It wasn't the 18 inches we were promised, but it was a lot. Westport was covered in a blanket of snow last night 8 to 10 inches deep.Â
The snow showers didn't begin at noon, as forecast. Even though the radar was showing snow in our area, the air was too dry for precipitation. The flakes started coming down around 7 pm and continued through the night.Â
The plows have been out in force and most of the main roads were clear by this morning.
Find out what's happening in Westportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The storm didn't cause much trouble at all.
"It's been very quiet today," said Lt. Jerry Shannon. No accidents, no power
outages. It was the same story last night, when the snow was coming down.
"Because the snow hit much later than we expected," said Shannon, "everyone
was home."
Jacob Meisel, Westport Patch's resident weather officionado, explained why, exactly, the snow arrived seven hours after it was supposed to."It was actually snowing all day. It was just snowing above us and evaporating before it hit the
ground."
This phenomenon is called "virga" and happens when the humidity is
very low, as was the case yesterday when it registered just 15%. Without the
virga, Westport might have seen an extra inch or two of accumulation.
Meisel is currently monitoring a large outbreak which could hit on Christmas
day. This one might not be so pretty. The predictions are for it to start as
snow, then change over to wintry mix and rain before turning back into snow
-- producing a whole lot of slush.
It should be a white Christmas — kind of.
