Latest Winter Mess Ending Today, Two More Storms On Horizon?

Once again, a winter wonderland in my St. Albans, Vermont
yard this morning. Ominously, however, the snow was so
wet and heavy that I could hear branches breaking under
the weight of the slush in the woods.

UPDATE: 9:40 a.m. Saturday:

More impressive snowfall totals coming in at mid-morning here in Vermont.

Among them: 15.8 inches Rochester; 15 inches Woodstock; 13.5 inches Proctorsville; 12 inches Fayston; 12.3 Ludlow.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get a few more totals a little bigger than that later today.

Still about 6,000 customers without power in various parts of the Green Mountain State as of 9:40 a.m.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Kudos to National Weather Service forecasters and other meteorologists across New England for accurately predicting what was arguably the trickiest storm forecast of the year so far.

If anything, there was more snow than forecast in some spots. Several areas of the Champlain Valley were closing in on six inches as of 8 a.m., and it was still snowing lightly.

It does look like the heaviest snow fell over the high and mid elevations of southern Vermont and southern and central New Hampshire.

In southeastern Vermont there were several reports of 10 or 11 inches of snow, including 11.5 inches in Bethel ,11 in Weathersfield, Vermont and 10 inches in South Pomfret.

Further north, quite a few places in northern and central Vermont had five to eight inches of new snow. 

At my house in St. Albans, Vermont, I came up with 5.5 inches of new, wet snow as of 7:15 this morning and it was still snowing at a pretty good clip at that point. The snow was wet and heavy, and I could hear some branches breaking in the woods.

Which means there's power failures out there because of the very wet, heavy snow.

As expected, there are power failures, including about 8,000 homes and businesses in New Hampshire early this morning.

In Vermont, about 6,000 homes and businesses had their power knocked out, with a major proportion of those in Windsor County in the southeast, and Chittenden County in the northwest.  



April Fools Day traffic trouble in St. Albans, Vermont
this morning. The wet snow was quite slippery.

Things will improve region wide as we go through the day today. Roads are terrible this morning, so postpone trips.
On the way to work this morning, I was also worried about sagging trees looming over the roadway, on the verge of breaking and falling on cars.

So far, no reports of that kind of thing have come in.

The highways will be clear this afternoon as the storm finally begins to sputter out.

Snow will become more showery as the morning goes on, and mix with or even change to light rain showers in the valleys as temperatures climb up into the 30s to near 40.

We get a break in the action Sunday and Monday with tranquil weather and temperatures near or a little cooler than normal.

While we enjoy increasing sunshine Sunday, a dangerous storm with possible big tornadoes will break out in eastern Texas and Louisiana, including the Houston metro area.

I mention that in part because that will be our next storm, coming along Tuesday.  Don't worry, no tornadoes or severe weather up here in New England when it comes our way.

However, Tuesday's storm here will be similar to the current storm, and I can hear you groaning already. The difference is the Tuesday storm will be a little warmer than the one that's ending today, so there will be more rain and less snow in the valleys.

That forecast will get fine-tuned in the coming couple of days.

The mountains could pick up several more inches of snow from the Tuesday storm, however.

Another strong storm looks to affect the Northeast toward the end of the week. At this point, the end of the week storm seems like it will be mostly or all rain.