Snow Squalls Moving Through Vermont Late This Afternoon; Be Careful

Very dark clouds in the distance looking west from St. Albans,
Vermont earlier this afternoon as snow squalls gathered
steam and headed toward Vermont. It snowed hard in St. Albans
about 90 minutes after this photo was taken. 

Snow squalls along an Arctic front were moving through Vermont late this afternoon. They were in the Champlain Valley as of 4:15 p.m. and heading east.  

Do know that visibility will go down to near zero during these brief but intense episodes and roads quickly slicken up. If you can wait to drive until after the snow squalls pass, that would be good.

Much of the Northeast has been subjected to lines of snow squalls today with that Arctic cold front.

This is probably one of the most extensive instances of snow squalls I've seen in quite some time. These are more like outbreaks of severe summer thunderstorms, except this time it's snow.

The squalls have already caused a huge highway crash in Pennsylvania, with at least 25 injuries.

These squalls will quickly move away later tonight as the frigid air flows in.

The exception is along the snowbelts in western New York, where blizzard warnings are in effect. Three to four FEET of snow is expected in some of the worst hit areas near Watertown, New York.

At 4 p.m. today, the visibility in Buffalo, New York was at absolutely zero. with very heavy snow, blowing snow, a temperature of 0 degrees and winds gusting to 39 mph.  Yeah, that's bad.

The National Weather Service in Buffalo has declared their blizzard as a "particularly dangerous situation," verbiage only used when a weather event is extreme, like a tornado or something.

Says the Buffalo NWS: "Blinding snow and whiteout conditions are occurring. A casual drive or trip outsie can quickly lead to a life threatening situations without proper winter gear. Please heed all travel bans." 

Even back here in Vermont, where the snow squalls are much more brief, it's best just to stay in this evening if you can.