Storm Update: Still On Track For A Mess

Lots of blue, pinks and purples on the National Weather Service
map Saturday morning, indicating many, many snow, ice and
cold weather warnings, alerts and advisories. Add caption

It's snowing this morning in Vermont, as expected, as we get set for a storm total of two to four inches north and three to seven inches south. 

It was much worse down south this morning in places like Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York, where freezing rain is making a total mess of the roadways.

Places like I-95 in Baltimore and the Capital Beltway in suburban Washington DC were shut down by ice this morning.  You'll see a lot of highway pileups on the news tonight from that region, for sure.

Here in Vermont and the rest of the North Country, we'll get into the ice later on, but I don't think it will be quite as bad as down south. Still, I wouldn't recommend travel tonight, especially east of the Green Mountains.

East of those Green Mountains, and in the St. Lawrence Valley of New York, it will be hard to scour out the cold air tonight, so a bunch of freezing rain is likely.

It won't accumulate enough on trees and wires to bring them down, but it will make roadways dangerous. I wouldn't go out and drive in these areas tonight and Sunday morning, to be honest.

In fact, the ice might spread a bit this evening. In parts of southeastern New England, a weak wave of low pressure tracking along the coast today in tandem with the larger storm to the west might pull colder air back into that region this evening, freezing things back up and causing another period of icy weather there.

I'm still expecting another flash freeze Sunday, as a strong cold front sweeps eastward. Temperatures in New York wlll start to fall in the morning then drop quickly across Vermont in the afternoon as the cold front continues pushing east.

It'll be awful underfoot Sunday night and Monday, as temperatures plunge to zero or so. The slush will freeze to ice quickly. The roads will be bad enough: Expect a possible third slow Monday morning commute in a row.

Sidewalks and driveways will be horrendous. I expect a big uptick in emergency room visits across Vermont and the rest of New England Monday as people slip and fall on the ice. Be careful out there.

Meanwhile, we're "enjoying" the ice, much of the rest of the nation is having a lousy weekend of weather, too.

A bitter cold wave has enveloped the Plains and Midwest, with cold air plunging all the way through to Texas.

There's quite a contrast on that cold front. At one point in Oklahoma Saturday morning, temperatures ranged from 6 below in the northwest corner of the state to 65 above in the southeast corner.

Ahead of that cold front severe weather, with the possibility of a couple tornadoes, could hit parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

As I've advertised, it'll calm down during the upcoming week, and turn milder across much of the nation, including New England.

Cold Blast Underway Ugly Mess This Weekend

Snow blowing across a road in St. Albans, Vermont
Thursday made for slow going at times. Things
got worse, and much colder, later in the day. 

As expected, you're going to freeze your tush off this morning.

It's below zero pretty much everywhere in northern New England and New York, and winds are still pretty biting out there. Wind chills at dawn are in the minus teens in many areas.

Take extra time to start your car and drive to work. Roads aren't great, because there's some snow an ice on them, and it's too cold for salt to work.

While you're grumbling about this, at least be thankful you're not atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

As of 4 a.m. it was 33 below zero with a northwest wind gusting to 85 mph for a wind chill of 84 below.

Lovely.

The core of the cold air was passing just to the north of New England. You could see it in reports from southeastern Quebec. At 4 a.m. Sherbrooke was at minus 13 with a wind chill of 38 below.

Next up for us in the Northeast: Out of the freezer and into the wintry mix.

The next storm is going to produce a dramatic, if brief warm up around here in New England, but we'll pay the price with a messy mix of winter weather.

Actually, most of the nation is joining in on this icy, snowy fun.

Like the cross country storm last week, this one is causing, or will cause, unpleasant winter weather from coast to coast.

Only this storm is stronger than last week's, so the weather in many cases will be worse. And the trouble areas are even bigger than in the mid-sized storm last week.

Winter storm warnings, watches and advisories stretch through a remarkably huge area of the United States, from Oregon to Maine and from New Mexico to Michigan

By my count, parts or all of 35 states were under some sort of winter advisory or warning as of early Friday morning.

What fun!

Up here for us northern New Englanders, snow will break out after midnight tonight and continue well into Saturday. Expect poor travel conditions as another three to five inches of snow blankest Vermont and surrounding areas.

There might be a lull in the precipitation Saturday afternoon and early evening, before a wave of mixed precipitation moves in.

In the Champlain Valley and lowlands of southern Vermont and central and southwestern New Englan and coastal areas, it will be mostly rain. In New York's St. Lawrence Valley, areas east of the Green Mountains in Vermont and in much of New Hampshire and Maine, it will be freezing rain.

That's not good!

As you can imagine, the entire Northeast is under a winter weather advisory this weekend.

And before you get too smug in the areas that go to plain rain, you're still screwed. We had all that Arctic air, so rain falling on pavement that had gotten chilled by this Arctic cold blast will freeze, even if the air temperature is above 32 degrees.

Expect more travel headaches Saturday night and Sunday morning, that's for sure.

It'll be mild part of the day Sunday before a cold front swings in during the afternoon. Guess what! A flash freeze!

All that half melted snow from the mild weather and rain part of Sunday will instantly turn to hard ice as temperatures plunge to near zero Sunday night. Roads will again turn into icy nightmares for our Monday commute.

Just when you thought this very inconvenient winter weather will never end, it will, for a time.

After that next Arctic blast this weekend and early next week, warmer and less stormy weather should temporarily envelop most of the nation for the majority of next week.

Here in Vermont and the rest of New England, look for temperatures to start trending to above normal for Wednesday or Thursday, with little precipitation in the forecast by that time.

I Guess The Dubai Crown Prince Is A Weather Geek With His Gorgeous Video

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan enjoyed a gorgeous
morning fog recently and shared it with the world via social media.

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan shared a video on Instagram earlier this month which has become a viral video on social media.

Glitzy Dubai is normally a dry climate, but sometimes it gets hemmed in by fog.

Prince Hamdan caught one of those mornings recently, when he gave us this beautiful brief video of Dubai's skyscrapes poking up out of the fog.

The fog disrupted a number of flights in and out of Dubai that morning, but the Crown Prince got a great view. Glad he shared it with the world.

Here we go:

Comcast Truck Causes Snow Crashes In Viral Video

These cars slid of an Indiana road this week on a snowy day in patt
because a Comcast truck was blocking one lane of traffic
surprisng motorists who had just crested a hill.  

There's a video that hit big today about some car slide-offs and crashes in Indiana this week that appear to be have been caused by a Comcast repair truck.

In the video, which you can see below, a Comcast truck is blocking one lane of traffic on a slushy, icy two lane road while the guys make repairs to some sort of cable problem along the road.

There's a upward grade on the road before the Comcast truck, and then it goes downhill just prior to where the Comcast truck is parked.

Motorists crest the hill, and are then surprised to see the Comcast truck blocking things. Some of the motorists either slide off the road because they can't brake in time, or they crash into each other.

The Comcast guys seem oblivious. The guy making the video points out that the Comcast guys are creating a hazard.

The Comcast guy replies that they put out the correct number of traffic cones warning of the danger. Which is likely true for optimum driving conditions, but not for the conditions in winter storms.

Sure, some of the motorists might have been driving too fast for the conditions, but must the Comcast  repair guys make things worse?

Why, yes, they must!

The guy shooting the video manages to put his own makeshift cones out, but it's not enough. We see a  pickup truck slide into the back of a braking car, then skid into not one, but two front lawns.

After that mishap, the guy taking the video yells at the Comcast worker.

Who basically shrugs. Comcast Guy says, "I have work to do."

To which our videographer responsds, "You got work to do. Is that cable more important than people's safety?

I actually feel for the Comcast workers, because they're between a rock and a hard place. It's corporate America, where workers must do what is proscribed in company rules, even if it makes no sense. If they don't, they're fired or punished.

They might have been able to park the trucks in a safer spot, but maybe that would have violated company rules?

But if the publicity gets bad, which it does here in this viral video, they're still in trouble.

As the video went viral, Ed Marchetti, SVP, Technical Operations put out a statement, which read in part:

"Safety matters most - especially in dangerous weather conditions like this. 

We are actively investigating what happened when our technicians were on site to restore services during an outage and we will reach out to those who were impacted buy this incident.

Within the next 24-48 hours, my team will meet with our technicians across the company to use this example of how important it is to make everyone's safety a priority in everything we do."

In other words, the employment of these Indiana Comcast workers is toast.

I'm glad that Comcast will emphasize safety, and I hope they follow through

I'm sure the people in that neighborhood were bummed that their cable access had been knocked out. I'm sure they wanted Comcast to fix the problem ASAP, as would I.

But I'd rather live without cable TV, and suffer through an afternoon unable go watch the Steve Harvey show, than see motorists get killed or injured because somebody is trying to enable me to watch the show.

Let's let common sense rule in winter weather, please.

Here's the video:

Winter Update: Baby It's Cold Outside

Arctic sea smoke amid frigid temperatures over Lake
Superior as seen from Duluth, Minnesota at sunrise
yesterday. Photo by Matt Silverness, via Twitter.  

As expected, the worst cold wave of the young winter so far is sweeping across much of the nation, and is making a beeline for the Northeastern states.

Wind chill advisories stretch in a broad band from Montana to Ohio. Wind chill watches are up in northern New York and northern New England starting later Thursday.

There's actually two strong Arctic blasts coming through. There's the one now sweeping across the northern Tier of states. Then, after a wintry storm that is or will be causing weather hazards coast to coast, another Arctic blast will target the Plains and Midwest.

Let's take this very active weather pattern piece by piece.

COLD BLAST #1

In the grand scheme of things, this first cold wave isn't one for the record books, really, except for one thing: Temperatures in the mid to upper atmosphere are near record lows for this time of year. This time, it's not translating fully down to the surface where we live, but it's still plenty cold enough.

This cold wave is pretty gusty, so wind chill are the big story with this. Up here close to where I live, in Vermont and surrounding states. winds gusting to 40 mph Thursday night and early Friday combined with actual temperatures near 0 degrees will make for a most uncomfortable end of the week.

This gusty northwest flow is naturally setting up some epic lake effect snows around the Great Lakes. Winter storm warnings are up now for northern Michigan due to lake effect off Lakes Superior and Michigan.

Ohio and New York are under the gun, too, starting later today and lasting into Friday, some parts of western New York will easily get two feet of snow out of this.

Here in Vermont and the rest of northern New York and New England, the cold wave will arrive in the form of a series of cold fronts and boundaries. Each of these boundaries will pick up moisture fro the Great Lakes and those lake effect bands.

The end result is a strong risk of periodic snow showers and snow squalls, starting later today and lasting well into Thursday or Thursday evening.

It won't snow all the time, and accumulations will be light during the period - I'd say one to four inches total in the valleys. But the squalls and strong winds will cause poor visibility and icy roads. Also remember that as the cold deepens Wednesday night and Thursday, road salt will stop working, so roads will remain treacherous.

SANDWICH STORM

The first Arctic air mass will quickly whisk eastward away from most of the East, though it will remain cold in the Northern Plains and northern Great Lakes.

Now we're gearing up for a storm that will go coast to coast, west to east across the United States. It will be a "sandwich storm" between two blasts of Arctic air. The one coming in now, and the other over the weekend.

Already, winter storm warnings and watches extend all the way from Oregon to South Dakota. Flood watches are up in large parts of California.

The California flood watches are oddly comforting in that it means we know rain is going to fall on the still drought-plagued state.

However, some of it will come down too hard, too fast, which leads us to the risk of urban flooding, landslides and local flash flooding, especially in areas where recent wildfires stripped the landscape of trees and brush, which tends to hold the soil in place.

As the storm travel east, then northeast, expect snow to break out to the north of it in the Midwest, and snow, then mixed precipitation, then rain in the East.

Along the East Coast, the storm's path to the west through the eastern Great Lakes will mean a brief, dramatic warm up by Sunday, It'll go above freezing, probably all the way to the Canadian border for a time early Sunday. Some readings near record highs are possible south of say, Connecticut that day before the next cold blast hits.

COLD BLAST #2

Another really strong cold wave will follow the storm this weekend. Though the Northeast won't have it as bad as the first Arctic spell in the next couple of days. the Plains and parts of the Midwest will be brutal.

The second cold wave could hold highs down into the teens below zero in Bismarck, North Dakota for the first time since 2010. Chicago could have its first subzero high temperature in December since 1983, says the Weather Channel. 

After that, the weather pattern looks like it will shift once again, and generally milder weather will overspread much of the nation next week

Big Winter Week To Continue, Vermont And Elsewhere

Blowing snow and cold winter winds in January, 2014
in St. Albans, Vermont. Expect similar conditions
later this week in the North Country. 

We've got a lull in the weather action going on this Tuesday here in the Northeast, but don't get too comfortable: Winter is going to slam us hard. Harder than it has since the winter before last.

We got the week off to a modest snowfall Monday that pretty much worked out as expected, with two to six inches of snow most places in Vermont and surrounding areas. 

The winner in northern Vermont was Lyndonville, with eight inches of new fluff.

That surprised me a bit, since usually the White Mountains to the east block some moisture and cut down on snowfall in the Northeast Kingdom in these kinds of weather situations.

In the Northeast the winning highest snowfall from the storm was 10.4 inches in Toledo, Ohio. There were numerous reports of eight inches in far southern Vermont and southeastern New Hampshire.

A few somewhat unexpected snow showers over northern Vermont last night left some black ice on the roads, leading to slideoffs and a long stretch of stuck traffic on Interstate 89 near Burlington.

Like I said, today's a lull in the Northeast, with nothing more than a few flurries.

Big changes are coming, though. You can see it now in the northern Plains of the United States, where a huge area from Montana to Minnesota is under wind chill advisories.

Those advisories are sure to spread east across the Great Lakes and Northeast as the first big Arctic cold front of the season drives into the United States.

We usually get at least a few of these each year here in Vermont, but last year, we only got one, around Valentine's Day.

This year is shaping up to be more of a typical winter. (It's not surprising that snowfall in Burlington, Vermont this early season sits at right about normal for this time of year.)

Tonight, the first wave of snow showers will come through, though it won't amount to much.

Wednesday the lake effect snows off of the Great Lakes will get cranking. In New York State, this will come ahead of the Arctic cold front coming at us from the northwest.

The front will grab some of that lake moisture and probably set off some snow squalls in northern New England Wednesday night as the front barrels through. Nothing more than a quick inch or two in most spots, but enough to slicken up the roads again.

The cold will get ridiculous, at least compared to recent standards, on Thursday and Friday.  Many places in the North Country will not get above 10 degrees during the day Thursday and Friday, with quite a few areas getting below zero at night.

As you might imagine, the contrast between the relatively warmish waters of lakes Erie and Ontario and the Arctic cold will make the lake effect snows insane out in that neck of the woods. 

Snowfall rates in the most intense bands off of Lake Ontario could reach three to five inches per hour. Combined with winds gusting to 45 mph, this looks ugly out there. Total snow accumulations in some spots will exceed two feet, easily.

As is the case with most of these Arctic blasts, it won't last long. You'll notice a definite warmup Saturday, but it will come at a price.

WEEKEND MESSY STORM

A strong storm now dumping welcome rain in California and prompting winter storm watches in the northern Rockies will travel eastward and then northeastward into the eastern Great Lakes later Saturday and Sunday morning.

This is a mess that will set off a pocket of severe weather in east Texas and Louisiana, and a lot of messy weather in the East.

Up here in the North Country, expect snow to break out Saturday, then turn to a yucky mix of sleet and freezing rain later in the day. It's still hard to tease out details on this one, but expect it to be awful out much of this coming weekend.

Another cold blast follows the storm later Sunday into Monday, but it won't be nearly as intense as the one coming in at the end of this week.

Monday Morning Snow Playing Out As Expected; Travel Yucky

The task that faced me and a lot of other people
this morning: Clearing snow off the vehicle so you can try
to get to work. 

As expected, snow overspread northern New York and the northern two thirds of New England early this morning, and the most intense part of the snow is due right during the morning commute

Snowfall rates during the peak of the snow around and just after dawn across eastern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could reach one inch per hour.

The snow has quite a fluff factor, especially the further north you go, so breezes and the cars and trucks on the highway will create near whiteout conditions at times on the highways. Said highways are of course snow covered and slippery.

Before you take the kiddies to school, listen to the radio or look the school's status up on line: There are a LOT of school closings this morning because of the weather.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma (which watches all kinds of severe weather, not just tornadoes) said a particularly heavy band of snow will start out around the Albany and Glens Falls area this morning and move east to northeastward across southern Vermont, southern and central New Hampshire and into Maine.

These areas will get the most snow out of this storm, with five to 10 inches likely.

The heaviest snow region wide will be accompanied by southeast winds, so east and south facing slopes will get the most snow, and west facing slopes, like places not near and just east of Rutland, Middlebury and Burlington might get the least: Maybe just two to five inches there.

Elsewhere, expect three to six inches of snow across the northern sections of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, and southern Quebec.

The snow will come to a very abrupt end later this morning, or early afternoon to the east, as the atmospheric dynamics and lift quickly move east out of the picture and a slot of drier air aloft moves in.

We'll get stuck under clouds, maybe a little drizzle or freezing drizzle this afternoon. Valley locations especially, like around Rutland and Burlington and the lowlands of southern Vermont, will get above freezing this afternoon, so the snow on the ground will become perfect for snowball fights.

It'll be quiet tonight, aside from mountain snow showers, and calm with near normal temperatures Tuesday. That's just a break in the action before that Arctic front comes through later Wednesday which will really put us in the icebox Thursday and Friday.

The cold snap won't last all that long. It'll start to warm up Saturday, though snow or mixec precipitation will start to move into the area by then, too