The Beginning Of The End Of Winter Is Now

It was below freezing Sunday, but the rising sun angle 
enabled me to chop up ice on my St. Albans, Vermont
driveway and let the sun melt it away. 

Around this time every year, I wax poetic about the beginning of the end of winter.

We can safely say we've finally reached that point. 

For much of the nation, this turning of the corner is incredibly welcome. After that intense, record breaking, subzero cold of last week,  Dallas and Houston, Texas hovered around 70 degrees Sunday afternoon. Hard hit Oklahoma City bounced up to the low 50s. 

Snowbound Chicago reached the mid-30s Sunday afternoon after 400 consecutive hours (more than 16 days) below freezing.  

Temperatures were even above freezing Sunday near the Canadian border of Minnesota and North Dakota Sunday, in an area where actual temperatures - not wind chills - were in the minus 40s. 

Here in Vermont, temperatures if anything were a slight bit below normal on Sunday, and most places didn't get above freezing. 

However, there was no mistaking that higher sun angle, especially since calm winds prevented anh added chill to the air.    Snowbanks settled slightly and leaked meltwater into storm drains.   I chopped some dangerous ice up in my driveway into small pieces, and the sun melted it away. 

The usual caveat applies.  Chances are it'll get below zero again in most if not all of Vermont. Large snowstorms can yet strike between now and mid-April. 

But we've turned the corner. 

The snow still is deep on the ground at my house in St. 
Albans, Vermont, but the rising sun angle hits at 
the approach of spring. 

Turning the corner doesn't mean spring. It's still winter in Vermont. Just a different, milder version of it. True, temperatures in the valleys will be close to 40 degrees tomorrow and Wednesday. 

But a slighly milder form of winter still holds sway.  As I write this early Monday morning, gusty bursts of falling snow and blowing snow are hurling past my windows in St. Albans, Vermont. 

Another thump of snow, briefly heavy, is coming through this afternoon with a couple inches of snow, especially outside the Champlain Valley. 

Snow showers, mixed with rain in the valleys, will continue into Wednesday night.  

The mountains might actually end the week with more snow on the ground than at the start, even as the snow cover in the valleys settles a bit. 

A shot of cold weather at the end of the week will remind you once again it's still winter, though it will quickly turn somewhat milder again by next weekend. 

We're getting there.