On Paper, Vermont March Weather Was "Normal". But It Was Weird

Vermont experienced one of its most even-tempered Marches on 
record this year, a huge mid-month snowstorm 
notwithstanding. Here, a pleasant sunset in
St. Albans, Vermont on March 9

 Given all the weather going on all over the place Saturday, I didn't get a chance to review the previous month's weather on the first of the month, like I usually do.

So, today, it's time to delve in March. 

It was a simultaneously sort of average and a really strange month. 

The basic numbers tell a "normal" story. 

In Burlington, the average temperature for March was 33.2 degrees, just a little under a degree warmer than normal.  

Of course, as I always remind  you, this is the "new" normal, based on the average of the past 30 years. The past 30  years were warmer than the overall 20th century average.

Precipitation in Burlington was 2.7 inches, which is on the wet side by 0.86 inches. Snowfall was above normal, too, with 22.9 inches. That's 5.4 inches above normal.

None of these figures from March, 2023 came close to breaking any record. 

Dig deeper, though, and the numbers begin to look wonky. 

WARMISH NIGHTS, COOL DAYS

Completed dig out on March 15 in St. Albans, Vermont
after a foot of heavy, wet snow. 

If it didn't seem like a warm-ish March to you, like the basic numbers indicate,  you can be forgiven.  Daytime highs were near normal, or even a little on the cool side.

Daily low temperatures, which mostly happened when you were probably sleeping, were well above normal.  

For instance, the average high temperature in Burlington in March, 2023 was 40 degrees, which was almost a degree cooler than normal. The average low was 26.3 degrees, which was 2.7 degrees above normal. 

You could see this trend across Vermont. In Montpelier, St. Johnsbury, Rutland and Bennington, high temperatures this March were right about normal. Low temperatures were quite a bit on the warm side, somewhere close to three degrees above average.

STRANGELY EVEN-TEMPERED

The other thing that made March, 2023 weird was its temperance. March is usually the wildest month of the year, with all kinds of abrupt swings from deep winter cold to late spring warmth and back to winter again. 

Oh, sure, March had a couple snowstorms to make things interesting. But as far as temperatures go, the goofy, capricious personality of March was missing in 2023.

Thawing creates patterns in the snow cover on March 18

The warmest it got in Burlington this March was 52 degrees, and the lowest 15 degrees. That's only a spread of 37 degrees. 

We occasionally have single days in March with that range. Heck, just yesterday, April 1, the spread between high and low temperature was 33 degrees, which was pretty close to the entire month of March. 

 I looked back through Burlington's weather records to at least 1930, and I found only one March - 1956 - that had a smaller range between high and low temperature than this year.

 In 1956, the range was 35 degrees. By contrast, 1938 had a high of 73 and a low of minus 24 for an incredible range of 97 degrees! 

BAD FORECAST

March helped prove why I don't love long range forecasts. In late February, much was made about something called a Sudden Stratospheric Warming would lead to a frigid, wintry March.  That didn't happen. 

Yes, we had some extra snow, including an immense winter storm on March 14-15 that dumped up to 40 inches of snow on southern Vermont and caused widespread power outages. But the frigid month certainly didn't come to pass. 

Spring will not be denied! Daffodil shoots poke
up through the snow on March 23.

One good contrast I'm seeing this year to many recent springs is we're heading into the growing season with enough moisture around. March precipitation was above normal. Not by much, but good enough. Groundwater levels seem good, and there was plenty of snow to melt into the soil.

Drought could always develop, of course, but right now, we're in great shape for spring planting. 

As much as I hate long range forecasts, we can look ahead to this April's weather, and conclude.....not much. 

April is almost as unpredictable as March.  It's beginning to look like this month will be in character.  Expect warm days, cold days, or cold weather and warm weather in the same day. 

Snowfall in April can range from a trace to a foot and a half or more. So far, little snow is in the forecast. But for the past two years, we've had snowstorms in the third week of April.  I'm kind of hoping we don't have a three-peat. 

But we're into spring now. Those little hints of green you're starting to see in sunny areas protected from the wind and cold are going to spread a LOT during this month. It'll be lovely.