A Somewhat Wintry Monday Morning Commute To Work

Light snow was flying in some parts of northern New York and northern New England, including Vermont as the long anticipated storm, if you can call it that, arrives.

Interstate 81 in Hagerstown, MD Sunday. Photo by
Kevin Gilbert, Herald-Mail of Hagerstown.
Careful on Vermont roads today so you don't
cause a scene like this.  

By Vermont standards, this isn't the type of weather that smarmy TV meteorologists affix the suffix "..apolcalpyse" to. (Like the obnoxious "snowpocalpyse" they use every time a city is hit by more than two inches of snow.)

Still, you do have to take today's weather seriously if you're out on the roads.

The snow that was coming down in St. Albans early this morning, though not heavy, had sort of a sleety quality to it.

I presume that's true in a lot of areas today, which means the highways could end up a little
icier than if we were getting a more "fluffy" snow.

Road crews are out, but I'm sure the highways and streets will be on the slippery side, so build in some extra time to get to work today.

They're still calling for anywhere between one and five inches of snow out of this today, but some of it might settle and melt, especially in the valleys as temperatures creep above freezing and some rain mixes in this afternoon.

As the storm made its way up the Eastern Seaboard yesterday, it contained some surprises, including some unexpectedly heavy snow in parts of the Mid-Atlantic states. Nearly a foot fell in some areas, and that was followed by some freezing rain.

The weather caused a 50-car pileup on a Pennsylvania highway, and otherwise disrupted things on Sunday. 

Given the oddball nature of the weather today, I wouldn't be surprised if a few areas in Vermont and surrounding states get a little more, or a little less snow or sleet than forecast.

I do know it's going to stay cold and wintry for awhile. Daytime highs Wednesday through Sunday won't get above 25 degrees in most of northern New York and northern New England.

There won't be any big storms during this period, except maybe some pretty good lake effect snows off of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie in New York.

Still, almost daily snow showers will keep the snow cover slowly deepening in most mountainous areas. Plus the cold air will ensure round the clock snowmaking all week at the ski resorts, which is a good thing as people begin to gear up for the big Christmas week holiday, which is coming sooner than a lot of you think.