It's Almost March, So We Might As Well Have A March Weather Pattern

Some cool clouds over St. Albans, Vermont Wednesday amid
rapid changes in the weather. After morning sunshine, a small
storm system was moving in at the time this photo was taken.
Expect continued quick changes in the weather for the
next several days at least. 

We here in Vermont have in the past few days fallen into a weather pattern very typical of March. Why not, we're almost there anyway, right?  

We keep swinging between mini-thaws, bursts of snow, maybe a frigid morning thrown in for good measure, some wind, and back to a mini-thaw. Rinse and repeat. 

As we look ahead to actual March, this whole pattern will keep going. 

Yesterday around here was mini-thaw day.  The temperature in Burlington got up to 44 degrees Wednesday. That was the warmest day so far this year, which isn't saying much.  It was also the first time it's gotten to 40 degrees since New Year's Eve. 

That's 57 consecutive days under 40 degrees. I thought that might be somewhere near a record length of time to spend under 40, but nope. Not even close. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington says the  most consecutive days  amount of time spent under 40 degree was 107 days from December 7, 1962 to March 23, 1963. (Editor's note: NWS Burlington got back to me incredibly quickly with my question about that, so a shout out to them)!

By the way, if you like warm weather and an early spring, 1963 was NOT your year. January, 1963 was cold, then February, March, April and May were each at least four degrees colder than normal.

Who knows what this spring will get us, but in the short term, as I said, typical March. 

After yesterday's warmth, I picked up a fresh inch of snow overnight here in St. Albans. Light snow accumulations were reported overnight in much of Vermont.  Snow showers will eventually clear out later today. Temperatures today and tomorrow will be on the chilly side, but nothing terrible for this time of year. 

Another mini-thaw will strike over the weekend, with a small storm giving us mostly light rain Saturday and then some mild partial sunshine Sunday. 

Then, it's back to winter for a couple of days. The computer models are disagreeing on how cold it will get early next week. The American model takes us way below zero during that cold shot, while the other indicators aren't that bad. We'll see.

Regardless of just how cold it gets at the start of next week, we'll quickly rebound into slightly warmer temperatures by the middle of next week .

By the way, the warmer peaks we're having might be triggering some maple sap runs here in Vermont, which is always welcome.