Warm December Finishes Up Second Warm Year On Record In Vermont

Springlike conditions amid record high temperatures in
the low 60s on December 16 in St. Albans, Vermont. A
warm December contributed to making 2021 tie as
the second warmest year on record. 

If you thought there was a lot of warm weather in Vermont during 2021 you were right.

The year ended with a flourish - a warm December. That helped make Burlington, Vermont create a tie for the second hottest year on record.  That's out of about 140 years of records. 

In Burlington, the average temperature for the year was 49.4 degrees, which ties with last year as being the second warmest year on record. The warmest was 49.9 degrees in 2012.

There's quite a warm year trend going here. 

All but one year in the top ten warmest list in Burlington has been since 2006. The other outlying year, 1998, is still pretty damn recent. Each of the past six years, except 2019, have been in the top seven warmest.  The year 2019 was warmer than average, but missed being in the top 10.

Vermont is in good company with having one of the hottest years on record.  I'm sure I'll discover in the coming days dozens upon dozens of U.S. cities that had their warmest years, if not the warmest. 

In New England, Providence had its warmest year on record (54.0 degrees) beating the old record set just last year. Boston also had its warmest year at 54.4 besting 2012 by 0.2 degrees. Hartford and Worcester had their fifth warmest years. 

Newark, New Jersey had its warmest year on record, too.  New York City scored in the top five. State College, Pennsylvania had its warmest year on record. It goes on and on.  At least nine cities in the eastern United States had their hottest year on record and several dozen scored in the Top 10.

Back here in Vermont December certainly contributed to the year's warmth. The mean temperature came out to 31.8 degrees, which makes it the fourth warmest on record. Montpelier and St. Johnsbury were also well above average

It was another dry month in a relatively dry year. Burlington was almost three quarters of an inch on the dry side in December. Montpelier was about 1.3 inches short. 

For the year, Burlington had 35.15 inches of rain, which was 2.38 inches below normal.

The hottest day of the year was June 7, when it got to 97 degrees. That's unusual, since the hottest day of the year is usually in July or August. 

There were 19 days with thunderstorms, 86 days with snow and 137 with rain, reports the National Weather Service in South Burlington 

I'll have a review of the top Vermont weather events of 2021 in an upcoming post.