This Time Of Year, Temperatures Are Usually All Over The Place

Cold and gloomy early this morning in St. Albans, Vermont.
Temperatures before dawn ranged from near 32 at Canadian 
border to near 60 by the Massachusetts border. 
Temperatures will continue to swing wildly over the
next few days, which is common this time of year, 

 Before dawn today, temperatures were either cold or balmy, depending on where you are. 

At 5 a.m. it was 34 degrees in Burlington. Ice is underfoot closer to the Canadian border.  Meanwhile, it was 61 in Bennington. In between readings were in the 40s and 50s. 

Depending on where you are today in Vermont, you'll need your tired old winter coat or that cute new spring lightweight sweater  you just bought. 

Yesterday, it was more of the same. In far southern Vermont was actually sort of humid, with springlike showers and thunderstorms. 

Up in the far north, yesterday ended up overcast, dark, foggy, drizzly and cold, the temperatures having dropped to chilly levels shortly after midnight

In the middle of the state, most of Vermont, really  it either stayed mild into early today, or it was still on the warm side. 

The relative warmth combined with rain that's been melting the mountain snow has created sharp rises along the rivers of Vermont .  Most have stayed within their banks, but a flood warning was in effect along the Walloomsac River in Bennington County for minor flooding. The warning has since expired. 

 Looking over the past week, we have seen the same the same big temperature swings. It was 58 degrees on March 26, then we endured a couple days in the 30s. 

By Monday, it was back up to 68 degrees in Burlington. Dry south winds created perfect conditions for brush fire starts, and they certainly got going in a couple places. A brush fire on Monday in Ferrisburgh, burned through more than 100 acres, which is unusual for a Vermont fire, It took about 75 firefighters several hours to put out the flags. 

Another, much smaller brush fire in Waterbury on Monday was also extinguished.

WILD SWINGS CONTINUE :

These wild swings in temperature are because Vermont is usually near the border between frigid winter air in Canada and balmy air across  the southern United States. The contrast is usually greatest from mid-March to mid April, give or take. 

Ma Nature doesn't celebrate April Fool's Day. It celebrates April Fools Month. 

By April Fools Day, spring hasn't usually made many inroads across most of Canada In the central and southern U.S., it's hard core spring. When the front essentially separating winter an spring pass over Vermont, which is frequently, the weather goes wild.

Every once in awhile, this can create big disruptive, damaging storms in Vermont. That's not the case this time, which is great news.

For the next couple of days, it'll be on the cool side, especially north. 

An approaching warm front could spread a little rain in the warmer areas, and a little ice mainly east of the Green Mountains. The National Weather Service is toying with the idea of issuing a winter weather advisory for that potential ice Thursday night and early Friday, 

They'll wait for a little more data to come in before deciding whether to trigger such an advisory,

By Friday, temperatures should reach the low 60s across many areas of Vermont, so if we do get any ice from freezing rain, it'll disappear fast. The warm front's parent storm will pass far to our north and west. It won't really be able to pull down much of that cold air from Canada. 

Which means for now, it looks like it'll be a springlike weekend. Springlike means a risk of showers, of course. The warm temperatures and the rain will make rivers rise again. But just like yesterday, no flooding is expected. 

There's also a wrinkle. There's always a wrinkle, Some forecasts keep Saturday and Sunday in the 40s, so we'll have to keep an on it. 

Variable weather is hard to predict sometimes. 

By early next week, it'll be breezy and chilly once again and the Canadian air will flood back in. It is April, so daytime highs next week should get into the low or mid 40s.  

I'm Back! Here's Why I Went Missing For A Few Days. It Ain't Pretty

A strange, intense bug has kept me away from this blog or the
past few days, but I'm finally starting to feel better, so 
hopefully I'll soon be releasing as many posts
as I usually do,   

 For the first time in many years I was too sick to post on this here blog thingy It's some sort of virus, apparently, but it was an immensely strange one.

It started Friday night. We'd gone to the Vermont Comedy Club and we had a great time. But toward the end of the night, my abdominal muscles were seizing up and spasming. Something was wrong.

This kind of thing happens to be occasionally once every few months  I call them stomach attacks. Usually, I have a rough night, and by the next day, everything is fine. 

Not this time. 

I ended up sleeping for nearly two days - right through Saturday and most of Sunday.  I didn't eat during that time either. 

The pain was weird. My stomach /hurt, which is what you'd expect  But my thighs were also quite painful.  And my nipples. I'm like, what the hell!   

The stomach pain has decreased in intensity and those other pains are gone. But now my lower back, right knee and of all things the big toe on my right foot hurts.

On the few occasions I got up my feet, I felt unsteady.  My surroundings felt muffled and blurry, as if I   was experiencing the world through a dirty window pane.,

Needless to say, my extreme fatigue and my inability to focus have kept me away from this blog. I am feeling somewhat better. At least I'm eating a little and am no longer in bed 24/7.  But I still much more than the eight hours of sleep I usually get. Since I'm not at full strength yet posts here might temporarily be less frequent than usual for awhile.

I'm seeing a physician tomorrow, so no need for any diagnosis from anybody 

I just really appreciate all my readers who have been patiently waiting for me to report on anything after all these days

I swear the next post will be about climate and weather, 

Trump Bribes Company $1 Billion To Stop Offshore Wind

Maybe he hates offshore wind projects because breezes
mess up his hair? In any event, Trump, having lost
court battles to stop offshore wind installations,
has resorted to basically bribery with taxpayer dollars.

As we've talked about here a few times, Donald Trump hates wind generation. Especially offshore wind. 

He tried new anti-offshore wind regulations and pronouncements, only to be repeatedly shot down by the courts. So, Trump has gone straight to corruption. He's now successfully stopped an offshore wind installation with what amounts to a $1 billion bribe. 

Here it is from CNN:

"The Trump administration announced it will pay nearly $1 billion to French energy giant TotalEnergies in exchange for the company abandoning plans to build offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean and instead pursue fossil fuel project in the U.S." 

Yes, that's 'your tax dollars not at work. Trump is using tax revenue - and a lot of it to - pay somebody to not do something. 

It's not a direct raid on the treasury. Instead the Trump administration is paying back TotalEnergies for federal leases it bought during the Biden administration. So the money Biden raked in for the federal government is getting pissed away all because wind turbines are against Trump's aesthetics. 

The Trump gang has already stopped approving federal permits for renewable energy projects. That move killed offshore wind projects that were in early development. 

This goes against the wishes of numerous clean energy companies and several state governments. Those entities think offshore wind is a win-win: It generates badly needed electricity while also avoids the fossil fuels that contribute to ever-worsening climate change crisis. 

The more recent bribe, as I insist on calling it,  ries to make sure companies can't continue building under any future administration that has a friendlier attitude toward offshore wind, as CNN reports. 

In any event, Trump's bribe means 4 gigawatts of electricity will not be generated for houses and businesses in the U.S. 

TotalEnergies doesn't even get to decide how to spend the bribe money. To keep the Orange One happy, the company will develop a new liquified gas plant in Texas that will help export U.S. LNG overseas to Europe, per their agreement with the Trump administration.   

The company will also do some oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. and shale oil projects elsewhere in the U.S. 

Burn that fossil fuel, baby!  103 degrees during March in Kansas isn't nearly hot enough. Gotta get that climate really boiling. 

The deal is "an outrageous misuses of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it the most," said Ted Kelly of the Environmental Defense Fund.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says offshore wind is "one of the most expensive" forms of energy and is only produced when wind is blowing. I guess he never heard of batteries that store electricity and keep the juice flowing until the wind blows again. Which it almost always does in the wide open ocean. 

It's true offshore wind power is expensive because it's, well, offshore. But wind has no fuel costs. And CNN points out that states negotiate set power price agreements with offshore wind producers that don't fluctuate like natural gas and oil does. 

As with every stunt Trump and his minions pull, I see lawsuits coming with this. 

Canarymedia com explains:

"....offshore wind experts said that no process exists for Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)  to return the funds it collects from leasing federally controlled waters.

'There are significant questions about under what authority Interior is doing this,' said Elizabeth Klein, who led BOEM from 2023 to 2025 during the Biden administration"

 This Orange Briberymight  create broader problems beyond encouraging fossil fuel consumption, which can only worsen climate change. As NPR points out:

"Industry analysts say the agreement threatens to undermine business confidence in the United States by exerting unprecedented executive power to influence the private sector,"

Back in the day, like it or not, Republicans preferred to leave business alone. Let them do their thing with a little regulation or government interference as possible. So much for that. MAGA has turned that on its head. 

NPR's reporting goes on to explain that by stopping projects he doesn't like, Trump risks messing up infrastructure spending across the economy, not just in offshore wind. The uncertainty this creates could make infrastructure projects move more slowly and become expensive. 

The uncertainly goes into fossil fuel plant and oil production projects, which Trump keeps telling us he loves so much.

"When you're building a power plant or thinking about oil production, you're thinking not just about the current administration, you're thinking about the next couple of decades.....And the pendulum swing is a real policy risk," said Timothy Fox of ClearView Energy Partners. 

All this is one of Trump's few "skills."  His chaos causes so much uncertainty that investors, companies, and just regular people don't know what the next best course of action is.  Ultimately, nothing gets done.

Except Trump and his oligarch friends get ever more richer at our expense.   

We're Now In What Might Well Be The Last True Winter Cold Spell Of The Season

Interesting radar image from yesterday as light rain
covered most of the area. The "hole" in the rain near
and south of Burlington lingered for hours. Moisture
coming in from the west was blocked by the Adirondacks.
leaving a dry spot in the Champlain Valley.

As we expected, the spring warmth of yesterday is gone and t's cold here once again in Vermont.

The transition to the colder weather started out unevenly yesterday and created some sort of interesting moments. 

There was actually two cold fronts. The first originated as a warm front that stalled over southern Quebec It worked its way back southward as a cold front during Thursday afternoon and abruptly ended the brief warm spell in the far north. 

In Highgate, a temperature of 56 degrees at 12:30 p.m. Thursday was own to 45 by 2:30 p.m.. Elsewhere in northern and central Vermont, it took until very late afternoon or early evening to get much chillier. 

While all that was going on, whatever moisture there was came streaming in from the west. Nobody in central and northern Vermont got all that much rain, with amounts near a quarter inch, give or take.  

But if you looked at radar returns there was a "hole" near and south of Burlington most of the afternoon and evening were pretty much no rain was falling. The Adirondacks were blocking the moisture coming in. So rainfall dried up in the Champlain Valley, but resumed in the Green Mountains when the air was forced to rise up the slopes, wringing out a little rain. 

It looks like only far southern Vermont got substantial precipitation. Bennington reported a decent 0.61 inches.  

Overnight, the second and strongest cold front blasted through. even found evidence on my truck and the trees around my St. Albans home that we got a little bit of freezing rain late last night. 2Now it's temporarily winter again. 

LAST COLD SPELL?

As of 7 a.m. today, temperatures across Vermont were solidly below freezing except in the far south. Stiff north winds were holding wind chill in the teens. It won't get above freezing in most of the state today. 

Tonight will be down in the single number and low teens for the most part. Saturday stays below freezing, too, in much of Vermont. Saturday night will be cold, too, but not quite as bad as tonight. 

After that, fingers crossed, this might be the last truly wintry cold spell until, well next winter. There will still be frigid air lurking in central and northern Canada, but I don't think it will able to make any kind of strong push into our neck of the wood next week, or the week after. Then, by mid-April, it's usually too late to get wintry. 

Sure, it can get cold and snowy after mid-April, but not as if you're in the depths of winter cold and snowy. 

It looks like we'll have an active weather pattern, though, with frequent chances of April showers. It remains to be seen how much rain we'll actually get, as at this stage of the game, results vary when you look at the various forecasting models. 

Temperatures should recover from the cold spell by Sunday afternoon, as temperatures rise into the 40s. Readings will bounce around after that as warm and cold fronts sail through New England.  At this point, next Wednesday looks like the warmest day, with highs in the 50s to low 60s. A few models take us well into the 60s. We shall see!  

The King Of Tough Winters Outdid Itself This Year. Fairbanks, Alaska Endured Most Extreme Chill In 60 Years.

A scene from Fairbanks, Alaska, this past
winter. Yeah, they're crazy up there.
This past winter, and through March
so far, has been among the coldest
on record there. This in a city that's'
already insanely cold in the winter,

Alaska winters are always more challenging than they are in most of the Lower 48, and this winter has really made Alaskans suffer. 

If you wanted a frigid endurance test this winter, Fairbanks was your city. 

Fairbanks is pretty much right in the middle of Alaska. Frigid air settles in there, and it gets to 40 below most winters. Sometimes 50 below. One time, in 1934, it was 66 below in Fairbanks. 

Obviously, it takes a special breed to live there. This winter, I imagine some members of that special breed want to call it quits on Fairbanks. The intense cold was just unrelenting. 

THE STATS

December was a whopping 18.5 degrees colder than average, with a mean temperature of, ugh, 22.8 below. People in Fairbanks woke up to 12 days in the minus 40s that month. 

January was a welcome "break" for Fairbanks as it was only 6.1 degrees colder than average with a mean temperature of minus 14.4. It did get down to minus 50 on January 4 though. That day had a lovely high temperature of 46 below. 

February also wasn't super cold, either, at least by Fairbanks standards. However, February was also the wettest and second snowiest February on record in Fairbanks, with 38.7 inches of snow. Precipitation melted down amounted to 2.53 inches. 

All sorts of records and near-records were set with this intense Fairbanks winter, according to the National Weather Service office there, which released this statement:.

"With Fairbanks having record 52 days at or below -30F;  31 days at or below -40F and 66 days where temperatures did not get above 0F, the average temperature from December 1st through March 22nd sits at -14.7 degrees. This marks the 2nd coldest ever such period in Fairbanks history since 1904, the coldets the interior (central Alaska) has seen in 60 years (since 1966) showing just how cold not only this winter has been but alls the start of spring."

Those 31 days at or below minus 40 is the fourth most on record. 

Tuesday was also the 144th day in a row that stayed below freezing. That's the second longest such stretch on record and the longest since the winter of 1971-72.

Fairbanks is usually a very dry place in the winter. When extreme cold settles in, it's even drier, with very little snow during the course of the season. Not this winter. The heavy snow in February was just part of the story. 

Fairbanks has had 92.6 inches of snow so far this season, a respectable 12th  most on record. The deepest snow depth this winter was 38 inches. which is the 14th deepest on record. 

Warmer times are coming to Fairbanks, finally. By next week, high temperatures should be in the low 30s with lows in the single digits. That might seem horrible for April, but for Fairbanks, that's exactly average for this time of year.  

OTHER CITIES AND BUCKING A TREND

Other Alaskan cities have had a tough go of it, too. 

Juneau, Alaska endured 82 inches of inches of snow during December, nearly 50 inches of it in the final five days of the month. over just a week or so in late December. Juneau reached a new snowy milestone this week,   Snowfall for the season there reached a whopping 201.2 inches, the most on record. 

Anchorage, Alaska has had at least 20 inches of snow on the ground since January 27. This month, through Wednesday, March 24 is running 13.1 degrees colder than normal. Through Wednesday, it hadn't been above freezing since February 6, 

Normal high temperature in Anchorage this time of year are in the mid-30s, and the city usually has a handful of above freezing temperatures every month of the year.  It's finally forecast to get above freezing in Anchorage Sunday or Monday.

 This winter has been an anomaly in Alaska. Under the sinister spell of climate change, pPaces closer to the North Pole have been warming much faster than mid-latitudes under. The period from December 1 to March 22 this year is the second coldest on record.

Last year, in 2024-25, that same period was the absolute warmest on record in Fairbanks. Anchorage also had an unusually warm winter in 2024-25

One Day Of Spring Today In Vermont Before Winter Returns For A Two-Day Visit

Much of the snow that fell last week on my yard
had melted by this morning. Most of the rest should
go today under mild southerly breezes along
with a little late day rain. 

March and April tend to bring wildly variable weather across Vermont on a given day, and yesterday was sort of that way. 

A weather front was draped across the state yesterday. As expected, this created a fairly wide temperature difference across Vermont. 

On the Canadian border, it was in the mid-30s most of the afternoon, while southern Vermont valleys reached the low 50s. Again, that was in line with forecasts.

Overnight, the front moved north, dropping a few rain drops and maybe some mountain snowflakes.

TODAY

The front is stalling out just north of the border. The temperature contrast on either side of the front is still sharp, but now it's mostly southern Quebec's problem. Highgate, Vermont, right on the Canadian border was at 43 degrees at 8 a.m today. Montreal, just 50 miles north as the crow flies, was at 25 degrees.

The fact that front is so close to Vermont will mean we'll still see a pretty big temperature variation today. 

Right up by the Canadian border, it should get into the upper 40s, to possibly near 50. By the time you get down to Burlington, it should top out in the mid 50s.  The warmest valleys in far southern Vermont could make it into the mid 60s.  For the record, the warm front should get close enough to Montreal so that they get to about 40 degrees. 

Also, the further north you go, the cloudier it will get, too.  

It should be mostly dry until mid to late afternoon, when rain will increase as our cold front approaches. 

TONIGHT

The bulk of the rain should come through during the first half of the night. As has so often been the case this winter and early spring, forecasters have at nearly the last moment cut back on the amount of precipitation we're going to get. 

Northern areas should only see a tenth to a third of an inch of rain, because a small storm riding in tandem with, but just south of the cold front is going further south than expected. That means far southern Vermont should still see the previously expected half inch or so of rain.

The lighter expected rain is a bit of a disappointment. Yes, yes, I know, it's awfully wet and squishy underfoot, this being mud season and all.  But we could have used more snow and rain over the winter. 

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, hot off the presses this morning,  continues to show moderate drought in the Northeast Kingdom and abnormally dry conditions across southern Vermont. 

Vermont had its 10th driest February on record, according to NOAA. Since many storms were smaller than expected in March, the month will turn out to be a little on the dry side for most of Vermont. Overall precipitation during the earlier parts of winter were just, well, whelming. Just kind of meh. 

It's good that rainfall wasn't excessive in March, that would have led to flooding, but a little more rain than we received would have been better. 

I'm actually hoping for a really wet April to saturate the ground before trees leaf out and start really pulling moisture from the soil.  I know we want a nice sunny spring, but as Lynn Anderson sang, "along with the sunshine, there's gotta be a little rain sometime."

COLD SNAP

It's just as good, though, that we won't have a lot of precipitation tomorrow, Saturday and into Sunday, because if we did, it would be unwelcome snow. 

We might see a little snow at the tail end of our overnight cold front, but by morning, you'll see at most a thin dusting of snow.

The forecast for the cold weather Friday and Saturday hasn't changed. It'll be at or a little below freezing for most of us during the afternoons both days.  Lows will be in the single numbers and low teens. That's normal for the end of February, not the end of March. 

At least the sun will be out both days to take some of the edge off the chill.   The real cold weather will end by Sunday afternoon,  when it'll get up to about 40 degrees.

Looking ahead beyond that, next week looks really iffy, as we will be once again near the border between Canadian winter cold and balmy spring breezes from the South. Our next shot at any noticeably precipitation would come along around next Wednesday. 

Western Drought Creates Weird New Hazard: Lake Powell Quicksand

A person in the danger zone around quicksand on the 
shores of Lake Powell on the Utah/Arizona border

 The lake level in drought-stricken Lake Powell has dropped so low that it has left behind a weird danger: Quicksand. 

Actually, there's alway has been quicksand around Lake Powell, which straddles the Utah/Arizona border.

But now it's everywhere it seems, due to the crashing lake level from drought. 

Sediment flows into Lake Powell and collects as a wet sand near the bottom or on rock shelves on or above the lakebed.  These sediment areas are now above water and in many instances have taken the form of  quicksand along shorelines and drainages in Lake Powell. 

The lake is part of the popular Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. 

All those old time movies or cartoons depicting quicksand is something that pulls people in until they're buried and dead and gone forever is a myth. Someone who get stuck in quicksand typically stop sinking once they're in waist deep. 

But it can still trap people, and can be dangerous if they're alone and can't get out of it. If a person is alone and can't get out, they'll likely die of hypothermia if help doesn't arrive. 

But once you're in that far, it's incredibly hard to get out. To pull one leg requires the amount of force need to lift a small car, notes Livescience.com

The more you move around, the more you'll sink. A disturbance such as a person entering quicksand will liquify it. "The wet sand sediment becomes so densely packed that it's harder to move than cold molasses. Once the victim's foot becomes stuck in it, the situation is dire," notes Livescience.com

You're left with the densely packed sand keeps you in place with water on top. 

After some experiments with quicksand, experts have devised a way for people to get out of quicksand. Remember this if you're ever tempted to try the Lake Powell quicksand experience.  

 Livescience.com  tells us: 

"Stay calm and eventually, you'll float Stretch out on your back to increase hour surface area and wait until your legs pop free," At this point, moving your legs around at this point to stir in water, and that will help you float.

Of course, people panic, so it's always best to have somebody with you who could seek help. 

So far, I haven't heard of anybody getting into serious, life-threatening trouble with the quicksand. But Lake Powell is getting busier. Spring breakers have invaded the area and the summer tourism season is right around the corner, 

The National Park Service suggests hikers stay close to canyon walls and hike with a buddy. People should check suspicious ground with a walking stick to test the area.

The quicksand will appear as wet, loose, or unusually smooth ground, or unexpected water seepage or pooling, vibrating soil, surfaces that look soft or spongy, NPS spokesperson Heidi Grigg said. 

If you see something like that, it's best to go around it. Preferably on hard rocks. 

OTHER LOW WATER ISSUES

Lake Powell's low water levels is having another impact on summer recreation: The lake is so low, and thus so much smaller, that there's not as much room to launch boats.  That means long lines and a lot more time spent getting boats in and out of the water.

Obviously, the western drought and Lake Powell's troubles aren't limited to isolated quicksand crises or boating inconveniences 

Water managers' goals is to keep the lake level in Powelll to at least 3,525 feet above sea leave. If it gets to 3,490 feet, Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back Lake Powell, can no longer generate any electricity. 

That means utilities will need to turn to more expensive and often more polluting sources to generate electricity. 

The quicksand, the boats, the electricity generation is just the edges of the deep crisis developing in the Southwest. Drought had already been established for years. Then mountain snowpack was the worst on record in many areas, thanks to the warmest winter in the West on record. 

Then, this month, by far the most intense, record shattering March heat wave ever seen settled in for a long visit in the Southwest. This prematurely melted whatever paltry mountain snow pack there was, and further dried out the region much more than anybody anticipated for so early in the season. 

You're going to see a lot of posts this year in this here blog thingy about western drought, western water shortened, western wildfires, and all sorts of big time problems associated with a climate-changed, hot, dry landscape. 

Video: 

Experienced hikers encounter quicksand at Lake Powell.  They knew how to get out of the situation  and you can see them do so in the vid. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that: