'm doing a lot of speculation with this possible nor'easter, so stay tuned later in the week for better information.

It seems almost certain, nor'easter or not, that this coming Saturday will be very wintry, with strong, gusty northwest winds, temperatures staying below freezing in most spots, and frequent snow showers, especially in the mountains.

Weather systems are moving along fast, so it should get better by Sunday.  Heading into at least the beginning of next week, I don't see any huge warmups yet, so we'll keep hanging on to winter. Or winter-lite, anyway.

Some forecasts call for a nice warmup in the final days of March, but long-range forecasts are notoriously fickle. I'll believe it when I see it.

What To Expect From Today's Messy Nor'easter In Vermont, Elsewhere

Some areas of Vermont might see some slippery, snowy roads for a time
as snow will fall near the onset of today's nor'easter. Most places that
see snow will have a chaneover to rain this afternoon.

Today will be the first winter driving challenge for a lot of people in Vermont and some other areas of the interior Northeast today as a nor'easter continues to push in.

Oh sure, some mountain towns and northern New Hampshire and Maine already had tough winter driving back on  Wednesday, but a lot more of us will experience it today.

Plus, there's strong winds, a cold rain and maybe even some freezing rain to talk about with this storm.

SNOW ALERT

The shield of precipitation with this nor'easter was just moving into far southern Vermont as of 6:30 a.m. today and moving steadily northward.

As the rain moves into relatively dry air over Vermont, it will cool the air enough so that the rain will very quickly change to snow for a time. Or, in some places it will just start as snow.

Depending on where you are this morning and early afternoon,  the snow will come down pretty hard for awhile. That's especially true away from the Champlain Valley.

A winter weather advisory has been posted for most of Vermont away from the Champlain Valley. One to four inches of wet snow is likely in the advisory area. Since the snow will come down pretty hard for awhile, even the main roads in somewhat higher elevations will get slippery for a time.

A lot of us don't have our snow tires on yet, and we haven't driven on icy roads since April, so I'm anticipating plenty of traffic accidents today. I'd stay home if you can.

The winter weather advisory is also up for the Adirondacks.

The Champlain Valley will be a bit warmer, so there's likely to be much less snow there. Roads should stay wet. However, a BIG caveat. I've been sometimes surprised by how much the air can cool  at the onset of a storm like this. I'd be on alert for a slippery road surprise later this morning  even in the Champlain Valley. It's not guaranteed, but it's something to watch.

Pretty much everywhere in Vermont except in the  highest elevations, the snow will change back to rain during this afternoon.

STRONG WINDS 

Many nor'easters bring strong downslope winds to the western slopes of the Green Mountains, and this one will be no exception.

Many areas outside the Champlain Valley face an inch or two of
wet snow today. 

The strongest winds look like they will be in eastern Rutland and eastern Addison counties. The wind there will really pick up later this afternoon as precipitaton lightens up a bit.

Although today won't be nearly as bad a windstorm as some classic ones, like what happened last October, this one has its special risks.

Some leaves are on the trees and they will be burdened by that wet snow that is coming in. Add wind gusts to 55 mph or so and you've got a real risk of some power failures in the areas with the highest winds.

Elsewhere in Vermont, expect some raw, gusty winds but nothing too extreme. Just an unpleasant day, for sure.

FREEZING RAIN

Nor'easters sometimes bring freezing rain, but it's extremely rare to get freezing rain in October. But some areas face that risk, believe it or not. As it cools down tonight, light rain will likely start to freeze in parts of the Adirondacks, and also maybe in the eastern half of Vermont. Especially in mid and higher elevations.

There won't be a tremendous amount of ice, but it will be enough to make roads locally slippery again. And in isolated spots, a few branches might come down if they are loaded with remaining leaves and ice. The Champlain Valley should escape the iee and just deal with a cold overnight light rain.

THE STORM ELSEWHERE

As is usual with nor'easters, the coast gets hammered. High wind warnings and coastal flood alerts are up all along the coast from Maryland north.

The greatest storm surge with this storm will coincide with high tide later this morning in parts of coastal New Jersey and Long Island. Some pretty major and damaging coastal flooding seems like a good bet in these locations.  Big time beach erosion is also in the cards.

The coastal flooding isn't expected to be quite as bad further north in New England, but the winds along the shoreline will be worse. Winds as high as 60 mph will down trees and power lines along the coast. Flash flood watches are also up in parts of southern New England because the rain will be quite heavy down there, much heavier than up here in Vermont.

Up in Quebec, snow, ice and rain will affect travel later today and tonight, says Environment Canada.  There could be some flooding near Quebec City on Sunday during high tide,

THE OUTLOOK

Back here in Vermont, the temperature will gradually creep back up toward near normal temperatures over the next week but the pattern looks active. Showers remain in the forecast through Monday. After a brief break around Tuesday, showers return, with maybe some steadier, heavier rain Thursday.

Believe it or not, after a wet October, soil moisture in northern Vermont is still definitely on the dry side. All this precipitation is a good thing

Another Hurricane Abruptly Turns Into Monster. And Will Nor'easter Result

Satellite image of what was Category 5 Hurricane Willa off
the western Mexican coast on Monday. 

Following a dangerous and increasing trend in recent years, Hurricane Willa blew up into a monster off the west coast of Mexico between Sunday and Monday.

It's going to come ashore today in southwestern Mexico, and I imagine we're going to hear a lot of news about destruction in that neck of the woods in the next few days. It'll come ashore north of Puerto Vallarta.

Willa went from a humdrum tropical storm to a Category 5 monster in just two days. That's incredibly rapid intensification.  Waters off the Mexican coast are running one to two degrees warmer than normal, and that certainly helped with the intensification.

That type of explosive development seems to be a trend in tropical systems.

Willa might be an indication that rapidly intensifying hurricanes will likely become more common with global warming. There won't necessarily be more hurricanes than there used to be, but a greater proportion of them will intensify really quickly.

There's more research on this trend. A 2016 paper from MIT examined this.

Reports the Category 6 weather and climate blog:

"MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel explained that not only will global warming make the strongest hurricanes stronger, it will also increase how fast they intensify."

That's especially dangerous when the intensification comes just as the hurricane is getting ready to make landfall. We saw that with Hurricane Harvey in Texas last year and Hurricane Michael earlier this month in the Florida Panhandle.

Emanuel's argument makes sense. If the overall atmospheric conditions are favorable for a hurricane, warmer water will more efficiently feed the hurricane, making it intensify more quickly. Warmer ocean water is widely expected to be around as climate change continues to take hold.

When a hurricane intensifies greatly just before coming ashore, these monsters would catch people in the storm zone off guard. They might be expected a so-so storm and instead getting something more powerful. That happened with Michael this month on the Florida Panhandle.

According to the Category 6 weather and climate blog:

"The analysis found that the odds of a hurricane intensifying by 70 mph or greater in the 24 hours just before landfall were about once every 100 years in the climate of the late 20th century. But in the climate of the year 2100, these odds increased to once every five to ten years."

That might sound like a whole lot. But as we saw with Hurricane Michael, this type of intensification is beyond catastrophic.

In the case of Willa, the explosive intensification occured when the storm was a fair distance offshore. It looks like it peaked yesterday with top winds of 160 mph. As is typical with hurricanes, Willa has rearranged the thunderstorms around the eye of the storm. This tends to weaken the top winds, but spreads strong, dangerous winds over a wider area, and can make the storm surge worse.

Willa was down to 130 mph this morning, and wind speed will probably drop a little more before landfall. But it will still be a serious, life-threatening hurricane.

The remnants of Willa will cross through Mexico and into southern Texas, spreading more unwelcome rain in an area of the Lone Star State that has had far too much rain and flooding lately.

The ghost of Willa will then run eastward across the Gulf Coast and become an ingredient to the formation of what looks like the season's first nor'easter.  It will make a run up the East Coast over the weekend.

It's too soon to determine what exactly that nor'easter will do, but it could have implications here in Vermont later Saturday and especiallly Sunday.   We have a good chance of a cold rain, maybe some wind, and maybe some snow in the higher elevations. We don't yet how far to the east the storm will go, so we don't know how heavy the precipitation might be.

We'll know more by about Thursday.

This nor'easter will come just about on the anniversary of last October's nor'easter, which brought one of the worst and destructive windstorms on record to parts of Vermont. We're quite sure whatever this weekend's nor'easter does, it won't be as bad as last year's.

A "Fifth" Nor'easter Missed, But It's A Beauty

What would have been Nor'easter #5 this month spins
intensely well east of the New England coast yesterday.
Had it been a few hundred miles further west, it would
have caused more bigtime havoc.
Beautiful satellite photo, though. 

It seems I spent the entire month of March discussing nor'easters, since these storms were constantly either menancing us, hitting us, or we were digging out from them.

There was a grand total of four that hit at least parts of New England, so it was a busy month in that department.  

The overall weather pattern has shifted only a bit in the past week. The shift has been enough to put us in somewhat warmer air. The snow is beginning to melt now.

Still, a fifth nor'easter of sorts did manage to get going over the past couple of days. I'm not sure if you can officially call it a nor'easter, since it didn't hit the coast or come particularly near it.

But otherwise,  this fifth storm did pretty much what the previous four did: It emerged off the southeastern U.S. coast as a weak system, then blew up into a monster, huge storm. Only this time it was much further offshore than the ones that came before it.

You can see by the satellite picture of this storm that it was a beaut, way offshore.

Which is great, because this Nor'easter #5 is, or at least was, arguably the strongest of the bunch. It is generating sone big waves and dangerous surf up and down the East Coast, but nothing extreme. There are hazardous seas advisories for offshore waters of New England.

The good news is this Nor'easter #5, while moving erratically, It's now weakening and moving north, way off the coast. It looks like it will clip Newfoundland and harass Iceland, but leave us here in New England alone.

Of course, that doesn't mean another snowy nor'easter can't come along. We can get them in April, you know. And the weather pattern is potentially favorable for a nor'easter or even two sometime between April 4 and 12.  I don't know whether one will develop, but it's worth watching.

"Four'easter" Still Dumping Snow. Yeah, We're Sick Of It

Here's one of a variety of forecasts for snow totals
with the latest nor'easter. Areas in pink could get
up to a foot of snow. Most forecasting indicates
this will mercifully be mostly a miss for Vermont.

To me, the sky over Vermont looks a bit ominous, which might surprise other people who are looking at that same sky.

Spoiler alert: Don't worry, I'm still thinking we won't get much snow out of this late season nor'easter in Vermont. Still, it's the type of sky that says "snow."

That's because the nor'easter - the fourth big one this month -  is still lurking to our south. It's the type of sky that comes in the hours before a snowstorm:

A high, thin overcast that keeps gradually thickening, making the sun go dimmer, dimmer dimmer until it's pretty much gone.

Despite the signs from the sky, forecast guidance still tells us the nor'easter will be largely a miss for Vermont. The National Weather Service in South Burlington is going for a dusting to an inch south and east of a line roughly from St. Johnsbury to Rutland, with pretty much nothing north and west of that line.

The far southern Green Mountains could still pick up a couple, maybe three inches of un-needed snow from this tonight.

Still, that's better than the one to three feet of snow many of us got last week, right?

Somebody in Massachusetts is trying to coax spring
along as best as they can. 

The story is far worse further south, of course. Unseasonable winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories continue extending from Indiana and western North Carolina all the way to southern New England.

Some areas from New York City to Washington DC are likely to have one of their biggest late season snowstorms on record.

In New York and Washington, of the four nor'easters this month, this one will probably have the highest snow accumulations.

If New York and Philadelphia get more than a foot of snow, this would be the largest spring snowstorm on record for those cities. 

The accumulation will be hard to measure. This time of year, some solar radiation gets through the clouds during periods when the snow isn't coming down that hard, leading to some settling and melting. Then the accumulation picks up again when the snow starts coming down hard.

It still seems like it's a good possibility that the New York City metro area, parts of Long Island, much of New Jersey and pieces of eastern Pennsylvania could get 12 to 18 inches of snow out of this.

Washington DC which should be right into spring by now, is expecting four to eight inches of heavy, wet snow.

As you can imagine, this is one big mess that shouldn't be happening during the spring. NBC News reports about 3,700 flights canceled across the East today.

This sign pretty much sums up the mood
with repeated nor'easters and snowstorms
hitting much of the East 

All this wet, heavy snow in populated areas is causing a rising number of power failures, which will only get worse as the day wears on.  Repair crews were still trying to fix the mess left over by the previous three nor'easters when this one hits.

As I noted yesterday, coastlines in New Jersey, New York, especially including Long Island are going to be battered with this. High tides, storm surge flooding, high winds and battering waves will add to the damage that has piled up all this month.

Yeah, it's all pretty depressing if you ask me.

To make things more dreary for you, it's still not looking like any kind of full-on spring weather is coming any time soon.

Back here in Vermont, snow showers will probably add an occasional dusting of snow to some areas, especially the north and mountains tomorrow, and possibly again on Saturday.  At this point, though, I'm not seeing any blockbuster snowstorms in our near future, so we can hang onto that.

North winds will increase here in Vermont later today and especially tomorrow because of our proximity to the offshore nor'easter. That will add a windchill and a bite to the air. More clouds over the next few days will limit melting of the existing snowpack.

Still, there's glimmers of minor hope. Daytime highs in the valleys of Vermont should get barely above freezing, or least near 32 degrees each day through Sunday, which will melt the snow in tiny little increments, at least.

And it will turn somewhat warmer, but not torrid early next week. But the more seasonable temperatures next week should accelerate the gradual erosion of our unwanted spring snowpack. (And yes, not everybody considers it unwanted. I know there are plenty of winter sports fans out there, so be happy.)

It's not just us who are suffering under the weather. A strong blast of wet air is hitting central and southern California, where flash flooding is a risk through Thursday. In areas where there were big wildfires last year, very dangerous debris flows are possible, since vegetation that would hold soil in place has burned away.

There was already one destructive debris flow that killed nearly two dozen people in early January. California risks a repeat this week. As a precaution, up to 30,000 people have been asked to evacuate from their homes during this storm.

Nor'easter, Of Course Develops; But Vermont Impacts Small; South Tornadoes

Here's the Weather Channel's take on how much
snow will come out of this latest nor'easter

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!

This past Saturday, when most of the weather forecasters were saying the nor'easter for this week would mostly be a miss, I said in this here blog thingy that I suspected that was wrong, that it would hit.  

Not to gloat, but I was right. Winter storm warnings extend from North Carolina to New England today, and a lot of people are going to get a lot of snow, once again.

The good news, if you're not a snow lover this time of year and you live in Vermont, is it still looks like you won't get much snow out of this one. In fact, northern Vermont at this point looks like it will get none. I hope. More on that in a minute.

I'll also get to those awful tornadoes in the south in a bit, too. There were some weird aspects to some of those.  Videos of the severe weather also at the bottom of the post.

Anyway, the forecast trends starting Saturday and continuing right into today track the nor'easter closer to the coast. It'll still go offshore, but will be close enough to give much of the eastern United States a pasting.

Particularly at points south, like Maryland, Delaware, western Virginia and parts of West Virginia, it's pretty odd to get a full-fledged winter storm this late in the year, the first day of spring. And it's equally odd to see forecasts of more than a foot of snow on the first day of spring in places like New Jersey and the New York City metro area. 

Most of the snow will come down Wednesday, and be accompanied by strong winds, producing near blizzard conditions in some spots on the first full day of spring. (The spring Equinox was at 12:15 p.m today, EDT)

As always, results may vary. This time of year, any East Coast snowstorm comes with marginal temperatures. A couple degrees warmer, and the snow totals would go down as it would mix with rain. A little colder, and the snow would get a little fluffier, increasing the totals.

There's little chance the snow will get much fluffier. It will be wet and heavy. Combined with the wind, there will once again be widespread power failures, just as there were in the last three nor'easters.

With all the damage over the past month, I think utility rates will rise across much of the East. Somebody is going to have to pay for all that repeated damage to the electric grid.

Once again, battered coastlines are going to be battered anew, with beach-eroding waves and more flooding along shorelines made much more vulnerable by the last three nor'easters. Winds were already increasing dramatically along parts of the Mid-Atlantic coast today and that should spread northward into Wednesday.

VERMONT IMPACTS

At this point, it still looks like it won't be too bad up here in the Green Mountain State. The far southern Green Mountains, which have gotten as much as six feet of new snow this month, are in for a little more.

This time, it looks like that region will be measuring the snow in inches, not feet. I still looks like they'll get six inches or less of snow in far southern Vermont, but that will have to be monitored.

So far, it looks like any light snow won't get any further north than Rutland and White River Junction on Wednesday and Wednesday night, but we'll of course have to continue monitoring the path of the storm. We don't want it to come further north,  do we?

The Arctic air mass over us is slowly moderating, and each day since Saturday has been getting slightly warmer, though staying way chillier than average. At least a tiny bit of snow has melted in sunny corners.

Today, with lighter winds and clouds from the storm not really getting too strongly into Vermont, readings might go briefly above freezing this afternoon. Still cold for this time of year, but we'll take anything.

That nor'easter passing by will increase the north winds, throw a few clouds our way and slow the pace at which the air warms up over us during the second half of the week. So it will stay wintry. If any afternoon temperatures get above freezing between Thursday and Saturday, it will be just barely.

Winter is hanging on.

SOUTHERN TORNADOES

Meteorologists knew since Saturday at least that parts of the Southeast were at risk for severe storms and tornadoes by yesterday, and sure enough, things got bad very fast.

A reporter with the Cullman, Alabama Tribune holds one
of the giant hailstones that fell near his house last night. 

There were at least 12 reports of tornadoes, pretty much all in northern Alabama, not far from the borders of Tennessee and Georgia.

One thing odd about this tornado outbreak, at least in my opinion, is how supercells creating the tornadoes, immense hail and damaging winds followed each other.

Usually, when a town gets hit by a tornado, emergency responders can get to the scene relatively safely, despite continuing lightning, flooding, heavy rain and sometimes hail.

Last night, one tornado hit the town of Jacksonville, Alabama, and first responders had to be warned that a second tornado (later confirmed) was hot on its heels. Even after that, a third circulation came into town, but I don't know yet whether that one touched down into a tornado.

At least one of those tornadoes hit Jacksonville State University, but thankfully the school was on spring break. There weren't that many students in the way to get hurt by the twister.

So far, I'm not aware of any deaths caused by the storms, but there were injuries. 

The supercell storms marched into Georgia later last night, and National Weather Service meteorologists there are investigating whether any of the damage around metro Atlanta and elsewhere in northwest Georgia was caused by tornadoes.

The storms also dumped huge hailstones on parts of Alabama. In Cullman, Alabama, hail as big as softballs caused widespread damage. One large car dealership alone suffered perhaps $4 million or more in damage. In some parts of town, hail was big enough to crash through roofs. 

There's still a threat of severe storms and tornadoes today across northern and central Florida, and near the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.

Here's a news video of hail damage at a Cullman, Alabama car dealership:



Here's what it was like inside the Cullman, Alabama Walmart during the hail. It was loud, and you can see pieces of the ceiling coming down during the onslaught:



Not confirmed as of this writing, but the damage in this video in Campbellton, Georgia had to have been caused by a tornado last night:

Nor'easter Snowstorm Unexpectedly Crushes Vermont With Snow

It doesn't look like I'm going to go outside and enjoy
my back deck at my St. Albans, Vermont house anytime
soon as the snow continues to pile up.

Especially for a nor'easter that a few days ago was expected to give Vermont a glancing blow at worst, we got crushed with snow

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, it was still snowing and some parts of central Vemont were already closing in on two feet of new snow. East Barre reported 24.9 inches of snow, Wolcott has 21 inches new and several places are at around a foot and a half.

Even the Champlain Valley, which was only expecting a few inches, will probably go over a foot by the time this is over.

Here in St. Albans, where I live, the storm total was 9.5 inches by 8 a.m. this morning, and it was still snowing steadily. Burlington has clocked in with ten inches of fresh snow.

Totals are impressive in southeastern New England, too, but that was more expected. Even so, the storm overperformed there as well. In Massachusetts, Uxbridge received 27.8 inches; Milford got 26.6 inches, and Billerica received 25.6 inches. North Foster, Rhode Island received 25.1 inches.

Maine and New Hampshire got slammed, too. Danville, New Hampshire reported 27 inches, Rochester and Wyndham, New Hampshire reported 25.5 inches ,and in Maine, 23.5 inches came down in West Newfield and Limerick.

It's not over yet. In southern New England, the problem will be heavy local snow squalls that will bring another very quick one to three inches in some spots, and cause the kinds of sudden whiteouts that lead to highway pileups.

Here in Vermont, we've got quite a bit more snow to get through yet. It will snow all day and tonight in most areas.  Expect at least another three to six inches of snow by tomorrow morning, and weather advisories have been upgraded to a winter storm warning in western Vermont today and tonight.

I imagine quite a few places will get more than six inches of fresh powder between now and this time Thursday morning. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a foot of additional accumulation in parts of the Green Mountains and Adirondacks.  

Just know that roads are bad. You can also expect some scattered power outages due to snow loading on trees.

And in those western slopes and mountain summits, the snow will continue on Thursday.

So yeah, this is unexpectedly epic.

It gets worse in the fact that it's going to get colder, and we're going to get back to normal January conditions by the weekend. That means daytime high temperatures staying in the 20s when normal highs this time of year are around 40 degrees. Nighttime temperatures will be in the upper single number and teens.

All this means the snow isn't going to go anywhere for quite awhile.

More "good" news: It's possible another nor'easter could affect us toward the middle of next week. This is by no means a certainty. It could still easily miss. But we said that about the storm we're getting now. Bottom line: No guarantees, either way.

This is shaping up to be similar to last year. By March 1 of both 2017 and 2018 most of the snow in Vermont had disappeared after record warm temperatures in February. Then in March, heavy snows arrived.

It will be interesting later this week when the National Weather Service office in South Burlington comes out with its latest spring flood outlook.

The last one, issued two weeks ago forecasted a normal to below normal risk of spring flooding. Soil moistures were high, but snow cover was well below normal. If there's not much snow to melt, the risk of flooding is low.

Now, there's a lot of snow. Especially in the mountains The snow depth and water content of the snow in the mountains at this point isn't setting any record highs, but it has increased substantially.  (The snow depth at the summit of Mount Mansfield went from 47 inches on March 1 to 76 inches this morning.)

The far southern Green Mountains and the Berkshires have especially heavy snow depths and water content in the snow.

Last year, spring flooding in and around Vermont turned out to be scattered and minor when the snow finally melted. This year, who knows? If there are a lot of warm rain storms in late March or April, we could have problems. If things melt pretty gradually, no worries.

But we'll worry about that later. Right now, it's snow, snow, snow. Careful on the roads today, tonight and tomorrow. And keep watching that snow pile up.

Late Tuesday Afternoon Nor'easter Update: Storm As Predicted, But A Few Surprises

Lovely in Norwell, Massachusetts today. Photo by
Steven Senne/AP

UPDATE: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday:

The winter weather advisory in Vermont fron the Green Mountains east   has been upgraded to a winter storm warning, in effect until 8 p.m. Wednesday.

This storm is over-performing and the snow accumulations are looking like they will deeper than expected everywhere in Vermont and eastern New York.

This seems especially true in the eastern half of Vermont.  Snow is locally heavier than many of us thought. At 6 p.m., heavy snow was reported at Montpelier.

Snowfall as of 6:30 p.m. has already gone well past expectations in the Green Mountains and points eastward. East Montpelier has been clobbered by 13.5 inches of snow already. North Wolcott has already reported a foot of snow. Ten inches has already come down in Elmore and East Orange.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington, Vermont says these areas are in for another six to nine inches of snow by Wednesday evening. These will be pretty damn impressive snow totals.  Especially since the center of the nor'easter passed so far east of New England. Usually, when that happens, it would be a non-event here in Vermont.

In western Vermont, the winter weather advisory remains in place, but still, four to eight inches of additional snow, is expected by Wednesday night. There might even be a little more than that in the far northern Champlain Valley and in northern New York.  Boy, this is quite a storm

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

Once again, eastern New England is reeling from a big nor'easter as of late this Tuesday afternoon.

Bad conditions are about to start waning in southern New England, but were still going full tilt late this afternoon in coastal New Hampshire and Maine.

Some impressive stats are coming out of southern New England. 

Here are some snow reports as of 4 p.m. And remember, these aren't final totals. It's still snowing, and not all reports have come in yet.

Framingham, Mass: 23.3 inches
Milford, Mass: 20.0 inches
Killingsly, CT., 18.3 inches
Foster, Rhode Island: 17 inches.

Winds along the coast overperformed as well. Here are some gust reports:

Falmouth, Mass.: 81 mph
Hyannnis, Mass: 79 mph
Nantucket, 77 mph.

A mess in Falmouth, Mass today.

Needless to say, there are many, many reports of power failures and downed trees across eastern New England. 

Snowfall reports have been highly variable. A couple slow moving, narrow, intense bands of snow formed during this storm on the western edges of this storm. One parked itself a little ways inland over east-central Massachusetts, which explains the snow reports out of Framingham and Milford.

Another one set up along Interstate 91 from a little south of St. Johnsbury, Vermont all the way down through Connecticut. Through most of Vermont, the band wasn't super intense, but did enhance snowfall today.

Especially in the far southern Green Mountains, which got it again today. Halifax, Vermont reported 18 inches of snow and Newfane clocked in at 16 inches as of late this afternoon.

Mount Snow, the southern Vermont ski area, had received 10 inches of new snow by mid-afternoon today, bringing the total over the past seven days to 50 inches new.

Elsewhere in Vermont, the snow was mainly light as expected, with widespread reports of two to five inches of new snow as of around 3:30 p.m. today.

In parts of the Green Mountain State, the snow has picked up a little bit in intensity in many areas. As the sun goes down, the bit of solar radiation coming through the clouds is diminishing, so snow is now starting to stick better.

If you are not home from work yet late this Tuesday afternoon, expect some slick spots on the roads.

Generally light snow will keep coming down across Vermont through Wednesday and Wednesday night. Some of those somewhat heavier snow bands might set up overnight somewhere over the area, but they won't be nearly as intense as those earlier today in southern New England.

Mount Snow Ski Area in southern Vermont received 10
inches of snow today so far, with 50 inches of new
snow logged in the past seven days. 

It's hard to say where, and even if these somewhat heavier bands of snow set up overnight, but some areas could get bullseyed by heavier accumulations than surrounding areas.

I'm thinking most places in Vermont will see another three to six inches of new snow between now and 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, with locally higher amounts.

Your Wednesday morning commute will probably be kind of dicey, so give yourself extra time for that.

As noted, further accumulations are likely during the day Wednesday and Wednesday night, especially over northern Vermont. Most places look like they'll get another two to six inches of snow during this time periods, with higher amounts in a few places in the north.

Which means that many places in Vermont will have slowly picked up at least of foot of new snow between early this morning and Thursday. We're back into deep winter, aren't we?

As noted, this morning don't count on a lot of melting of this snow through next Tuesday at least, even in the valleys. Temperatures will stay near or below normal through then. Most days through next Tuesday will feature sub-freezing high temperatures.

Here's how the blizzard looked in Hull, Massachusetts today: