March Winds Often Extend Into April In Vermont

Gusty winds, very common in Vermont during March and 
April, usually don't cause damage like this, but we are
in the midsts of a windy time of year. 

It was a breezy to windy Friday and Friday night here in Vermont, and we'll have more of the same today.  

Gust have been in the 30 to 40 mph range in many spots. We'll keep seeing those gusts to at least 30 mph through today.

It's the season of wind in the Green Mountain State.

March winds are a familiar trope here and elsewhere. The month has a gusty reputation. April is often another hold on to your hat month.

Usually, the winds of March and the first half of April cause little harm in Vermont. But things can get out of control.

A few of Vermont's most damaging wind storms have hit in the early spring.  

These include a nor'easter that caused widespread damage in Rutland County in April, 2007.  Other damaging wind storms have hit Vermont in March and April, such as in April, 1977 and in April, 2018

There are scientific reasons for all this.   Big storm systems common this time of year are one reason. Stronger spring sun is another. 

STORMS

Strong low pressure systems - storms - commonly cross the United States this time of year. 

A very typical storm track is one in which a storm forms somewhere in the lee of the Rockies, grows powerful and heads toward the Great Lakes and eventually to Canada.  You often have blizzards to the north of these storms with severe thunderstorms with strong winds and tornadoes to the south. 

As these storms head into the Great Lakes and Canada they drag their cold fronts to the Atlantic Seaboard. Often, new storms for along these cold fronts and become nor'easters, which produce more wind. 

A powerful storm is forecast to perform the above scenario next week.  A big storm will cross the nation, causing all kinds of trouble. It will end in the U.S. as a big lumbering nor'easter in New England by later Wednesday and Thursday. 

Vermont's gusty winds yesterday and today and because a previous storm gave birth to a nor'easter, which became powerful in the Canadian Maritimes. A squeeze play between that storm and high pressure in southern Canada. 

SUNSHINE

In the early spring, the weather pattern is active, making for strong winds higher in the atmosphere.  The jet stream hasn't lost much of its wintertime power by the time March and April roll around.

The stronger late March and April sun is much better at heating the ground than the lame low angle sun of winter. 

This springtime warmth heats the ground, which warms the lower atmosphere. Warm air is lighter than cold air, so that heated air rises, creating updrafts. These updrafts displace the airflow higher up, where the winds are stronger. That causes some downdrafts that "grab" that high speed air up above, and bring to the surface, all the while gaining momentum. What goes up, must come down, as the saying goes.

So you have those early spring days with weird gusts between calm moments.  This also causes the familiar extremely changeable spring weather.

You've surely noticed spring days in which the sun feels warm, ,but then billowy clouds appear. Some of the clouds approach, and create cold wind gusts that really drop the temperature.  Your warm sunny spring day suddenly becomes chilly as hell. 

You're feeling the process of those updrafts "grabbing" pieces of that windy, cold air aloft and delivering it to you.

 As we head toward summer, the jet stream relaxes and pulls northward toward Canada. The jet stream fuels those strong spring storms.  Without that influence, those powerful spring storms get much weaker and less windy by later in May and June. 

The jet stream's retreat also means there's not much wind aloft to "grab" and bring to the surface, so those gusty spring days turn into placid summer afternoons. 

In Vermont's immediate future, the fitful breezes today will tend to diminish until that next storm arrives Tuesday and Wednesday, possibly for an extended stay.   

Expect more breezy and windy days well into April.