Ugh, That Was A LOT Of Snow And Slush Friday

A very snowy, foggy scene this Saturday morning in my
St. Albans, Vermont yard. We got another 5.3 inches of wet
snow over the past 24 hours, and the total snow cover
remains well over a foot.

In the weather department here in Vermont, it was a very easy winter, but it's a very tough spring so far. 

It was another wintry day Friday in some parts of the North Country, even snowier and slushier than even some pessimistic forecasters thought.

The snow and sleet did mix with or change to rain in some valley locations, especially from Burlington south, but still, we contended once again with slippery roads, shoveling snow, the kinds of things we don't like to do this late in the season.

While places like Burlington are still slowly losing snow cover, with a few interruptions, places in the northern Champlain Valley and away from the lake keep getting replacement snow to maintain the deep covering left by last week's epic snowstorm.

Here at my house at St. Albans, Vermont, well north of Burlington, I got 5.3 inches of wet snow and sleet.  I admit the wet snow clinging to all the tree branches around my place this foggy morning is beautiful, but I really don't want it to last.

Yeah, I'm showing my springtime bias. Deal with it.

Early reports are that there was a general three to five inch snowfall over northern Vermont Friday. There were a few spot reports of six inches or a little more than that.

Down in Burlington, Friday's installment of snow brought the month's total to 34.3 inches, the third snowiest March on record. (We almost certainly won't get to the Number 1 spot in snowiest Marches, which was 47.6 inches in 2001)

It's not going to warm up too much too fast, so all this snow is still going to linger into April, I'm afraid.



Big, fat wet snowflakes descend on Burlington's Intervale
during Friday afternoon's snowfall.

I'm getting paranoid that the next storms - Sunday night and Monday and again Tuesday - will plaster us with more snow, though the National Weather Service in South Burlington and other forecasters are calling for mostly rain.
However, it's looking bad for areas in eastern Vermont into New Hampshire Sunday night and early Monday, as those places at this point look like they might be in for a fair amount of freezing rain and some sleet. 

Temperatures Sunday night and early Monday will be marginal, so an unexpected slip of a degree or two in the temperature could really mess things up.

I do have room for optimism if you're sick of the snow, and pessimism if you want to keep skiing forever.

There have been plenty of snowstorms in the North Country in April and May. However, it will be getting harder and harder to actually get a big snow now that spring is (allegedly!) taking hold. It's hard for winter to resist the forces of spring once April approaches.

Temperatures will remain near to mostly below normal through this coming week, but even below normal temperatures will bring some thawing. High temperatures in the low 40s isn't toasty, but it's enough to slowly melt a bit of the snow.

Let's just hope we don't keep getting this "replacement snow" to maintain our mid-winter snowy landscape. If it wants to snow a bunch more on the ski areas, fine. Let's just allow us valley dwellers to escape this restrictive snowy prison.