Updated at 5:21 p.m.
More than 5,800 Vermonters remained without power as of 5 p.m. Friday following an early spring snowstorm that began Wednesday evening and continued into Friday morning.
It’s a decrease from the more than 11,000 customers who were without power just before noon that day. Although the main part of the snowstorm was over, some lingering showers were expected to continue Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
“We’re not looking at too much (snow) in terms of additional accumulation. Maybe an inch or two through the next few days,” Matthew Clay, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Burlington office, said Friday morning.
Windsor and Orange counties had the bulk of the remaining outages, with about 2,500 and 1,400 customers affected, respectively, according to VTOutages, a website that tracks power outages across the state.
Since storm-related outages began Wednesday afternoon, 72,000 Green Mountain Power customers have had power restored. The company expected most customers to have their power back by Friday or Saturday, according to spokesperson Kristin Carlson.
“The power companies have been working through the night, and they’re making some headway,” said Clay, the meteorologist. “So it, you know, could be a multiday restoration-type effort.”
Clay said the wet and heavy conditions of this snowfall could have exacerbated difficulties with power restoration. Lugging the necessary equipment to restore power through it can make the task of restoring power back even more difficult, he said.
“The wet snow definitely makes it harder on the trees and powerlines just because it becomes very sticky and very heavy, kind of like freezing rain,” Clay said. “You know, once you get a little bit of the coating on there it just kind of continues to build.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: More than 5,800 Vermonters without power Friday afternoon following snowstorm .