Sunday Evening Snowstorm Update For Vermont And North Country

The area around a little brook that flows past
my St. Albans, Vermont house turned into a pretty
winter scene today  

As Sunday evening falls, the early seasons snowstorm across the North Country is continuing pretty much as expected.

We're still going to see some impressive accumulations up in the high country of New York and Vermont. Maybe northern New Hampshire, too.

The only thing the storm has done so far that was unexpected is the rain changed to snow earlier than expected in many areas of the region.

That just means the snow will be even a little deeper than first thought.

Just as I said this morning, though, the big winners still look to be New York's St. Lawrence Valley, the Adirondacks, and the spine of the Green Mountains. Plus the western slopes of the Green Mountains.

As of late afternoon Sunday, there have been reports of up to six inches of new snow in northern New York and up to four inches in Vermont. Here at my weather hacienda in St. Albans, Vermont, we were up to 1.7 inches of new snow as of 4:15 p.m.

A few trees still have leaves clinging to them.
Here a buckthorn with leaves leans towards power lines
and te road near my St. Albans, Vermont house 

Totals so far are even more impressive in high elevation towns in east central New York, the Berkshires of Massachusetts and high country in southern Vermont east of Bennington.

Some of these include 15 inches in Taborton, New York, 12 in Hoag Cornners and Canaan, New York, 9.7 inches in Lenox, Massachusetts and 9 inches in Woodford, Vermont.

The National Weather Service is still calling for four to each inches of snow in elevations above 1,000 feet, and I suspect that it will be closer to eight inches than four by the time things start to taper off Monday.

Ski resorts and summts and such could easily get 12 inches or more. I still think we'll still get a couple spot reports of two feet on some summits, such as Jay Peak.

The Champlain Valley can expect about an inch or a little less right on the Lake Champlain shore, but otherwise, a good 2 to 4 inches is likely.

Up toward St. Albans, away from the lake, the way things are going, I'm guessing three to five inches there.

The Monday morning commute still looks like it's going to be a disaster in much of New York and Vermont. Leave for work much earlier than usual, and take your time getting there, please.

The snow today is wet and sloppy, so power failures have been a problem. Vermont Outage Map has been near 2,000 people out today in Vermont. Some places get their power restored, while others lose it.

This will continue tonight, although I'm hoping it won't get too, too much worse. The snow will turn more powdery, and that type of snow would blow off tree branches and power lines better.

If you're like me and haven't gotten all your outdoor autumn yard chores done yet, I think you're screwed.

A state highway plow clears slush off the road
in fromt of my St. Albans, Vermont house Sunday
afternoon. Expect a slippery, icy, slow commute
Monday morning. 

The snow isn't going to go away very fast. It's going to stay cold all week, though there might be some minor thawing in the valleys Wednesday and beyond.  Plus, the snow fell on warm ground, so there will be a little melting from below.

But that minor melting is literally cold comfort.

On top of that, other storm systems are likely to affect northern New England early Thursday, Saturday and next Monday or Tuesday.

At this point, none of these storms look like they will be blockbusters, but they have the potential to drop more snow or mixed precipitation on all of us.

Stay tuned on that one.