Surprise White Christmas In And Around Vermont; Christmas Travel To Be Good. But....

At work at Gardener's Supply this Christmas Eve morning, looking
out the window past the amaryllis to the unexpected snow
globe outside

UPDATE 1:30 P.M. DECEMBER 24

Well, we have a botched weather forecast to report this afternoon, but at least it was off in a way that many people like.

I mentioned this morning there would be very little snowfall in Vermont this morning. And if it did snow, it would be mostly in the southern part of the state.

Then a Christmas miracle of sorts happened. The weak, wimpy storm that was supposed to cause the paltry few snowflakes in southern Vermont had more oomph than we thought.

Some energy in the atmosphere combined with a ribbon of moisture floating around northern New York and heading into Vermont contributed to the unexpected snow.

This isn't a blockbuster storm by any means, but now pretty nearly all parts of Vermont have a dusting to two inches of new snow on the ground. There might even be a couple spot three inch totals. Enough to get us a white, or at least whitish Christmas.

Which was, again, unexpected, but oh well.

The only drawback is that the roads are a bit iffy if you're traveling today around the state or running last minute errands. So just be careful on the highways and streets.

This little area of disturbed weather is zipping right along, so the snow should shut off pretty quickly this evening. It still looks like it's going to be a rather sunny, but seasonably chilly day on Christmas. It will certainly be cold enough for the snow to stick around.

This post's previous discussion is below, and includes the underestimation of how much snow Vermont would get today:

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:


 A large storm in the middle of the nation will cause widespread zones
of snow, ice, rain and wind by Thursday

A lot of people are traveling to and fro today and for the next few days for the Christmas holiday.

Locally in New England, it's pretty much smooth sailing until Thursday night, when a storm will begin to make things messy. 
A large storm will make things tricky at various times from coast to coast starting today.

The Christmas Eve action will begin today with a large area of rain and snow across the west and Rockies through Christmas Day. There will certainly be a white Christmas for most areas that are high enough in elevation to escape the rain.

This storm will really begin to blossom Wednesday, the day after Christmas, across the Plains.

Snow will spread across the north, an ugly wintry mix will hit some of the central Plains (think Iowa and Nebraska). Rain and thunderstorms will hit further south. Some severe storms are possible in Texas by Wednesday.

The storm will get strong, so winds will become an issue, too. As the storm lumbers northeastward toward the Great Lakes Thursday, snow, ice and wind will continue in the northern Plains, with a large area of rain across the Midwest.

All this will spread into the Northeast Friday. Northern New England faces some ice on Thursday night and early Friday before everything goes over to rain.

There won't be as much rain as in last Friday's storm, so any flooding that does happen will be less severe and much less widespread than it was over the weekend.

This upcoming cross-country storm is sure to create flight delays, so check with your airlines before you head to the airport if your departure or destination happens to be in the storm zone when you're flying.

Here in New England, some light snow will fall in central and southern parts of the region today, but it won't amount to much. Maybe an inch or two, with less than that the further north you go.

Christmas Day will feature a lot of sun with seasonably cold temperatures across New England. That gives us highs in the 20s north, near 30 central and in the 30s south. Wednesday and Thursday also look good before the ickiness arrives Thursday night across New England.