Vermont is expecting a wintry mix this weekend, including widespread rain that could become freezing rain in the eastern part of the state Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.
Here's a one-stop list of websites you'll want to keep bookmarked this winter:
Essential online resources
- Keep up to date on weather forecasts with the Eye on the Sky from the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium.
- For even more weather updates, refer to the National Weather Service's Burlington site or Albany, New York site, depending on your location.
- Vermont 211 can point you to many community resources, including cold weather shelters .
- You can find a statewide power outage map here.
- Take care with your health. The Vermont Department of Health has tips on clearing snow, preventing frostbite and hypothermia, and more. (On that webpage, you'll also find essential winter information translated into Nepali, French, Arabic, Burmese and several other languages.)
- Vermont Public posts school closures and delays here.
- Traffic and road conditions for state roads are listed on New England 511. (For local roads, look at Waze or monitor town communications, such as a website or Facebook page.)
- Wondering how recently the interstate was plowed? You can track the location of state plow trucks here.
- You can sign up for alerts from the state at vtalert.gov.
- Vermont Emergency Management has tips for power outages, such as checking on older neighbors, never touching downed or damaged powerlines, having flashlights, a crank radio and extra batteries on hand, making sure your carbon monoxide detectors work and filling your bathtub with water for flushing toilets and washing (though not for drinking).
Some generator guidelines
For those who do lose power, here's a little generator 101 from Jim Brochhausen, who owns Brook Field Service in Northfield. He told Vermont Public in 2023 that if you have an automatic standby generator, these are some things to keep in mind:
- Make sure your fuel tanks are full. If you run out of fuel and need an emergency delivery, particularly if it comes on a Sunday, that can be very expensive. And if there are trees down, fuel trucks might not make it to your house.
- It's a good idea to test your generator. On a nice day, just turn it on and make sure it's ready to go. If you have an issue, don't wait for the power outage to call your generator service company.
- If the battery in your generator dies, do not try to jumpstart it like you would a car.
- Have a professional service your generator at least once a year.
If you have a gasoline-powered portable generator, Brochhausen has these tips:
- Safety first: make sure you never run the generator inside, even if it's in a garage with the door open. Carbon monoxide is very deadly. Instead, run it outside, 10 feet away from windows and doors, with the exhaust pointed away from the building.
- It’s important that the house has a manual transfer switch so the generator doesn’t backfeed to the power grid. Some folks try to take shortcuts, which can be dangerous, particularly for line workers who are working to get power back on in your neighborhood.
- Do not use ethanol gasoline in portable generators. They're small engines, and they need to run on premium gas; ethanol will ruin the generator over time. Plan ahead to address your fuel needs during a power outage.
With any kind of generator, try to be conservative with your electricity use when it’s on.
