Digging Out, Staying Cold In Snowy Vermont

Lots of work: After three hours of shoveling, progress on clearing my
driveway of a foot of snow in St. Albans, Vermont, but as you can
see, there's plenty more work to do.

While my leaf raking muscles should be sore this time of year, it's my snow shoveling muscles that are whining today.

The worst thumping from Friday's storm hit the Adirondacks, the Champlain Islands of Vermont and the northwest corner of Vermont. 

That the Islands and far northwest in the Green Mountain State would get the most snow from a coastal storm is a bit unusual.

Most often, the biggest thumping is in central or southern Vermont and up the spine of the Green Mountains.

But the heaviest and most persistent snow band set up very roughly 30 miles either side of a Saranac Lake, New York to Alburgh, Vermont line. My place in St. Albans got a solid (and I do mean solid- Ow! My back!) foot of snow out of the storm.

The big winner seems to be East Enosburg, Vermont with 14 inches. A foot of snow was widespread through Franklin County, Vermont, and the northern Champlain Islands and on into the Adirondacks.

The snow in Vermont caused the usual commuting headaches Friday morning, with traffic coming to a standstill at times on parts of Interstate 89 and other areas. But if you think it was bad in Vermont, check out the video at the bottom of this post. People in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were stuck on snow highways for many hours on Thursday. Total gridlock.

I still see no big new snowstorms in our immediate future but it's sure going to be wintry. And there will be bouts of light snow and snow showers amid the upcoming January-like temperatures.

Today brings a bit of a brief reprieve with above freezing temperatures in most valleys and some scattered snow and light rain showers, especially in the mountains. Watch out late this afternoon, as there could be a snow squall or two thrown in here and there as yet another cold front blasts through.

The jet stream is temporarily at least a little different, shutting us off from any wet storms coming up the coast. Instead, upper level winds will be blasting in from the northwest through Thanksgiving. That means little storm systems and frigid cold fronts will keep coming through with packets of snow showers that will create just light additional accumulations.

This is a good set up for the already buried ski resorts, who are just loving this month. The best chances for any accumulating snow over the next several days are in the Adirondacks, up and down the Green Mountain range and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Plus it will stay cold enough to keep making snow to build up bases on the ski slopes.

It might turn briefly a little warmer next weekend to thaw some of the valley snows, but that's iffy right now. We'll wait and see.

I guess we'll just have to hunker down and enjoy what looks like will be a long, long winter. And I said that to jinx me. Reverse psychology: If I promise a long winter without any basis in science, like I just did, I will be proven wrong with a nice pleasant thaw.

As if I could play psychological tricks on Mother Nature. Ha!