Those Snow Squalls Wednesday Were Big, Photogenic

ABC7 in New York captured this dramatic image of a snow squall
blowing into Manhattan Wednesday. 

As expected, Wednesday was a busy day for snow squalls in the Northeast, including here in Vermont.

Snow squalls can be dangerous, for sure, but they are pretty cool in that they are in and out so quick, and in such a dramatic fashion.  For proof, look at the the time lapse videos of a squall in New York City yesterday.  

National Weather Service offices in the Northeast issued at least 46 different snow squall warnings, notes meteorologist Jonathan Erdman (@wxjerdman) on Twitter. The NWS office in South Burlington issued six of those snow squall warnings in northern New York and Vermont.

I got a NWS Burlington warning for one of those snow squalls as I was driving north in Interstate 89 in Georgia Wednesday afternoon, and I could see it coming at me in the form of a very black cloud. I decided, wisely, to pull off the Interstate just as it was sweeping in. I took the Georgia exit and waited it out in a convenience store parking lot with my two dogs with me in the truck.

Visibility went to zero, but the squall passed in less than 10 minutes and we were on our way back home again. In this round of snow squalls, I'm not aware of any serious pileups or traffic backups because of the weather on Vermont highways.

Rare for December convective clouds spitting out snow squalls
Wednesday as seen from St. Albans, Vermont. 

The squalls took a tragic turn on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, though, as a 20-vehicle pileup in a whiteout killed two people in White Deer Township, the Associated Press reported. 

Elsewhere, the upper lanes of the George Washington Bridge in the New York metro area shut down for 45 minutes at rush hour due to the snow squalls and the need to remove ice from the bridge left behind by those squalls.  

As most of you have surely noticed, the coldest air of the young winter season swept in behind the squalls and Arctic cold front. Here in Vermont, Burlington  had its first subzero reading of the seasoin this morning as it got down to minus 1.  Saranac Lake, New York was down to 13 below.

Pretty much everybody in Vermont was below zero this morning with wind chills in the minus teens in most spots. Wind Chill Advisories were in effect this morning.

It will only slowly warm up through Friday before a somewhat more dramatic warmup hits by the weekend. Highs then will be in the 30s to near 40.

For those doing their Christmas errands, there are no storms (or snow squalls) on the horizon at least into early next week.

Here's a couple time lapses videos of a big snow squall hitting New York City:



This one has a few time lapses, not just one:



I  can't get enough of these. Here's the area around the George Washington Bridge disappearing in a snow squall, the emerging from it whiter than before: