Juno is still making its presence known, but Newtown does not look like it will be buried under 30 inches of snow.

The National Weather Service had predicted on Sunday and Monday, January 25-26, that the snowstorm still dropping snow on Newtown this morning would bring up to 35 inches of snow. A Blizzard Warning that went into effect for the entire state at 1 pm Monday remains in effect for much of the state.

Newtown, however, along with the rest of Fairfield County, has been downgraded to a Winter Storm Warning. New York counties to the west of Connecticut and parts of northern New Jersey are included in the Winter Storm Warning, which is to be active until midnight.

Connecticut’s seven remaining counties are still under a Blizzard Warning, active until 1 am Wednesday. Juno is moving to the east faster than expected, resulting in much less snow than previously predicted for this region. The heaviest of the snow will be over Long Island and southern Connecticut, according to NWS, with lighter snow elsewhere through the morning hours.

Newtown residents are waking up to snow this morning. A travel ban that went into effect Monday night at 9 pm was lifted for Fairfield and Litchfield counties was lifted by the governer during a press conference Tuesday morning.

Town and state road crews began working to clear roadways by early Monday afternoon. Trucks are still being seen making regular passes, trying to keep up with the continuing precipitation. 

While there were the expected minor incidents on roadways as people worked their way home Monday night, no major accidents were reported in town.

Snow continues to fall steadily, but it does not appear that the 8-12 inches that had been predicted have arrived.

Widespread blowing snow will remain in the area today, but it is not accumulating to more than the 8-12 inches of snow that were expected to arrive during the Monday overnight.

Today’s forecast has also been ratcheted down. Instead of the 7-11 additional inches of snow for Newtown and the area that had been predicted a day earlier, NWS is this morning predicting new snow accumulations of 3-5 inches. Up to one additional inch of snow may arrive during Tuesday’s overnight hours.

Temperatures will remain below the freezing point today, with NWS saying Newtown will have a high of 21 degrees. Wind chill values will be between 0-10, however, thanks to blustery north winds of 15-21 mph. Gusts may move as high as 36 mph during the day.

Light snow is “likely” for Tuesday night, according to NWS, with areas of blowing snow before midnight and then areas of blowing snow and a “slight chance” of light snow between midnight and 3 am. New snow accumulation will amount to less than one inch.

Temperatures will still be cold during the overnight, of course, with lows around 8 degrees, and wind chill values between -5 and 5 thanks for a north wind of 9-11 mph. Gusts may be as high as 26 mph, the weather service is predicting.

While the storm is far from over, today’s predictions are much better than what Fairfield County residents had been looking at yesterday.  

Governor Dannel P. Malloy will offer his first press conference of the day at 8:30 am from the state’s Emergency Operations Center. The Bee will offer an update following that event.

The National Weather Service Tuesday morning issued something of a mea culpa on its Facebook page, saying in part that “the science of forecasting storms, while continually improving, still can be subject to error, especially if we’re on the edge of the heavy precipitation shield.

“Efforts, including research, are already underway to more easily community that forecast uncertainty.”