No Surprise, Vermont January, 2023 Was Among Hottest On Record

Early in the month, it was so warm in St. Albans, Vermont
that daffodil shoots were coming up. Photo taken on Jan. 5

 The numbers are in for the weather in January, 2023 are in and it was, indeed the hottest first month of the year in parts of Vermont. 

In the rest of the state, it was close to the warmest.  

Montpelier had its hottest January on record, with a mean temperature of 29.1 degrees. 

That shattered the old record of 27.3 degrees in 1990. Usually, in the rare instances when a weather station breaks a record for warmest month, it's by no more than a few tenths of a degree. That Montpelier broke the record by 1.8 degrees is really impressive.

It looks like St. Johnsbury also broke its record for warmest January. The mean temperature for 2023 came in at 28.8 degrees, higher than any other year in January. 

Montpelier and St. Johnsbury were among numerous cities in the Northeast, including Portland, Maine and New York City, that had their warmest Januaries on record. 

Burlington only came in at fourth in the list of warmest January, with an average temperature of 29.2 degrees. That's two degrees shy of the all time warmest January of 1906. 

I'm not sure on this, but I think several areas of Vermont had their highest minimum temperature on record for January. The coldest night in Burlington was 7 degrees. Montpelier's lowest reading was 8 degrees. Rutland's lowest temperature was 9 above.

January, 2023 was an especially gloomy month in Vermont,
with frequent bouts of low clouds, fog, drizzle and 
light, wet snow. Photo taken in St. Albans, Jan. 6.

Nights were especially warm in Burlington and elsewhere during January. The average low temperature was 23.6, which is the second highest mean temperature for low minimums. 

There was not much of a range in temperature between low and high temperatures most days. 

The difference between the high and low averages was 11.2 degrees. Usually this time of year that range between daily highs and lows is about 16 or 17 degrees.  

That lack of range between low and high temperatures reflects something you surely noticed.

It was incredibly cloudy in January. I would rate 26 days in Burlington and vicinity during January as overcast, or overcast with a very limited number of breaks. 

When it's cloudy, high temperatures are usually a little lower than you'd expect and low temperatures are a little warmer than they would be if was clear. 

All those clouds provided plenty of precipitation. Rain and melted snow amounted to 3.40 inches in Burlington. This fell just outside the top 10 list of wettest Januaries in Burlington. Number 10 on the list had 3.46 inches. 

By the end of the January, it was at least looking a lot
more wintry.  True winter weather didn't really hit, though,
until January 30, too late to prevent January, 2023
from becoming one of the warmest on record in Vermont.

Other areas of Vermont were pretty wet, too. St. Johnsbury had 4.07 inches of precipitation, against a normal of 2.68 inches for the month.

 Rutland, with 3.63 inches of precipitation, about an inch above normal. Montpelier was closer to normal with 2.49 inches, less than a quarter inch above normal.

After a nearly snow-free beginning, snowfall picked up, and most places ended up within the range of normal snowfall for the year. St. Johnsbury ended up with 20 inches of snow, which was actually 0.1 inches above normal.

Looking out to February, we know we're starting the month with intense Arctic cold, at least on Friday and Saturday. 

But overall, the outlook for the month is for above normal temperatures again. Do note that long range forecasts are iffy. So take the forecast for the entire month with a bit of a grain of salt.