"Four'easter" Still Dumping Snow. Yeah, We're Sick Of It

Here's one of a variety of forecasts for snow totals
with the latest nor'easter. Areas in pink could get
up to a foot of snow. Most forecasting indicates
this will mercifully be mostly a miss for Vermont.

To me, the sky over Vermont looks a bit ominous, which might surprise other people who are looking at that same sky.

Spoiler alert: Don't worry, I'm still thinking we won't get much snow out of this late season nor'easter in Vermont. Still, it's the type of sky that says "snow."

That's because the nor'easter - the fourth big one this month -  is still lurking to our south. It's the type of sky that comes in the hours before a snowstorm:

A high, thin overcast that keeps gradually thickening, making the sun go dimmer, dimmer dimmer until it's pretty much gone.

Despite the signs from the sky, forecast guidance still tells us the nor'easter will be largely a miss for Vermont. The National Weather Service in South Burlington is going for a dusting to an inch south and east of a line roughly from St. Johnsbury to Rutland, with pretty much nothing north and west of that line.

The far southern Green Mountains could still pick up a couple, maybe three inches of un-needed snow from this tonight.

Still, that's better than the one to three feet of snow many of us got last week, right?

Somebody in Massachusetts is trying to coax spring
along as best as they can. 

The story is far worse further south, of course. Unseasonable winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories continue extending from Indiana and western North Carolina all the way to southern New England.

Some areas from New York City to Washington DC are likely to have one of their biggest late season snowstorms on record.

In New York and Washington, of the four nor'easters this month, this one will probably have the highest snow accumulations.

If New York and Philadelphia get more than a foot of snow, this would be the largest spring snowstorm on record for those cities. 

The accumulation will be hard to measure. This time of year, some solar radiation gets through the clouds during periods when the snow isn't coming down that hard, leading to some settling and melting. Then the accumulation picks up again when the snow starts coming down hard.

It still seems like it's a good possibility that the New York City metro area, parts of Long Island, much of New Jersey and pieces of eastern Pennsylvania could get 12 to 18 inches of snow out of this.

Washington DC which should be right into spring by now, is expecting four to eight inches of heavy, wet snow.

As you can imagine, this is one big mess that shouldn't be happening during the spring. NBC News reports about 3,700 flights canceled across the East today.

This sign pretty much sums up the mood
with repeated nor'easters and snowstorms
hitting much of the East 

All this wet, heavy snow in populated areas is causing a rising number of power failures, which will only get worse as the day wears on.  Repair crews were still trying to fix the mess left over by the previous three nor'easters when this one hits.

As I noted yesterday, coastlines in New Jersey, New York, especially including Long Island are going to be battered with this. High tides, storm surge flooding, high winds and battering waves will add to the damage that has piled up all this month.

Yeah, it's all pretty depressing if you ask me.

To make things more dreary for you, it's still not looking like any kind of full-on spring weather is coming any time soon.

Back here in Vermont, snow showers will probably add an occasional dusting of snow to some areas, especially the north and mountains tomorrow, and possibly again on Saturday.  At this point, though, I'm not seeing any blockbuster snowstorms in our near future, so we can hang onto that.

North winds will increase here in Vermont later today and especially tomorrow because of our proximity to the offshore nor'easter. That will add a windchill and a bite to the air. More clouds over the next few days will limit melting of the existing snowpack.

Still, there's glimmers of minor hope. Daytime highs in the valleys of Vermont should get barely above freezing, or least near 32 degrees each day through Sunday, which will melt the snow in tiny little increments, at least.

And it will turn somewhat warmer, but not torrid early next week. But the more seasonable temperatures next week should accelerate the gradual erosion of our unwanted spring snowpack. (And yes, not everybody considers it unwanted. I know there are plenty of winter sports fans out there, so be happy.)

It's not just us who are suffering under the weather. A strong blast of wet air is hitting central and southern California, where flash flooding is a risk through Thursday. In areas where there were big wildfires last year, very dangerous debris flows are possible, since vegetation that would hold soil in place has burned away.

There was already one destructive debris flow that killed nearly two dozen people in early January. California risks a repeat this week. As a precaution, up to 30,000 people have been asked to evacuate from their homes during this storm.