(Host) Just as the flowers were blooming and the leaves were coming out on the trees, Vermont and the region got hammered by a late-season snowstorm.
Even National Weather Service meteorologist Jessica Nieles thought we were done with winter.
(Nieles) "At the end of April to have almost our whole forecast area have a significant snowfall event, it’s pretty unusual."
(Host) Temperatures have been above normal for most of March and April. There hasn’t been much snow at all since almost 13 inches fell on February 24th.
But the storm totals over the past two days easily surpassed that. In Underhill, Jericho and Jeffersonville, as well as on the slopes of Mount Mansfield, two feet piled up.
In northern New York, Dannemora got 19.5 inches. The snow was heaviest in the north, but there was also almost six inches in Landgrove and five inches in Woodford. They’re both in Bennington County.
A combination of factors allowed so much snow to develop, including cold temperatures from Canada and a front that pulled moisture from the ocean.
The snow was heavy and wet, which pulled branches onto power lines. So thousands of Vermonters lost their electricity. At this hour, more than eleven-thousand people are waiting for the power to be restored.
Jessica Nieles at the National Weather Service says all of this will soon be a memory.
(Nieles) "It’ll be gone fast. We’ve got temperatures tomorrow should be in the lower 50s and then on Friday mid 60s. Saturday probably mid 70s. So it’s not going to last."
(Host) A lot of significant storms in the past have gotten nicknames, such as the Valentine’s Day blizzard a few years ago.
VPR listeners have had fun today coming up with names for this one, including the "Daffodil Storm" and the "Maypril Fool’s Day Storm."
If you’d like to see some of the suggestions, and some photos of the weather, you can go to VPR.net or visit VPR’s Facebook page. You can leave your own ideas for naming the storm as well.