Monday, March 7, 2011

Biggest Snowstorm in Vermont since '07!

A man skis along South Union Street in Burlington Monday morning.
From the Burlington Free Press


UPDATE: 9:15 a.m. Monday
Yep, this will be a memorable storm, one of the most intense to hit the Champlain Valley on record.
It’s still snowing, but so far, Burlington has gotten 21 inches of snow as of  9 a.m. or so, making this the 6th greatest snowstorm on record. And we might add a few more inches to move it up in the rankings. Underhill has the most so far with 24 inches, according to the latest National Weather Service list of snow totals. but I’m sure we’ll get updates with even more.
So far, Burlington is now up to 119.5 inches of snow for the season, or the fifth snowiest winter on record. We might move up in those rankings, too.
As of 9 a.m, the snow is beginning to taper off a little from its intense levels earlier this morning. I was shoveling snow, or trying to, in a full blizzard in St. Albans this morning (18 inches so far)
The snow is not wet, but it’s very dense, much like that of the Valentine’s Day blizzard of 2007. There’s a lot of water in that snow. Which could contribute to flooding problems later this spring.
By my reckoning, looking at the precipitation totals out of Burlington, if you melt down the snow that fell in the Queen City, you get a little over two inches of rain. That’s a bit more than in the Valentine’s Day blizzard.
About as much precipitation fell in this storm as we should normally expect for all of March.
The snow will continue to slowly wind down during the morning. The roads will remain atrocious, as snow plows are continuing to struggle with keeping up the falling snow and blowing snow. A lot of cars are stuck in the snow, and the advice I keep hearing is, just stay home and don’t even bother trying to drive anywhere....
In southern Vermont, the problem has been freezing rain. There’s a full-fledged ice storm going on in some areas south of Rutland and White River Junction.
The freezing rain down there has been enough to cave in trees and powerlines, and right now, a rising number of people are in the dark.
By evening, most of the precipitation will be out of Vermont, so you have that to look forward to. That, and days and days of shoveling snow.

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