Nation's Icebox In Balmy Spring Weather While We Stay Mired In Winter

The shed on my property, full of spring garden tools, seems
awfully distant behind walls of snow - winter is hanging on
tough in St. Albans - and the rest of Vermont

 It hasn't been above freezing for most of us here in Vermont since Monday, and we won't get back to the melting point until Monday or Tuesday, depending upon where you are in the state. 

The constant cold, dry northwest winds will continue through Sunday, and only begin to ease up Monday afternoon. 

There won't be much new snow, maybe an inch or two on some lucky mountains and just flurries in the valleys. But still. Winter. 

If it's this chilly here, you'd think it must ridiculously frigid in the northern and central Plains. After all, they get the brunt of the cold waves, right?

Not this time. Bismarck, North Dakota can expect highs in the 60s for the next three days. It's already been that warm there three times this month. Normal highs this time of year in that neck of the woods are in the mid 30s, pretty much like here in northern Vermont. 

In a good chunk of South Dakota, they're expecting highs for the next three days in the lower 70s, as opposed to the usual 40 degree readings they should expect this time of year.  

All these toasty readings will break high temperature records in the Dakotas. What next? Palm trees in Yankton?

Probably not. It's actually a little dry for palm trees in the Plains right now.  They had a dry winter. Despite the warmth, it's definitely too early for things to be greening up.  The dry, brown landscape is ripe for fast-moving rangeland fires.

Red flag warnings for the fire risk are up from northeastern Colorado and northwest Kansas all the way up to parts of North Dakota and Montana.  Already, one fire burned through 1,000 acres or so northwest of Topeka, Kansas, and other fires were reported in Nebraska. 

At least we don't have to worry about brush fires here in Vermont yet. Hard to burn forest and brushland with nearly a foot of snow on the ground, huh?

Forecasters are still calling for at least a little squirt of warmer air to infiltrate our frozen landscape this coming week.  Highs should reach the upper 30s and low 40s Tuesday, and soar to near 50 degrees Wednesday and Thursday. 

Yeah, that's not 70 degrees, but still, the upcoming mild spell will get rid of a little snow, at least for awhile. 

March is fickle, so we'll either see a continued slow melt of snow through the rest of the month, or we'll just get replacement snow in subsequent storms. Time will tell. 

Meanwhile, if you're outside this weekend, sucks to be you. But at least there's still plenty of winter sports left to enjoy while we wait for a warm up.