As Expected, Snowing In Vermont: Worse Storm Friday?

Heavy, wet, fallling snow create a rather abstract scene in
my St. Albans, Vermont back yard. 

Good morning, fellow Green Mountain Boys and Girls! Did you have fun driving to school or work this morning?

Yes, it was snowing pretty much everywhere in Vermont this morning, with just slushy light accumulation and not-so-bad roads in the Champlain Valley and other "warm" spots and a full-blown snowstorm in other sections of the state.

This morning into early this afternoon is the heart of this storm. The precipitation became heavier around dawn, and any rain in the Champlain Valley changed to snow, at least for awhile. Expect at least the risk of slick roads during this time.

As of 8 a.m., the heaviest reported snow in Vermont was 5.3 inches in Lyndonville. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington reported 0.5 inches, the first measureable snow of the season. These totals will certainly go up.

The northeast quarter of Vermont is still  under a winter storm warning, with snow possibly accumulating at a rate of an inch per hour. Web cam images from Lyndonville showed heavy snow still falling at 8 a.m. Total accumulations there will reach four to eight inches, easily.

Winter weather advisories remain up for most of the rest of Vermont, except the Champlain Valley and western Rutland County. Three to six inches of snow are due in in the advisory area.

An inch or two will probably accumulate in the Champlain Valley, with locally higher amounts.

The bottom line is this storm is so far behaving pretty much the way forecasters have said it would. Good job, meteorologists!

Do note the snow is wet and heavy, so we could be looking at some broken tree branches and power lines where the snow accumulates the most. As of 8:45 a.m., there were already at least 1,100 homes and businesses without power,  mostly in eastern Vermont north of White River Junction. The number of outages was increasing pretty fast.

Jackson the Weather Dog takes snowfall observations this
morning in St. Albans, Vermont 

Snow should taper off pretty quickly during the afternoon, except in the mountains, where snow showers will linger for awhile.

Today's snow is just the opening salvo in a remarkable stretch of winter weather that's going to grip Vermont - and much of the rest of the country for the next week at least.

Wednesday will be brutal by November standards. High temperatures will stay in the 20s, and northwest winds will gust as high as 35 mph. That would put wind chills in the single digits.

Wednesday night, skies in areas away from Lake Champlain will stay generally clear, which would invite temperatures to fall into the single digits. Actual temperatures, not wind chill.

Lake Champlain is still relatively warm. The contrast between the warm water and the cold air will keep light lake effect snows going Wednesday and Wednesday night on the Vermont side of the lake, mainly from Burlington south.

Then, more trouble looms. It's looking increasingly likely we'll get another snowfall Thursday night and Friday. This could change, but the Friday storm looks worse than today's. There's the potential for heavy, wet snow region wide, including the "warmer" valleys.

Chances are the whole area could get six inches of snow out of the late week system.  Then again, we could get lucky and the storm could, possibly, go too far to our east to really dump on us.

We'll have to watch that one closely to see if that pans out. I'll have more on that storm as forecasts become clearer.

A brief "thaw" of sorts might come in Saturday as temperatures, um, soar to near 40 degrees. But then readings go back to subfreezing for Sunday and Monday, as it looks now.

It's not just us dealing with an early winter. Snow flurries were reported this morning just northwest of Houston, Texas, which is very weird for this time of year. The storm we might be getting Friday could dump some decent snow as far south as Tennessee and Arkansas.

Up in northern Minnesota, it was around 10 below this morning in some of the cold spots.

No word yet if winter is really going to settle in, or whether we'll get a late November or early December break. It's a volatile, stormy, weather pattern, so enjoy the ride!