First shovelable snow for many fell Thursday - FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports

Well, that was fun! For many, the first shovelable snowfall of the season! For me? The first time I got to dust off the winter weather advisory graphic and the old snow-measuring stick!

Snow start for some by late morning as very light snowfall, only accumulating on the grassy surfaces to a dusting or so. As a strong cold front sags southward into southern Quebec, the radar blossomed  as the leading edge of cold, arctic air ran in to relatively warmer and more moist, unstable air across our region. The radar blossomed around 2pm as a wide band of snow developed along and surrounding the front.  This pushed southward through the afternoon and evening, stalling over northern NY and northern VT for the better part of the evening. Southern VT really didn't see any action until after 9pm.

Snow totals were highest over the mountainous terrain of northern NY and northern VT with totals of 3-6" rather common.  Many reports of 1-3" also showed up according to your Facebook posts on the Fox 44 Local News Facebook page (and my own!). Some lower amounts were observed at the time I posted this blog, a light coating or less for all in southern VT and southern NH. (See a handful of snow reports, left).

I was able to dust off my meter stick to do some measuring. 2" for our grand total at the studio in Colchester, VT! Wa-hoo! That's about ½ the amount of our "biggest" snowfall all last season! Keep it coming, I say!

As for Burlington, this was the second measurable snowfall for the season (the other only occurring this past Monday morning). The grand total at Burlington International Airport was 2.9", bringing the season total now up to 3.8".

Alright-time to verify! That wasn't a total hit, but it also wasn't a total miss for our Fox 44/ABC 22 Forecast. We were anticipating snow squalls with 1-3" of snow common, especially over central and northern VT, with localized amounts of 4-5" over the mountains. The forecast timing was right on track, with an estimated start of 3-4pm north, and 9-10pm south, ending around 10pm north, and around 2am south. For timing, I'd say it was a direct hit, actually, which is always nice to be able to say. The impacts weren't exactly as I'd expected. I had expected snow squalls...more of a brief, heavy band of snowfall (see yesterday's blog on that topic), within a wider batch of lighter snowfall. Instead, it turned out to be a longer lived wide batch of moderate snow for much of the forecast timeframe. This resulted in fairly accurate snow totals, with more of a gradual accumulation, rather than heavy bursts/banded features. There were definitely some heavy bursts and gusty winds out there with Thursday night's snowfall.  I will let you do the judging on overall accuracy (post below!). Also compare this to the compilation of snow reports from across our region from the Burlington National Weather Service office and the Gray, Maine office.

As for the weather service offices, they, too were anticipating similar snow totals, but re-assessed during Thursday early evening as the snow proved light and fluffy enough to accumulate quickly. They issues a winter weather advisory for the higher terrain of northern NY and northern VT at around 8:20pm, set to expire at 4am.