What a difference a few hours make!  We've had about 4 inches of new snow (whoopee for skiers and boarders!) that turned to freezing rain, and now seems to have tapered off.  The temperature is 30 degrees and there's a wind, but my wind gauge is frozen, of course, so I don't know what direction it's coming from.  It's stuck on "west."  Conditions like this are a little scary because there is a good possibility trees that become iced over will take out power lines.  So far, so good, though, and the temperature is supposed to rise into the 40s today.

Two accidents at Burke Mountain yesterday, one skier killed when he lost control on the Big Dipper; another had an injury, but I don't know how severe.  I happened to hear both calls on my scanner. 

Fred is out snow blowing, for only about the third time all winter.  This is heavy, wet snow and the blower (and Fred) have to work extra hard to take care of it, but both seem to be doing well so far.  Woody and I watched from the window for a little while, but then it didn't seem fair to be so comfortable inside while Fred was working hard, so we are both otherwise occupied, now - Woody is sleeping on his bench in the living room.  I went outside to do CoCoRaHS so I can send off measurements of snow amounts and water content.  We have a solid 4 inches of new snow, compacted by the sleet and rain and with a pretty firm crust on top.  I measured .47 in. of precipitation in the measuring tube and a core sample yielded .37 in.  Other measurements throughout Vermont this morning are Sheffield with 4.5 in.,  Waterbury and Waitsfield both reporting 4 inches new snow, and everyone else much less.  Nobody has much on the ground, but this will help.  I noticed the wind seems to be out of the south at a pretty good clip.  As the temperature continues to rise today, my wind gauge will begin working again, I expect.

It's a dreary day - the picture at the top of this page was taken this morning through our big picture window that was mostly covered with ice.