Two Memphis City Councilors, And A Scary Number Of Other People Say Storm Dropped "Man-Made" Snow

The black stuff left on snow then
trying to melt it with a lighter is
just partly combusted material from the
lighter, not some nefarious plot
in the snow. Despite this fact, 
conspiracy theorists falsely
insist there is something "wrong"
with innocent snow and sleet. 

We've just gotten two big snow and ice storms in the southern United States in a little over a week. 

Which you'd think is bad enough. 

Now we have a bunch of people coming out of the woodwork, including two Memphis City Councilors, telling us all that snow and sleet and ice was fake. Man made for some damn reason none of these nutcases are clear about. 

Our city councilors from Memphis are Pearl Walker and Yolanda Cooper Sutton who took to social media to explain to us the storms weren't meteorology. They were apparently.... oh, who knows what.  

 As memphisflyer.com tells us :

"Cooper Sutton posted a video showing who she says is her husband attempting to melt a chunk of ice with a light. 'It's not melting  (it stinks) the you set fire to it OMG, Jesus Christ what is happening!!!"

The video is a slo-mo showing flame licking snow blue no water drips. Cooper Sutton says "This is not melting" she said. "What is falling from the sky hitting the ground?"

Her colleague on the City Council, Walker, responded to Cooper Sutton's post with the words "Man Made"

OK, I'll take off their tin hats and put on my Captain Obvious hat and explain it.. 

I wasn't there for their little science experiment, but I imagine the smell came from the butane lighter they were using.   There's not much water in a handful of snow, so not much water would drip from it. What little was there probably soaked into the tiny air spaces within the piece of snow. There's a lot of air in there, even if it's hard packed snow.  

Anyway, our friendly Memphis councilors got blow back immediately. 

A local activist named Hunter Demster decided to wade into the social media thread with this reasonable comment: "(Disheartening) to see several sitting Memphis City Council members literally pushing conspiracy theories about 'man made' sow," Demster wrote on Facebook. "Sigh......We are screwed as a species."

That just encouraged more people to double down on the conspiracy, and other to deride it. 

Cooper-Sutton later told WREG she meant her social media statements as light-hearted posts shared with family and friends. She went on to say how much she's done for the community and that she was getting death threats for questioning whether the snow was fake.

I'm sure Cooper-Sutton does a lot for Memphis, and anyone who sends out death threats to someone just because they have a very odd false, unscientific is way over the top. Don't do that! Death threats over this are much dumber than thinking the snow was manmade. 

Still, I have a lot of questions for our esteemed city council members.

If that was a manufactured material that resembles snow, who made it? And how did they make so much? Why? If somebody is sending a message by making that stuff, what is the message? Are there any whistleblowers who could help? Documents? Any other kind of proof? If this stuff didn't melt when you brought it in, why is it slowly melting outdoors when the temperature rises above freezing?  

Many people around Memphis said the stuff that fell on the city in late January  felt different to the touch than in most past winter storms. These many people are right. When Memphis does get winter storms, more often than not it's either the powdery snow that blows around, or wet, heavy cement. 

This stuff felt like small, heavy granules. Because they were. Almost everything that came out of the sky during that storm over Memphis was sleet. 

It wasn't just our city councilors. A now-apparently deleted post on the social media site Threads asked "So what chemicals are in that white stuff on the ground that's called SNOW? I have never seen ice or snow that doesn't break or melt in my life. Now if I'm asking a crazy question just let me know."

Well, I wouldn't call the question crazy, but again, it's not chemicals, either. Where this person was probably got a little snow a lot of sleet and a little freezing rain to turn the mess into something I'd call snowcrete.  

Concrete consists of gravel aggregate and a cement-like water slurry that binds it all together. In the case f that big storm, a bunch of sleet became the aggregate and the freezing rain the cement slurry to form the "snowcrete," 

In other words, millions of people experienced was just a big, strange, oddly widespread mixed precipitation storm 

There's also a TON of videos on line of people, like the Memphis City Councilors, putting the flame of a lighter to the snow. It leaves a black mark every time. That wasn't caused by a weird plastic substance in the snow, which the tin hat crowd would have you believe.   It was soot from incomplete combustion of the butane in the lighter. 

This is just little ole me telling the world to relax, there's no conspiracy to create storms of plastic pellets or chemicals to terrorize the public. The only terror was the amount of sleet and freezing rain, composed purely of frozen or freezing water that came out of the sky. Like it does in every winter storm. 

There are so many conspiracy nuts out there, that my little voice won't make a dent in all this. But I have to try anyway.  

After Vermont 26 Degree Monday Heatwave, Below Zero Again This Morning. If You Want Super Arctic Cold, It's Coming

The sun getting ready to set over Lake Champlain, as
seen from St. Albans Bay Monday after a bright, 
bluebird winter day. 

Another round of subzero cold Monday and this morning has very nearly frozen over, despite an afternoon "heat wave" that brought temperatures into the 20s.  

Lake Champlain might have managed one last lake effect snow of the season a couple days ago, on Sunday. 

There was enough open water, combined with just the right atmospheric set up, for a light stripe of snow extending from about Burton Island down to about Bridport. A dusting to up to inches of snow fell in this band.

Time lapse video on  appeared to show a wide area of open water filling in with ice in calm, cold weather Monday morning; 

But it was all just thin scrim of ice that broke into chunks. There was still a fair amount of open water out there.  We'll see what the predawn chill did today on the lake. 

The temperature in Burlington Monday rose to 26 degrees ending a nine day streak where the temperature never got to 20 degrees. That's the longest such stretch of such cold weather since a 12-day stretch of sub-20 degree weather January,  2005. 

Now that we're into February, the sun is starting to get higher in the sky and
stronger. With light winds, yesterday's bluebird skies and sun  felt strangely comfortable out there for a change. 

Nothing lasts forever, though.  Especially anything that feels remotely mild. So, with clear, moonlit skies last night, we were back below zero this morning. 

It still looks like we will make it up into the 20s today, tomorrow and maybe, maybe Thursday and Friday. We also might get a bit of snow tonight  Wednesday, but it shouldn't amount to much. Maybe a dusting in the valleys, o an inch or two in the northern Greens.

Obviously we can't stay balmy forever.  Highs in the 20s is way, way more than we deserve.  (CHECK)

With that, we will get right back into the deep freeze Friday and the weekend. It'll come in Friday night with maybe an inch or two of snow. You will really notice the chill starting Friday night and over the weekend. 

My early guess on the weekend cold is it might be the roughest in the series yet. Current have forecasts have highs in the single numbers and lows in the single numbers and teens below zero. 

That's similar to the depth of the past couple of cold waves. The difference this time will be the wind. This time, gusts are likely to blast at us from the north over the weekend. These won't just be  light, frigid breezes. It'll be a bonafide wind.

The wind chills will make the upcoming cold wave worse and more dangerous than the weather we've seem recently

A WARMER CHANGE?

We might get a little bit of additional relief after this next cold wave passes next week. 

I wrote a few days ago that there might be a change in the weather pattern after mid-month. I am getting more optimistic that we might at least temporarily turn milder later in February.

If NOAA's eight to 14 day outlook is to be believed, the big high pressure over Greenland that forced cold air southward recently is on the move. It looks like it will shift a bit toward northeast Canada while expanding southward a bit. 

That, and a possible slight dip in the jet stream over the western United States would make the jet stream flow more west to east across the United States. Instead of Arctic air coming right at us from northwest Canada, some milder Pacific air would at least occasionally mix into the air over us. 

That's not guaranteed just yet, but it's the best sign of a warmup I've seen yet in this Arctic siege.  By warmup, I don't mean beach weather. It's February. It'll still be chilly most days later in the month.  Just not way below zero cold. 

The new weather pattern would also probably increase the chances of storms with snow or mixed precipitation. It won't be all rainbows and sunshine and puppy dogs and fairy dust. 

 

No Power, More Deaths Sea Tragedy, Cleanup Woes In Wake Of Two Winter Storms

The remains of four houses the collapsed into the sea in
Buxton, Outer Cape, North Carolina over the weekend and
today from the nor'easter that battered the state. 
Image from The Island Free Press/Facebook

 For once, there are no major winter storms hitting the United States today. 

But the two whoppers that slammed the nation over the past two weeks are still having their effects. Sometimes in deadly and dangerous ways. We have some examples as this is still an ongoing story. 

Sadly, the death toll continues to increase. In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves has confirmed 23 deaths in his state associated with the January 25-26 ice storm. In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday morning said that state's death toll had risen to 16. 

As of this morning, nearly 50,000 Mississippi homes and businesses remained without power as of this morning. More than 25,000 customers still had no power in Tennessee.  As of this weekend, pretty much the entire town of Holly Springs, Mississippi was without power, and most roads were too icy to travel on safely. 

In North Carolina, four homes have now collapsed into the waves of the Outer Banks from the snowy, windy nor'easter that hit over the weekend. 

We mentioned here one of those houses collapsed early Sunday morning. But since then, another house went down Sunday night and two more fell in this morning, the Island Free Press reported. 

The storm has departed North Carolina, but the vulnerable homes were weakened by battering waves over the weekend and large swells are still being generated on the Outer Banks from the storm. 

A total of 20 homes in Buxton and Rodanthe, North Carolina have fallen into the ocean since September.

The rest of the Carolinas are cleaning up from the massive snowfall. It was wild that the whole state of North Carolina was blasted. There was a dry spot in the middle of the state that "only" got three to six inches. But the coastline, the southeast corner, the west and mountains all saw reports of at least a foot of snow.

Fresh snow cover meant clear skies and calm winds in North Carolina meant temperatures fell to incredibly low levels this morning. It got as cold as 5 above in the town of Kinston, not far from New Bern. Most places in eastern North Carolina were in the upper single numbers and teens this morning. 

Aside from a small amount of mixed precipitation expected Wednesday night, thawing is expected to set in across the Southeast, which would hopefully melt the snow and ice off the streets by the end of the week.

Elsewhere, amid rough seas off of New England, a 72-foot fishing boat called the Lily Jean sank offshore off Cape Ann, claiming seven lives. One of those who passed away had Vermont connections. Jada Samitt, a recent graduate of the University of Vermont was on board as a fisheries observer from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This tragedy sounds a lot like the famous account of a ship disaster in "The Perfect Storm.'

The Lily Jean was in a 2012 episode of the History Channel show "Nor'Easter Men."

In the Northeast, the cold has been relenting. Rivers, harbors and bays are frozen. Water mains and pipes have been bursting. And hypothermia is killing people. In Pittsburgh, numerous people have been seen on the city's frozen three main rivers, despite the fact that the ice is on top of flowing water. That makes venturing onto the ice especially dangerous.

In New York City alone, 16 people have died outside in the cold, Mayor Zoran Mamdani said. It appears 13 of the deaths were due to the cold and the other three were overdoses. 

New York got one slight bit of relief today as the temperature rose to slightly above freezing for the first time since January 23.  However, a new, intensely cold Arctic blast is set to invade the Northeast at the end of the week and this upcoming weekend.  

How Shady Social Media Influencers Uses Scary, False Weather Forecasts For Profit

A computer forecast issued on January 23 indicated New
England would be blasted by a historic nor'easter
tonight and tomorrow, February 2/3. Obviously this
will not happen and we will have calm weather instead.
But social media weather "influencers" are using
these scary but false long range forecasts to
scare and mislead the public for fun and profit. 

 That stupid groundhog in Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil, supposedly saw his shadow this morning, and that allegedly means six more weeks of winter. 

The whole thing is silly of course. First of all, up here in Vermont, we're going to have six more weeks of winter no matter what any rodent has to say. And we know a groundhog can't forecast the weather. 

Punxsutawney Phil is a fun little tradition, but that's about it. 

Speaking of long range forecasts, the computer models that forecast two weeks or more in advance have become a problem. 

There's nothing really wrong with the computer models. It's actually how social media weather "influencers" use them to frighten the public to enhance clicks and revenue. 

On social media, I've seen so many dark warnings of storms or cold waves of the century  this year already that if I had a penny for each one, I'd be lounging in my expensive tropical island retreat by now. 

Sadly, if you want to make money online, you scare people. Let's lay the whole scam out:

THE COMPUTER MODELS 

This morning's run of the same model has no storm at 
all in New England. Perhaps the January 23 forecast
was sort of picking up on that storm you see in this 
forecast east of Labrador. On line weather
"influencers" use scary, inaccurate long range
forecasters to scare people for clicks and revenue

If you look at these models, like the American or European that meteorologists refer to, you'll see a string of forecast maps that show storms and fronts and whatnot crisscrossing the U.S., or whatever map location you're looking at. These computer forecasts typically forecast for up to two weeks out. 

The forecast maps in these models for the next couple of days are pretty good, but then they get less and less accurate as you get further and further into the future.

The maps for a week or more into the future should be taken with a big grain of salt.  The specifics are always wrong. The long range forecasts can give you a general idea of the trend in the weather,  but the can't handle things like the placement and strength of storms.  

For example, I've been saying lately in this here blog thingy that we'll have generally cold weather until mid-February, then some sort of change might be in the works. I'm being purposefully vague. 

The computer models have been consistently saying the first half of February will be generally chilly. But future nor'easters and cold fronts a week or more beyond the date the forecast is issued appear and disappearlike puffs of snow in a chilly February breeze. 

A classic example:  On January 23, I could have frightened the pants off of you with an American model forecast that showed what practically looked like the worst, biggest nor'easter EVER in New England that would hit tonight and tomorrow (February 2-3)

The next run of the American model a few hours later on January 23 didn't have much of anything in New England. Since then, the computer models have not been forecasting anything particularly scary around here. 

Sure enough, instead of the Storm of the Century tonight, we're going to have basic normal, boring earth February weather.  It'll get down to near 0 degrees tonight with light winds. Tomorrow will be generally sunny and seasonable (highs in the 20s) with light winds. 

So much for most destructive nor'easter in memory. 

 It looks like the computer models on January 23 did manage to sniff out a storm two weeks in advance. But at such a long range, it was way off on location, strength and orientation of the system.  It was probably the nor'easter that hit North Carolina over the weekend. Which is now the nor'easter that tonight will be somewhere east of Labrador, not over New England. 

The long range models sometimes spit out scenarios a week or two down the road that are virtually meteorologically impossible. It's a case of garbage in, garbage out.  They'll predict a storm in the Bahamas that ends up in New York a week later. Or a hurricane that impossibly strengthens over Pennsylvania. The computer models don't have a lot of information to work with in their predictions for something like 10 days from now. So you get off the charts forecasts.

THE HARM

Those boffo, bizarre long range forecasts would just be a source of weird harmless entertainment for strange weather geeks like me. Except now, some of us are putting these horrifying forecasts online for the public to be horrified by. 

Here's an example. North Carolina, and many other areas of the South have had a rough winter so far. North Carolina had a bunch of freezing rain on January 25-26, stopping road travel in parts of the state and cutting power to many. Then, this past weekend, a nor'easter dumped up to 17 inches of snow in eastern parts of the state. That's an area where it's kind of shocking to receive two inches. 

North Carolinians can be forgiven if they desperately want February to turn out to be sunny, warm and pleasant. 

Well, along comes a Facebook account which I won't name that gives us a forecast for insane amounts of snow during the first half of February in North Carolina and elsewhere.  

This forecast has central North Carolina receiving about four and a half feet of snow over the next couple of weeks. Under this scenario, Atlanta, Georgia would receive three feet or so, and snow would once again dust the ground in places like northern Florida and New Orleans. 

The person who posted this wild forecast wrote, "Definitely not my forecast but when fantasy snow keeps showing up there is probably a reason why."

Yeah, the reason was a bad computer run.  This dude needs to just shut up. 

By the way, I've looked up the seven day National Weather Service forecast for Raleigh, North Carolina. Other than a little bit of light rain and perhaps a thin scrim of snow Wednesday and Wednesday night, no stormy weather is in the forecast for at least the next seven days. 

I'm picking on this one particular social media post with the epic North Carolina snow, but there are zillions of them out there. On YouTube, the headline will be "MAJOR STORMS COMING" with AI images of destroyed cities. Then when you click into the video, the narrator finds ways to hype routine weather. 

Not only do these weird, extreme forecasts scare people, it makes the public lose confidence in meteorologists and weather forecasting in general. Maybe this type of scaremongering is feeding the conspiracy theories that somebody is trying to "control the weather" somehow. 

It also encourages the "cry wolf" syndrome. People see so many forecasts of impending doom that turn out to be fabricated. Then, when a bonafide major weather threats finally arrive, people just say, 'Meh, another false alarm. These false alarms can endanger lives.  

My rants on this aren't going to stop the fear forecasts on line. There's too much money, and too few morals involved.  

But the next time you see a forecast that says your community will be destroyed by the Storm Of The Century in two weeks, relax. Take a deep breath. Find a reliable weather source like the National Weather Service or your local television meteorologist, and just take their word for what's going to happen. 

 

Lake Champlain Ice Watch: Not Entirely Frozen Yet!

Visible satellite photo of Vermont and surrounding areas
this afternoon. Clear skies allowed us to see the ice 
situation on Lake Champlain. The dark blue area is
where the lake is not frozen yet. 

 Nope, Lake Champlain is not completely frozen over yet. 

It got clear enough for visible satellite photos to give us a good view today.  As you can see in the photo here, there's a large blue patch in the middle of the lake. That's open water. 

The northern half of the lake is solidly frozen. It's been that way for days or weeks, depending on exactly where you are. The narrow, shallower southern end of the lake is frozen over, too.

If the lake completely freezes, it will probably be at least a few days before that happens. More ice will very likely get manufactured tonight, since temperatures are forecast to go slightly below zero. But a light breeze will also probably continue all night, so that might slow the process down. 

Temperatures will moderate into the low to mid 20s by day and single digits to around 10 above until the end of the week. I'm guessing that also won't be cold enough to completely seal off the lake. 

Another blast of Arctic air is due next weekend, and that'll bring daytime highs back down to the single numbers and overnight lows well below zero.

We'll see whether that will be enough to finally freeze over the lake for the first time since 2019. 

 

Southeast Reels After Big Snowy Nor'easter, Extreme Florida Freeze

The scene in New Bern, on the North Carolina coast this
morning. Photo from Storm Chaser Stephen Jones/Facebook

The second weird, extreme southern winter storm in a week is heading out to sea this afternoon, leaving some pretty incredibly winter scenes in the Carolinas. Meanwhile Florida is shivering in record cold.  
.Y

The Southeastern United States is having a classic New England winter day, with deep snow on the ground, sunshine overhead with the storm headed away cold gusty northwest winds and temperatures in the 20s,  In Florida, morning lows were in the 20s. 

This is the second year in a row that an extreme snowstorm and record shattering cold hit the far south of the Lower 48. 

In January, 2025, an unprecedented snowstorm brought near blizzard conditions from New Orleans to Pensacola.   Florida set its all time record deepest snowstorm with 8.8 inches. Temperatures fell to all time lows of just 3 above not far from the coast in southwest Louisiana. 

This weekend's storm wasn't quite as extreme as last year's in the south. But it was close. 

SNOWY CAROLINAS

Visible satellite shows snow covering all of North 
Carolina and much of South Carolina today.
Those streaky clouds around Florida are caused
by frigid air flowing over warm water. It's the
same as lake effect snow clouds in the Great Lakes.
Flurries were seen as far south as Sarasota, Florida.

In North Carolina, 17.7 inches of snow fell in Longwood, which is near the coast. A foot of snow fell on Lake View, South Carolina, which is a a little north of and slightly inland from Myrtle Beach. 

In the Carolinas, the only two snowstorms that in memory that were bigger than this weekend's were  one that hit in December, 1989 and another in March, 1980. 

As skies cleared Sunday, satellite photos showed the rarity of snow covering all of North Carolina much of South Carolina and parts of eastern Georgia. 

Snow fell as far west as Atlanta, Georgia and the eastern half of Tennessee.

The storm caused a pileup involving up to 100 cars along Interstate 85 in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Traffic was snarled across the state as people who did venture out quickly got stuck. 

On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, one house fell into the ocean during the storm in Buxton. That's the 17th house to fall into the eroding shores in Buxton and Rodanthe, North Carolina since this past September. 

Video showed full blizzard conditions in Nags Head, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina last night. 

To add to the Outer Banks weather chaos, a large fire broke out at an unoccupied home in Nags Head. At last report the fire was largely contained. 

On the bright side, recovery from the storm in North Carolina will be easier than it was in places like Mississippi and Tennessee last week, which were hit by an extreme ice storm. The ice was followed bye days of subfreezing temperatures that did little to melt the mess. 

In the eastern Carolinas, temperatures should go a little above freezing tomorrow, and then highs for the rest of the week will be in the 40s to around 50. Not exactly warm for them, but it should help anyone trying to drive anywhere. 

FLORIDA

Snow flurries were seen as far as Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Other flurries were seen in and around Jacksonville. 

The main story was the cold. In Orlando at 7 a.m, it was 25 degrees with a wind chill of 13. Miami was down to a record low for the date of 35 degrees with a wind chill of 26.  

The Florida freeze is part of a weather pattern that has brought oddly mild air to parts of the Arctic while shoving cold air far southward to where is almost never goes. Wind trajectory maps show the air made a straight shot from the North Pole to Miami.

Here's a great demonstration of how warm (for the Arctic) high pressure is making parts of the far northern part of the world warm, while frigid weather blasts places much further south. 

Orlando, Florida suffered through a record low temperature of 24 degrees this morning. Jacksonville, Florida hit 23 degrees and Tallahassee reached 21. Meanwhile, this morning's low in Nuuk, Greenland was 26.

 Orlando's records go back as far as 1892.

Other cities whose records don't go back as far as Orlando's set records for coldest for the entire month of February. Those include Daytona Beach, with 23 degrees, which broke the old February record of 24 degrees. Melbourne got to 25, breaking the mark for the entire month of February, which was 27. Vero Beach reached 26 degrees, breaking the old record low for the month of February, which had been 28 degrees.  

Florida homes are built to keep the hot air out, not the cold air. I'm sure there's going to be lots of trouble with frozen pipes, and people shivering in homes with inside temperatures in the 50s, 40s or worse. 

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson has already sent a request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking a disaster declaration for what will surely be crop damage from the deep freeze.

You'll probably see higher produce prices at the grocery store due to the Florida freeze. The state sends crops like avocados, bell peppers, broccoli, celery, corn, cucumbers, radishes, strawberries, cabbage and citrus products to much of the nation during the winter.

Farmers have been trying to spray farm fields to cover everything with a light coating of ice. The ice actually protects plants from the frigid temperatures. Other farm fields were hidden from the cold by massive row covers. 

However, at one farm, the sprinklers malfunctioned in a field of blueberry bushes, crushing many of the plants under six inches or more of ice. 

Another hard freeze is due tonight across Florida. After that, things should get a little better. The upcoming week will be cooler than average, but far from record-breaking cold.  

Vermont January Weather On Paper Was Pretty Average, But February Looking Harsher

An intense snow squall loomed over Lake Champlain, as
seen from Burlington, Vermont on January 22. It was
one of the few instances of weather drama in the state
this January. While the rest of the U.S endured extremes.
Vermont just kind of poked along with near normal weather.

It might not seem like it, given the recent bone-chilling weather in Vermont, but overall, January was right around average both in terms of temperature and precipitation. 

A relatively warm start to the month and a cold finish sort of balanced January's books. 

Compared to most Januaries,  and compared to the weather drama January, 2026 caused elsewhere in the nation, Vermont's version of the month was quiet and shy.  

TEMPERATURES

Burlington's average temperature for January, 2026 was 20.0 degrees, which was just 0.9 degrees cooler than normal.

Out of the past 137 years of accurate records in Burlington, this January was the 55th warmest, or 82nd coolest, however you want to look at it. So pretty much in the middle.

An odd trend I found statewide is that average high temperatures for this January were cooler than normal but overnight lows were close to average. In Burlington, the average high for the month of 26.6 degrees was 2.3 degrees on the chilly side. But the daily low temperature average was 13.5 degrees which was a little more than half a degree on the warm side. 

I found the same trend of chilly high temperatures and near average low temperatures when I looked at Montpelier, Rutland, St. Johnsbury and Woodstock.  

This was the first time since January-March, 2015 in which Burlington had three consecutive colder than average months. 

Temperatures during the month never got on the extreme side, either. The warmest it got in Burlington was 49 degrees. The warmest it's ever been in January is 66 degrees, in 1995. Likewise, Burlington's low temperature for the month was 8 below. The coldest it's ever been in January is 30 below, in 1957.

PRECIPITATION

Rain and melted snow were pretty average during January in Vermont, too. Burlington had 2.19 inches of precipitation, which was just 0.06 inches above average. I was able to find 144 consecutive years of reliable January precipitation data for Burlington. January, 2026 was the 45th wettest or 99th driest, depending on how you want to loo at it. Again, nothing scary in that department either. 

Snowfall was near to above normal, riding mostly on the large snowstorm on January 25-26 that dumped around 20 inches of snow in some parts of the state. This was part of a massive, destructive winter storm that basically trashed most of the southern and eastern parts of the U.S.

True to form, though, Vermont's version of the storm was just a pretty, fluffy, happy winter snow day. The only other semi-dramatic day came on the 22nd, when there were some pretty intense, but brief snow squalls around the state. 

It was, as usual for winter, a windy month, especially in the Champlain Valley. Fourteen days had wind gusts at or above 30 mph in Burlington. Winds reached 50 mph on January 9. 

OUTLOOK

January is usually the coldest month of the year, but in 2026, February has a very strong chance of being the chilliest month of the winter. 

The cold weather pattern that took hold in the final week or so of January looks like it's going to stubbornly hang on for quite awhile. Who knows? Maybe all month.   

The weather pattern that has set up for February tends to be very dry, too. We call it a "continental month" since winters smack dab in the middle of North American tend to be very cold and very dry. 

The forecasts are pretty unanimous that depending on the day, it'll be either sort of cold or really cold through the middle of February. 

There's a chance of some sort of pattern change later in the month, but we don't know if or how that's going to arrange itself. If this cold pattern lasts all of February, though, we have an excellent chance of seeing one of the driest Februarys on record. 

The driest February on record in Burlington was in 1978 with just 0.21 inches of precipitation. That was a classic "continental month" as well, as it still ranks as the fourth coldest February on record in Burlington, with an average temperature of 9.5 degrees.

If any of you asking weather February, 1978 was when New England's Blizzard of '78 happened, it did. However that blizzard largely missed northwest parts of the Green Mountain State. To really geek out, all but 0.01 inches of February, 1978's meager precipitation came on Feb 6-8, when the blizzard was passing by to the southeast of Burlington.