Destructive, Wide-Ranging U.S. Storm To Finally Wind Down Thursday.

Texas Storm Chasers posted this photo of tornado damage
in Irving, Texas on Tuesday.

Just as expected, an enormous windbag of a storm has caused havoc this week from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast. 

Two people were reported dead in Mississippi as the severe storms rolled through Tuesday.  Po wer was out to more than 400,000 homes and businesses in several states across the South and Midwest.

The storm disrupted Mardi Gras, or at least tried to, in New Orleans Tuesday as the city was under a tornado watch and high wind warning. The National Weather Service had warned revelers to be careful, in part because winds could topple Mardi Gras floats. 

Some of the biggest parades were held earlier than scheduled and shortened to avoid the worst of the weather. 

No tornadoes struck near New Orleans, but the city endured downpours and gusts as high as 53 mph. 

Minnesota traffic cameras showed miserable 
conditions this morning as blizzards hit swaths
of the Midwest, part of a large storm hitting
huge parts of the nation

At least seven tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, northwest Louisiana and possibly Texas on Tuesday. Tuesday's tornado count will likely rise as damage is analyzed. A few more tornadoes are possible today in the Southeast.  There's even a very low, but not zero chance of a brief twister as far northwest as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today.

In Texas, the larger problem was brush fires. One brush fire amid the 50 mph winds destroyed 10 buildings, while another south of San Antonio destroyed 17 structures, including nine homes.

The strong winds also blew clouds of dust from West Texas into cities like Austin and Dallas, sharply cutting visibility and prompting air quality alerts. 

Further north, blizzards struck parts of the Plains and Midwest. While snow totals were not extraordinary, but still substantial in spots. Areas near Minneapolis-St. Paul were closing in on a foot of new snow this morning. 

The wind has been extraordinary, though.    Gusts commonly reached between 50 and 70 mph. Hugoton, in western Kansas, had a gust to 93 mph. 

The storm was forecast to move off into Canada today, while throwing a flood threat at sections of New England and New York as a parting shot. 

Videos

Footage of fast-moving wildfires in Bexar County, Texas, near San Antonio, with winds gusting to at least 50 mph. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Kind of a happy post, really, but this one is costumed characters at the New Orleans Mardi Gras deal with strong winds amid the party. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.  

Rainy, Mild March Vermont Day To Set Off A Bit Of A Flood Threat

Footprints and paw prints in last evening's snow, now
turned to melting slush as today's rainy thaw began
moving into the St. Albans, Vermont area this morning. 

 Welcome to the first truly rainy, mild day of spring, 2025 in Vermont. 

It will indeed rain most of the day statewide, and temperatures in many areas will warm to levels not seen since late December. 

Yes, rain and warm temperatures equals snow melt and a risk of flooding and ice jams. 

However, the conditions of the snow cover before the rains started, and the middling amount of rain in the forecast means this time around, flooding shouldn't be very extensive. 

 Ice jams are possible, of course but unless one forms in a very, very bad spot near a village or town along a river, we should be largely OK.

Knock on wood, there should only be a few scattered ice jams. Take it seriously though. f there is any kind of high water or jammed up ice, it's most likely tonight or tomorrow. 

Also, as we always know in early March, winter is NOT over so of course we'll need to deal with some of those issues coming up.

OK, the big picture is out of the way, let's get into the details:

TODAY

After a burst of snow and a little rain in northern Vermont last evening, things got quiet and warm-ish overnight. It was in the 30s to low 40s and western Vermont as of 6 a.m. but still a little below freezing east of the Green Mountains. 

Meanwhile, rain was moving in from the southwest, and should get through most of the Green Mountain State by mid to late morning. 

Sprinkles of rain have already made it into Vermont as of 7 a.m. but the main bands of it were still just approaching southwest parts of the state. 

There might briefly be a few patches of freezing rain at the start where it's cold in eastern Vermont, but that should resolve itself pretty quickly. The National Weather Service in South Burlington has issued a special weather statement that warns of potential black ice, especially on bridges, overpasses and around curves through this morning's rush hour in central and eastern Vermont. 

There's even a couple of pockets of cold air left in parts of Rutland County, so it could get slick there, too, for a little while this morning. 

The bulk of the rain should come through during the day today and the first half of tonight. Rainfall amounts might be as little as a quarter inch in the far northern Champlain Valley to up to an inch in southern Vermont. 

If there were no snow and ice to melt, that amount of rain we expect is absolutely no big deal. Just a routine amount for any storm system. 

But there is snow and ice to melt. Plenty of it in some areas. Obviously, only some of it will melt in this episode. And especially in high elevations and in eastern Vermont it might take awhile for it to start melting. 

Meteorologists say the snow has to "ripen" first. That means the temperature of the snow cover has to rise enough so that it starts spewing water from melting.  By the time the snowpack "ripens" in areas with deeper snow especially, the bulk of the rain will be over. 

It will stay warm overnight. In fact, high temperatures today in the mid and upper 40s to near 50 probably won't be reached until we get toward evening. Readings will stay at those levels overnight and into Thursday morning. 

The air will have an oddly humid, springlike feel to it, too. Humid air melts snow much more effectively than dry air, so even after most of the rain is over, the snow in many areas will be melting pretty rapidly. 

FLOOD/JAM POTENTIAL

If we have any flooding or ice jams at all in this episode, they are most likely to  happen overnight and through Thursday. 

There is a lot of water in the snow pack. The National Weather Service estimates the amount of water coming out of the snow through melting tonight and Thursday would be the equivalent of 1.5 to two inches of rain in parts of central and southern Vermont. 

That might well be enough to make river levels rise enough to break up the thick ice covering parts of those rivers. The ice starts to flow downstream, hits an obstruction, so the ice just backs up behind that obstruction and voila! You have an ice jam.

These things form quickly, so if you live in a flood-prone area, keep an eye on the river ice and be prepared to skedaddle if you see water backing up behind an ice jam.  You won't have all that much time to deal with it. 

Again, this won't be a widespread problem. But where any of those few ice jams form, it could be locally a very, very big problem. Any river from about the Winooski south in Vermont is at some risk of an ice jam or two. 

Even without ice jams, some rivers, like the Otter Creek, Mad River and Winooski, might get pretty high, and could peak just a little under minor flood stage during and just after this thaw.

In northern Vermont, where it will take longer for the snow to "ripen" only about the equivalent of an inch of rain will ooze out of those big snowbanks through melting. That reduces the chances of ice jams in northern Vermont. 

COLD RETURNS

It's only early March, so the cold will return, though not to the subzero levels we saw Monday morning.

The storm's cold front will come through Thursday afternoon with little precipitation but falling temperatures. Early afternoon will be balmy, and by the time the sun sets, you'll be starting to notice a  chill in the air. 

You'll need to watch it a bit Friday morning. By then, everything will have frozen back up again. Including any standing water left on untreated roads. Light snow showers will add to the back-to-winter scenario.

Snowfall won't amount to much. Most of us will see less than an inch, though the central and northern Green Mountains might pick up one to as much as four inches of new snow between Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning. 

Friday itself will be blustery and cold with temperatures staying at or below freezing. It should stay below freezing all weekend, including during the days. Though banana belt towns in low elevation southern Vermont could poke into the mid 30s both Saturday and Sunday. 

Early guesses are the next week or so should be fairly mellow, with frequent chances of a little snow or even rain later in the week, but nothing heavy.  

Next week will be a bit changeable and unpredictable too. As is typical in March, Vermont will be right near the springtime battleground between mild air to the south and still-wintry air encompassing most of Canada. 

Burst Of Snow Interfering With Tuesday Northern Vermont Evening Commute

Traffic camera grab for Interstate 89 in Georgia shows
pretty gnarly road conditions as a burst of "warm front"
snow passes through. Roads in northern Vermont
look like they will be pretty slick this evening. 

 A warm front associated with that large storm in the center of the nation is giving a surprisingly hefty burst of wet snow to northern Vermont. 

As of 4:30 p.m. a full inch of new snow had accumulated here in St. Albans. Traffic cameras show iffy driving conditions in Vermont, north of Route 2.

As of 4:30 p.m. traffic cameras showed it had just started snowing along Interstate 89 in Colchester and road conditions didn't look that bad - yet. 

As you headed north along the Interstate, things were just beginning to deteriorate along I-89 at the Lamoille River bridge in Milton. By the time you get up to Georgia, I-89 was obviously snow-covered and slick.

Since the snow is headed east, almost everyone along and north of Route 2 will see at least some snow and likely slick roads late this afternoon and this evening. 

The atmosphere continues to warm, and some of this snow might still flip to rain. 

But still, you might be surprised by some ice and slush under your tires as you head home from work. Be careful out there. I'm sure we'll have some slide offs, a few crashes and some delays on the highways.  If you were planning on going somewhere in northern Vermont but really don't have to, it might be wise to stay home this evening. 

This is all a precursor to the warm rain we're having tomorrow. I'll have much more on that in Wednesday morning's post. 

 

More Trump Moves On Top Of NOAA Firings Will Threaten Forecasting And Peoples' Lives Even More

Now, the Trump team might shut down leases on
critical NOAA/National Weather Service 
forecasting buildings, further degrading 
the quality of U.S. weather forecasting on top
of the harm the administration's firing of hundreds
of NOAA workers did last week. 

 The Trump administration looks like it wants to end the leases on two buildings that house critical NOAA and National Weather Service nerve centers. 

First reported in The Verge, it appears the NOAA Center for Weather And Climate Prediction is on the list for a lease cancelation. 

Reports Axios: 

"The building houses the National Weather Service's National Centers for Environmental Prediction, or NCEP, which includes the Environmental Modeling Center. It opened in 2012 and has about 268,000 square feet of space. 

The modeling center runs the computer models used in day-to-day weather forecasting and ensures the weather data correctly goes into these models and that they are operating correctly."

This center provides information to the National Weather Service, Air Force, Navy and Federal Aviation Administration, as The Verge reports. 

So it''s not just a matter of you ending up with a little rain on a day that forecasters said was going to be partly sunny. These operations are crucial for public safety in severe weather, national defense, and airline safety. 

Additionally NOAA has canceled a lead for a radar development lab in Oklahoma. 

So far, luckily, the lease cancelations are not a done deal, if you can believe Trump administration officials. 

Per Axios:

"A senior White House officials told Axios on Tuesday that for NOAA, the administration is "simply re-evaluating the lease terms, not closing any building, which any good steward of money would do.  The official stressed that no formal lease-cancellation letter has been sent to NOAA. The official acknowledged that DOGE is canceling leases at other government agencies, but said NOAA is an exception."

Predictably, and accurately. many experienced meteorologists decried the idea of ending the building leases - and likely the operations they run - as a dangerous move that will cost American lives. 

"This is horrible news for numerical weather prediction in this country. The data that comes from these key parts of our weather enterprise saves lives," Jim Cantore the famed meteorologist on The Weather Channel posted on X.

Meteorologist Brad Panovich, Chief Meteorologist at WCNC in Charlotte, North Carolina raised this excellent point on X:

"This will literally bankrupt the U.S. If you ever wondered why NOAA/NWS is in the department of commerce, I have some news for you. Every single $ of our economy is impacted by the weather. Agriculture, Energy, Travel, Logistics, Defense, logistics of every major company etc. I could go on but you get the idea."

Panovich said he thinks, or at least hopes, the lease cancelation idea will be reversed.  

Meanwhile, the Washington Post recently dove a little deeper into how all those firings at NOAA would affect weather forecasting. 

Here's only a few examples. 

For one thing, around the clock weather monitoring could suffer. After all, dangerous storms can happen anytime of day or night. What if radar went down in the wee hours of the morning just as a swarm of tornado-producing thunderstorms approached a particular region?

After tornadoes, the National Weather Service sends meteorologists out to survey damage. That's not just to be looky loos.  The damage assessments help them determine how strong the tornado was. Then they can analyze radar and other data from during the storm to help them better forecast the path and strength of future tornadoes that might form. 

As much as 25 percent of the staff at NOAA's Environmental Modeling Center was cut.  This is the office that builds, maintains and improves the computer models widely used in weather forecasting. 

If these models are not maintained and built, the data gets worse, and so does the forecast accuracy. That's important when a large storm like a hurricane or intense nor'easter seems likely to form.  Emergency managers want the best model so they can accurately pre-position resources to quickly step in to help.

By the way, cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service will not only cost lives, but also likely cost money, not save it.

The average United States taxpayer spends $3 for all the services and products the National Weather Service provides.   A 2019 study indicated that every $1 invested in the National Weather Service produces $73 in value for Americans. 

Today, an exceptionally large and powerful storm is sweeping the middle of the nation. It's spinning off tornadoes, blizzards, wildfires, floods, snowstorms and an incredible huge area of dangerous high winds stretching from New Mexico to New York. 

I hope that's investigated. 

This storm would have been incredibly challenging for National Weather Service meteorologists before the job cuts and the uncertainty and the morale issues this whole mess has brought on. 

Some tornadoes touched down in Texas.  A few of them had no warnings from the National Weather Service. It's still unclear if that was because the weather system was so complicated it was hard to tease out the developing tornadoes (possible), or whether this was related to last week's NOAA job cuts. 

As the spring severe storm season comes into focus, I fear we will have more "surprise" tornadoes because the Trump administration got rid of too many of the eyes that should be looking into these storms. 

 

Lucy Welch's Epic JD Vance Ski Area Snow Report Makes Her The Type Of Hero The Nation Needs Right Now

Lucy Welch's Sugarbush Resort ski
report last Saturday, made while
Vice President JD Vance was 
visiting the resort, was a master
 class in resistance, intelligence
and truth to power. 

Maybe I'm a little late to the party, but let's all hail Vermont's latest hero, Lucy Welch.

All winter, she dutifully got up at 4:30 in the morning and pulled together the latest weather forecasts, snowfall accumulation reports  and trail conditions for the Sugarbush Resort, a major ski area in central Vermont.  

At least she was doing that.

As of today, her employment situation is uncertain. I've heard conflicting reports. 

Here's the story:

Many of you heard that Vice President JD Vance came to the Sugarbush area with his family to enjoy a quick ski vacation. 

It might not have so enjoyable for Vance. More than 1,000 - at least -  protesters lines the streets of Waitsfield and Warren, the two main towns below Sugarbush to rail against the Vice President and the administration he works for. 

It was all over the news.  Vermonters tend to be a welcoming beneath a sometimes gruff exterior. But we have trouble suffering fools and scoundrels. So Vance wasn't the greatest fit here in the Green Mountain State.

Which leads us to Lucy Welch.

Every morning, her job was to deliver a report on the state of Sugarbush and boy did she deliver!  She included new snow reports and trail conditions as usual.  

But Welch's morning report featured a big bonus. Her report really looked at the big picture, including what the Trump administration is doing - or threatens to do - to the natural Green Mountain landscape and the people Welch truly loves.

Her report was not exactly a love letter to Vance.

Her report was quickly taken down, but things live forever on the Internet. Every word of her report is worth the read. 

Plus, Welch's essay/snow report was emailed to subscribers and it was definitely too late to undo that email. 

Since the is a climate and weather blog, I'll quote a pertinent section of Welch's Saturday morning Sugarbush ski and slope report:

"This administration also neglects to address the danger, or even the existence of, climate change, the biggest threat to the future of our industry and the skiing we all so much enjoy here. Burlington, Vermont is one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, and Vermont is the 9th fastest-warming state. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a resource I use every day for snow reporting, is crucial in monitoring extreme weather events and informing public safety measures, and is also experiencing widespread layoffs and defunding at the hands of the administration."

If Vance read Welch's Saturday morning Sugarbush report, he probably didn't love it. But a lot of other people did. 

Environmentalist Bill McKibbon, writing on Substack, declared Welch "a hero for the moment."

Long string of comments on Reddit, Facebook and other social media praised Welch. 

I liked the pun by the person who called Welch "based." Get it?  A personal compliment to her and a reference to the base of snow on the ski slopes. 

Her Saturday March 1 ski report had everything you need in the resistance to the Trump administration's worst policies. Welch used intelligence, creativity, kindness, empathy, forthrightness, honesty and truth. Those are surprisingly powerful weapons against mendacity, greed, selfishness and stupidity. 

Near the conclusion of her report, Welch wrote:

"I can only assume that I will be fired.....But at least this will do even a smidge more than just shutting up and being a sheep." Then she wrote, "What a gift to be a Sugarbush snow reporter. I hope that everyone has a fantastic day, and power to the freakin' people."

Like I mentioned earlier, It's actually unclear whether Welch has been fired or not.  I've heard some reports that she might be facing only a one-week suspension. 

I hope Sugarbush keeps her on. Or better yet, somebody hires Welch to help take on the Trump administration in some capacity.  

A word to the wise: In a world of JD Vances, be like Lucy Welch.

Trump Continues To Combat Climate Efforts On Many Fronts

Unsure whether climate change was messing up his hair 
here, but President Trump does not believe that climate
change exists, and is scrubbing away almost all the
work the federal government has done in combating
this threat to the world. 

 We saw how the Trump administration fired hundreds of NOAA workers, harming both weather forecasting and efforts to combat climate change.  

But that's not the only front in Trump's battle against climate change efforts. 

Federal websites have been scrubbed of climate information and data. Government scientists who still have jobs have been banned from collaborating on climate issues with experts in other nations. 

TAKING AWAY THE TOOLS

There is push back, of course. Environmental groups have sued the Department of Agriculture over the removal of climate information from its web sites. 

Per Courthouse News Service

"Filing suit in Manhattan federal court, the groups accused Trump's USDA of abruptly deleting climate-related policies, datasets and resources from its websites in violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires federal agencies to provide adequate advance public notice when substantially modifying or terminating 'significant information dissemination products.'"

The complaint states:

"In ordering staff to unpublish these webpages, USDA failed to consider how removing these resources would harm farmers, farm advisors, land managers, researchers and other members of the public, and thus failed to engage in reasoned decision-making, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act."

That's just. Regular folks, the ones Trump falsely claims to champion, need this data to run farms and other enterprises. 

"By wiping critical climate resources from the USDA's website, the Trump administration has deliberately stripped farmers and ranchers of the vital tools they need to confront the escalating extreme weather threats like droughts and floods," Midwest director the Environmental Working Group Anne Schechinger wrote in a statement. 

MAJOR CLIMATE REPORT HOBBLED 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a United Nations body that makes regular assessments about the state of the warming world. The last detailed assessment came out in 2023.

These reports try to synthesize the latest human understanding of climate change and what can be done to stop it. 

Per the Washington Post:

"Katherine Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate advisor, has been barred from traveling China to meet with colleagues on work related to the next major report from the IPCC......The next report is expected in 2029, and Calvin is leading one of the three major IPCC working groups.

NASA also terminated its contract with a U.S.-based group of scientists and staff who were working closely with Calvin to coordinate global efforts to craft the next assessment, essentially leaving one-third of the IPCCs next report adrift, with no staff assigned to pull it together."

Par for the course, Trump administration won't comment about this to the media, and won't clarify what they're doing, and so far won't tell any IPCC staff what the status of U.S. employees is regarding the report and work on climate change. 

REGULATIONS DISAPPEARING

A key Environmental Protection Agency scientific finding from a decade and a half ago supports the agency's efforts to combat climate change. Apparently, that scientific finding - factual as it is - does not work for the Trump administration. 

Because, I'm sure they're thinking, 'facts are stupid, especially when they get away with our money grubbing grifting political agenda. 

Per the Washington Post:

"The 2009 'endangerment finding' cleared the way for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act by concluding that the planet-warming gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. The Obama and Biden administrations used that determination to set strict limits on emissions from cars and power plants."

WaPo says EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been urging the White House to get rid of that scientific finding, and I'm sure Trump will agree with Zeldin on that point. 

With the science removed and replaced by pseudo-science, to put it mildly, the nation continues to abandon climate change efforts just when they were starting to have an effect.  

Like I noted when Trump and his at-least-for-now bosom buddy Elon Musk ditched all those NOAA and FEMA workers, Trump and his oligarchs don't really care how many people die in climate-related disasters or other misfortunes created by their stupidity and selfishness.

As we've seen with the health care industry, it's all about making more billions for the existing billionaires and oligarchs. Needless deaths are - to them anyway - the cost of doing business.   

Mount Mansfield, Vermont Now Has More Snow Than It Has In Seven Years; And Did Lake Champlain Freeze?

Matthew Parrilla's Mount Mansfield snow chart
shows the depth is well above average for this
time of year. Red line is this year, black line
is average. 

 While the amount of snow on the ground in most Vermont valleys has diminished a little due to recent thaws, the flakes keep piling up atop the state's highest peak. 

As of Saturday, there was 102 inches of snow on the ground at the stake on Mount Mansfield, not far below the summit. 

It's the second highest snow depth on record for that date atop the mountain. They've been keeping track of the snow depths up there since 1954.

This is the first time snow depth has exceeded 100 inches since April 18. 2019, when late season mountain snows brought the depth up above 8.5 feet. 

It looks like the April 18, 2019 figure hit as the snow on Mount Mansfield was just beginning to melt. A few weeks earlier, the snow depth was right around 119 inches. 

Judging by Matthew Parrilla's excellent Mount Mansfield snow charts, the deepest snow on record atop Mount Mansfield was around 145 inches around April 1, 1969. 

By Sunday, the snow depth on Mount Mansfield had increased to 103 inches. That might be a peak depth, but perhaps only a temporary one. 

Rainfall is expected even at summit level Wednesday and part of Thursday which would settle the 102 inches back somewhat. However, the snow depth on Mount Mansfield typically peaks around the third or fourth week in March. 

  Even if some of the snow melts or settles this week, more snow later in March could bring the snow depth to even more than they have now. 

LAKE CHAMPLAIN

Satellite view from Sunday shows a snow-covered
northern New England. That dark patch of blue
is an ice-free area of Lake Champlain Sunday afternoon.
Early this morning, we're waiting for new satellite
photos to determine if any or all of that open
water froze over last night and early this morning. 

If Lake Champlain didn't freeze over in last night's calm, frigid weather, it won't completely freeze over this year.

It came close in mid to late February, when only small open pockets were visible on the broad lake. Last week's thaw left a huge section of the broad lake open by Sunday ice-free, as satellite photos under Sunday's clear skies revealed. 

However, the water temperature is right near 32 degrees, so that big area of ice-free water could entirely freeze. It's unlikely, given it was such a huge area, but it could.

As temperatures plunged to near and below zero, skies remained clear. Those clear skies will help later this morning as satellite photos will be able to tell whether the lake froze over. 

An early look at the satellite photos ag 8:15 a.m. today seemed to indicate there was still open water in Lake Champlain this morning, but I'll update if I receive any confirmation later. 

If the lake didn't freeze over by early today, it won't this season.  Even though it will be below freezing today, enough sunshine and light breezes will prevent a daytime freeze over.  Then, a big warm spell is due midweek, which will erode away more of the lake ice.  

The last time the lake completely froze over was on March 8, 2019. The lake has never frozen over later in the year than March 11.

Wide Variety Of Dangerous Weather To Hit U.S. This Week. It's Already Starting

One proposed weather map for Wednesday shows a
large storm in middle of the nation that will cause
a wide variety of dangerous weather across
most of the nation. 

If you like weather excitement across the U.S., this will be your week, as a variety of rough weather is anticipated across wide areas.

That's all thanks to a large storm that's forecast to affect most of the nation from the Rockies east over the next few days. 

Ahead of the storm, dry, windy conditions fanned wildfires in the Carolinas Saturday, threatening homes and forcing evacuations. 

A 400-acre fire about 40 miles south of Asheville, North Carolina was zero percent contained as of Saturday evening and was forcing evacuations near the towns of Tyron and Saluda. 

Western North Carolina is now at a higher fire risk when it's dry due to all the fallen trees from Hurricane Helene last September. The tree debris is now fuel for wildfires. 

A separate fire was burning about 10 miles west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  That fire had grown to 1,200 acres as of Sunday morning, double the size it was Saturday evening. 

Video shows flames reaching tree tops right behind homes as firefighters tried to soak down the houses to prevent them from burning down.

UP NEXT

The  large storm will be crossing the nation over the next few days, raising the risks of severe weather, tornadoes, flooding, even blizzards.

The storm will start off in Colorado Monday, then strengthen rapidly as travels to somewhere around Kansas on Tuesday, near Michigan on Wednesday, and then it will finally move to Quebec Thursday will it will begin to diminish. 

This will be the first truly spring season-type large storm of the season.  Large storms in March, April and sometimes May start over the Rockies and move toward the Great Lakes and Northeast, spreading severe weather and tornado outbreaks to the south and late season winter storms to the north. 

Severe Weather/Tornadoes

With this storm, the severe storm risk will last for four days, starting today. 

This afternoon and evening, a relatively small area of southwest Oklahoma and northern Texas is potentially under the gun with severe thunderstorms, giant hail and maybe a tornado or two. The severe weather threat then moves to a somewhat larger area of central Oklahoma and north central Texas on Monday. 

The big, dangerous show is probably on Tuesday and quite possibly on Wednesday. A large area of the Gulf Coast and South might have severe storms and tornadoes Tuesday.  That threat will move to the southeastern United States Wednesday. 

Snowstorms

Winter storm watches are already in effect for parts of Colorado, northwest Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.  The snow will eventually extend into parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin an the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

The forecast is still uncertain, but very heavy snow could end up piling up in parts of Wisconsin and Michigan, and near blizzard conditions are possible by Wednesday. 

Flooding/Fires

The storm might have enough rain to produce flooding in parts of the Midwest and South, and even possibly parts of the Northeast. 

Meanwhile strong, very dry winds behind the storm will create an exceptionally high fire risk today through Tuesday in much of New Mexico and western Texas. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

This storm will affect us here in the Green Mountain State, too, first by quickly ending the late season cold wave we're having. Then by giving us quite a thaw again, some rain and maybe a little flooding. 

Starting tomorrow, we'll begin to escape this Arctic snap. After lows tonight near or below zero, we'll make it into the 20s Monday. Still quite a bit colder than normal, but better than today.

Then, the storm's warm front will bring light precipitation and temperatures well into the 30s Tuesday. 

Wednesday and Wednesday night, part of Thursday, too look rainy and mild, with highs Wednesday and maybe Thursday getting well into the 40s to possibly near 50. 

At this point, it's not looking like the rain will be tremendously heavy. But it might be enough, combined with melting snow, to set off some flooding. The thaw and rain could start breaking up river ice, which could cause local ice jam flooding. 

We'll have more on this when we get closer to the event.

Meteorological Spring Began Saturday. Doesn't Feel Like It Now, But...

If NOAA's seasonal forecast is right, chance lean
toward a generally warm spring here in Vermont 

We did the February weather summary in Saturday's post, and now we can also take a look at Vermont's meteorological winter, and what spring might look like. 

Meteorological winter runs from December 1 through February 28- except of course in Leap Years, when it's February 29.

Meteorological spring goes from March 1 through May 31.  The seasons are divided this way mostly just to make it easier for climatologists to compare seasons. 

While each winter month in Vermont was wildly different from each other - for instance, January was super dry and December and February were a little on the wet side - the winter of 2024-25 worked out to be right around average, as measure in Burlington, anyway.

The average temperature for the three months was 23.8, which is just 0.2 degrees cooler than the average of the years 1990-2020.  

As I always do, I'll note that the 1990-2020 average is warmer than the 20th century average, because climate change had notably taken over by then.  Had the winter of 2024-25 actually then place in the mid-20th century, it would have been considered a warmer than average winter. 

Also at Burlington, precipitation from December 1, 2024 through February 28, 2025 amounted to 6.31 inches. That's a mere 0.09 inches below average - essentially normal.

The winter outlook for our region, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last October 17 indicated chances skewed slightly toward a warm winter in Vermont, and there were equal chances of above or below normal precipitation. So they were pretty close. 

For what it's worth, the spring outlook has been released. Predictions lean toward a warm spring across the South and up the eastern seaboard, including here in Vermont. If this forecast works out the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies would have a cool spring. 

For us here in Vermont, NOAA has equal chances of it being wet or dry, with maybe a slight lean toward being on the wetter side. 

Vermont February Was Snowy, Stormy, Still Not Historically Wildly Out Of Whack

A snow squall cuts visibility in St. Albans to near zero
on February 7.  This year brought Vermont one of the 
snowier Februaries on record. 

 The February climate data is in for Vermont, and as you've probably already guessed, we had a true winter month for a change. 

Even so, it wasn't really that out of the ordinary compared to past Februarys in the state.

Temperatures.

We were pretty consistent statewide, with pretty much all weather stations running between about 1.5 to 2 degrees cooler than normal, give or take. 

Remember, though, "normal" is the new normal. It's based on the average of the years 1990 to 2020. Those years were already warmer than the 20th century average, thanks to climate change.

Based on this "new normal," February, 2025 in Burlington came in at 1.7 degrees chillier than average. But had this exact same month occurred in the 1960s or 1970s, it would have been regarded as slightly warmer than average. 

Still, the month just ended was Burlington's coldest February in a decade.  

Temperatures never went to extremes at any time in February, really. February temperatures historically in Burlington have ranged as high as 72 degrees (in 2017) to as low as minus 30 (in 1979).

This year, the highest it ever got in Burlington was 47 and the lowest was 8 below.  No daily record high or low temperatures were set. 

Climate change has made daily record highs in Burlington generally more frequent. But we haven't had a record high since December 30. I wonder if we're overdue for that. 

Snow

It took a lot of shoveling to keep up with the snow in
Vermont during February, 2025

As you might have noticed, we definitely had a snowy month. Burlington accumulated a total of 33.2 inches in February, making it the fifth snowiest February on record. (Top spot goes to the very snowy year of 2011, when 43.1 inches of snow fell in February). 

The snow depth atop Mount Mansfield reached 98 inches by February 27 and 28. That's far above the average depth of 65 inches there for late February. 

I hope all this snow gave a boost to Vermont's economy. There were no thaws in Vermont to the very end of the month, and even then, temperatures weren't that hot.  Which means snow conditions for all kinds of winter sports were primo. 

Even though February was snowy, low elevations have not had a particular snowy winter. Burlington through February 28 has had 64.4 inches of snow since the first flurries came in November. That's jus slightly below the average for this date of 65.

Melted Precipitation

With all that snow, the water equivalent of the frozen precipitation and any rain that fell was above normal for February across Vermont.  That's a good thing, since most of the state still has a few lingering effects from last autumn's drought. All this snow melting in the spring will help with replenishing ground water. 

Burlington had 2.58 inches of rain and melted snow in February, which is a little over three quarters of an inch above normal. By my count, this February was Burlington's 21st wettest out of the past 141 years. 

Most everyone else in Vermont had about the same amount of precipitation as Burlington, except of course in the mountains, which had more. Most Vermont weather stations had about a half to two thirds of an inch more precipitation than average.

Looking Ahead.

More than perhaps any other month, March is a weather wildcard in Vermont. Early indications are this month will be no exception. 

We woke up this morning in much of the state with a little new snow on the ground, which is starting to melt as temperatures briefly rise above freezing. Then, temperatures will horrible crash starting this afternoon and continuing into Monday morning. 

After some below zero temperatures Sunday and Monday morning, it looks like we'll warm up to thawing and rain by midweek. From there, I imagine we'll have the kind of roller coaster we almost always have in March: One day wintry, the next springlike then back to winter.

Trump To People Threatened By Dangerous Weather: Drop Dead

Friday's firing of hundreds of staffers at NOAA,
including the National Weather Service, put
American lives in danger, but the Trump
administration is unconcerned about that. 

As expected and dreaded, the Trump administration, led by the Elon Musk putting public safety during extreme weather events in jeopardy. 

The firings include positions at the already-understaffed National Weather Service, which is the nation's front line warning system for when storms turn dangerous. 

Exact numbers are hard to come by, but it looks like about 10 percent of NOAA's work force would lose their jobs. 

The first test of how these cutbacks will affect public safety could come as early as Tuesday and Wednesday, as a potentially significant tornado outbreak seems possible across the Deep South. 

Such outbreaks of severe weather require a high level of attention from meteorologists because such conditions evolve quickly. A harmless thunderstorm can become tornadic in minutes, and the National Weather Service needs to be ready to issue warnings. 

A lack of staff could mean key hints that a tornado is forming could be missed.

Per the Washington Post:

"Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the move to fire NOAA staff 'including mission-critical and life-saving roles at the National Weather Service is profoundly alarming'

'I want to be clear: If there were to be large staffing reductions at NOAA and NWS...there will be people who die in extreme weather events and weather-related disasters who would not have otherwise.'"

The firings include about 375 probationary employees at the National Weather Service. The pre-existing short staffing there is due in large part to a previous hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration. 

Also on Friday, news broke that a federal judge ruled the mass firings of probationary government works across several agencies are probably illegal. The judge ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directions ordering the mass firings.

It's unknown how this ruling will ultimately affect the firings at NOAA and other agencies. 

Already the cutbacks are being felt. The National Weather Service routinely launches balloons into the air so minute details of atmospheric conditions can be assessed. This data is fed into forecasting computer models. 

Balloon launches are already being canceled due to new staff shortages, so the quality of these forecasting models might well diminish.  That's especially bad when emergency managers are trying to get an idea in advance of where a severe storm might go and how bad it will get.  This helps them pre-position supplies in the path of the storm to get an early jump on recovery. 

Worse climate models will mean worse, more inaccurate forecasts. 

Besides, a lot of FEMA workers have been canned by Trump and Musk, too. The combination FEMA and National Weather Service firings will certainly mean emergency responses to U.S. weather disasters will become much worse. Again, unnecessarily threatening lives. 

Your local TV meteorologist will be affected by the cutbacks as well. They rely on data from the NOAA and the National Weather Service to formulated their forecasts. If the data degrades because the NWS firings, so will the TV meteorologists' forecasting accuracy, no matter how talented that meteorologist is. 

Well known, professional meteorologists around the nation condemned the firings. "Mass firings have started at the National Weather Service, including people in critical roles. Cutting waste is great. Mindlessly taking a sledgehammer to a valuable organization is stupid. All the know-it-alls who said we were fabricating this threat can shut up now, thanks," said Josh Morgerman on X.  Morgerman is a well -known hurricane and typhoon chaser and documentarian. 

When the decision to fire NOAA staffers seemed imminent but hadn't quite happened yet, veteran meteorologist (and one of the nation's top tornado experts) had this to say on X:

"The post is not about politics, but about support for my friends that work for the National Weather Service, part of NOAA, a federal agency.

NWS meteorologists work long, hard hours serving the people of this country, not only during times of severe weather, but on routine days as well,

Their surface and upper air observation networks along with computer models radars and satellites are critical for all meteorologists, including those of us in the private sector."

There is already some political pushback to the NOAA firings. We'll see what happens with those. Colorado Sens. John Hickenlooper (D) and Michael Bennet (D) and Rep. Joe Negus (D) have called for an independent investigation into the mass firings, according to The Hill. 

I know this seems awfully conspiratorial, but I think a goal of the Trump administration is to have people live in fear. They're easier to control that way. So they fear having Medicaid, and Social Security taken away. 

The NOAA firings are another form of fear: Will we still receive adequate warnings when severe weather threatens?

This is all also likely to be a part of Project 2025, the wide ranging 922-page plan developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation to remake the federal government under Trump. 

Trump seems to be playing by the Project 2025 playbook. That plan called for privatizing weather forecasting in the U.S.  That, would, of course, make weather forecasting less reliable, and perhaps put critical weather warnings behind paywalls that some people might not be able to afford. 

I still worry we're heading in that direction, which would be even worse that the stupid, ill-advised NOAA firings we saw on Friday. 

This also all could further enrich Trump. Musk and other U.S. oligarchs. Hey, if the billionaires are able to collect a few extra billion beyond what they already have, it's worth the price of lost lives. At least in their rotten minds. 

 

 

The Vermont Weather Roller Coaster Is On An Extreme Trip

Our by now very familiar snow forecast map from the
National Weather Service office in South Burlington.
This one depicts the mostly 2 or 3 inches of snow
we expect from a snowfall tonight and Saturday
morning. More snow in the mountains as 
usual with this one. 

Around 5 a.m. this morning, it was still above freezing in most of Vermont after an overnight thaw. 

By dawn, things were quite different. 

Temperatures across the northern part of the state were crashing through the 20s, and those trends were soon to follow south. 

It's another backwards day, with high temperatures when they're supposed to be at lowest, and low temperatures in the afternoon when they're supposed to be at their highest. 

We're going to see a lot of huge temperature gyrations over the next few days. 

I'd watch it on some of the roads during this morning's commute. A few snow showers accompanied the blast of colder air this morning, so there will be a slick spot or two here and there. It might not be as widespread as Thursday's mess on the roads, but it's an issue. I noticed a pretty good snow squall in Addison and Washington counties around 6:15 a.m. today, for instance. 

Gusty winds this morning will make it feel colder, but those readings will level off in the teens and 20s this afternoon. 

Things will continue with the temperatures doing the opposite of what they should tonight and tomorrow.

THE CLIPPER

Tonight, a fast moving storm - known as one of those infamous Alberta Clippers - will come in from the west, giving us a burst of snow, then rising temperatures overnight. Maybe even a few rain showers as temperatures sneak above freezing for most of us by tomorrow morning. That will be followed by an even bigger temperature crash during Saturday afternoon.

Most of us will get a decent but short burst of snow overnight, lasting no more than six hours and depositing maybe two or three inches of snow in the valleys and up to five or six in the mountains That should hit between about 8 p.m. and 1 a.m., give or take. 

Just as the snow will last only a few hours, the "thaw" Saturday will only last about that long.  Most of us will start getting above freezing early Saturday morning, but those temperatures should start to crash by early afternoon.  Backwards again, as it normally keeps getting warmer through the early and mid afternoon. Not on Saturday!

Those falling temperatures will be accompanied by snow showers, and a few scattered snow squalls. So once again on Saturday afternoon, you could get caught on some iffy Vermont roads and highways if you're out there during the day. 

THE COLD WAVE

I know this is hitting March, when you start to expect to see  the strength of cold waves starting to wane. But this one could be among the strongest this winter. Which isn't saying a whole lot, since we never did see anything worse than 20s below this winter. 

This time we'll eventually see lows in the single numbers below zero in the warmer banana belt towns and teens below elsewhere. Those frigid temperatures should hit early Monday morning. 

Before we get there, we'll wake up Sunday morning with readings pretty close to 0 degrees. We'll only make it into the teens at best Sunday afternoon.  At least the sun will come out. 

The cold snap will be short-lived, as is usually the case with March bouts of winter weather. Monday will remain unseasonably cold with highs near 20.  But temperatures won't drop much Monday night, and most of us will be back above freezing Tuesday afternoon. 

We're still watching a storm for midweek that looks like it wants to produce rain and temperatures in the 40s.  For now anyway, forecasters have backed off on the amount of rain we'll get from it. But we'll still need to keep tabs on whether enough thawing and rain will come to set off any flooding or river ice jams.  

Vermont Interstate Crashes Cleared Up After This Morning's Mess, Could Be Spots Of Trouble, Too

Traffic camera image shows cars backed up along
Interstate 89 in Georgia this morning due to a a 
series of car crashes. Slick roads from a light
snowfall are to blame. 

 The car and truck crashes on Interstate 89 up around Georgia and St. Albans, Vermont that gummed up the works for hours this morning have long since been cleared up.  

However, at least in some spots across Vermont, we might do it again tomorrow morning with locally treacherous roads. Saturday, too. 

This morning goes to show you how just a little bit of snow with terrible timing can really cause trouble. Burlington reported just 0.6 inches of snow this morning and here at my house in St. Albans, I collected a half inch.

It all hit right during the morning commute. Not before. Not after. During. 

I think the fact that there was so little snow gave morning commuters a false sense of security. Plus, the snow was kind of soggy and slushy, which can be even more slippery on the roads than more powdery snow. 

According to television station WPTZ, it started around 7:30 a.m. when six vehicles were involved in a crash on the southbound lanes of Interstate 89 in the Georgia area. Three people were injured. At about the same time, not far up the road, a tractor trailer carrying frozen food lost control on the slushy snow and hit three vehicles. A fourth vehicle then got involved in the mess.

People traveling in the southbound lane of Interstate 89 were stuck for well over an hour.  Things didn't really get back to normal until around 11:30 this morning. 

Further south in West Hartford, Vermont a car hit a municipal snow plow. It sounds like the car that hit the plow was cut off by another vehicle. So the poor person hit the brakes hard, and skidded into the plow. 

FRIDAY MORNING HEADACHE?

Temperatures rose above freezing this afternoon and roads were just wet. 

It looks like it will stay above freezing in most of northern Vermont until midnight. Then, at first, it will start to cool off gradually. 

But right before dawn, a second cold front will come through, making the temperatures crash rapidly. Any water on the road will freeze. Worse, the front could be accompanied by brief snow showers that can lay down another dusting of snow the will join the freeze party as temperatures fall through the 20s during the morning rush hour.

Just keep that in mind in case there's new issues tomorrow. 

Saturday morning, we do it again as another slightly larger storm blunders through. It looks like most of us will see two to four inches of snow out of that one, with possibly more in the mountains 

I'll have more details on that tomorrow morning. 

More On Heavy Snows That Literally Crushed Parts Of New York, Canada. With Videos

Photo of Camden, New York taken
on February 18.

 If you think the snow we had, now partially melted was bad.  

In Oswego County alone, at least 50 structural collapses occurred within 10 days this February.  

 Some areas east of Lake Ontario have received 360 inches of snow so far this winter. Areas east of Lake Erie in New York have gotten 180 inches so far, according to severeweatherus on Threads. 

A foot of fluffy snow on a typical home roof weighs roughly the same as a pickup truck. A foot of heavy, wet snow is about the same as three pickup trucks. 

The snow was fairly wet and heavy coming off Lake Ontario.  Then, this week a little rain fell, soaking into the snow and make it all the more heavy. 

So far, there have been super serious injuries or deaths. But one woman in Fulton was injured when the roof of her home collapsed. Other people have been injured falling off roofs as they try to shovel away the snow before any collapse could occur. 

Earlier in February, the village of Camden, New York, northeast of Syracuse, endured more than five feet of lake effect snow.  

The Camden public works department salt shed collapsed under the snow, as did the roofs of a local bowling alley and community center.

An onion storage facility in Fulton, New York also collapsed, destroying about a million pounds of onions in the process.

It's not just New York.  In Ottawa, Canada, large sections of a six-story parking garage collapsed under the weight of snow piled on top of it. Nobody was hurt but 50 cars are still stuck in the remaining, intact  section of the garage and nobody  has figured out how to get them out yet. 

Videos. 

Here's video of the Barneveld, New York, fire department collapsing under the weight of heavy snow. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

The wreckage of an onion storage facility in Fulton, New York that collapsed is shown in this video. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see image below, click on that. 

If  you thought you had too much snow to deal with about a week ago, let's take a tour of Camden, New York, about eight days ago to see how bad it could really get. Once again, click on this link to view, ori you see the image below, click on that. 

The moment a parking garage in Ottawa, Canada collapsed, likely because of snow loading on the roof.  Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.  

 Here's one of the main areas Montreal dumps its snow from its streets. It's an old quarry. Looks pretty efficient. Would love to know when (or if!) all that snow being dumped there will finally melt. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

Vermont Spring Hint Didn't Last Long; Now For Some Wintry, Very Changeable Active Weather

My St. Albans, Vermont driveway was finally completely
clear of ice and snow after thawing this week, but a 
burst of snow this morning covered it 
right back up again. 

 UPDATE:  It appears the burst of snow really caused some havoc and trouble in northwest Vermont.

As of 8:45 a.m. Interstate 89 southbound between St. Albans and Georgia was closed. There's reports of a 15-vehicle pileup, with injuries.  Reports are there's some "satellite" car crashes near the main pileup.

There really wasn't much snow, but the wet snow suddenly coating what had been a dry or just wet road appears to have contributed. 

If these reports are true, this will be the worst winter-related car crash in Vermont this winter.

Hoping the injuries aren't serious!

Though road conditions will be improving soon, take care out there. 

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Wednesday afternoon in Vermont really felt like our first embrace of spring. 

Sure it was actually a few degrees cooler  than it was Tuesday. But the sun came out. The sun angle is better, too, than it was early in the winter. It gets as high in the sky now as it did in mid-October. 

Between that sun, the light winds, it felt downright warm out there. That sun even opened up some bare patches in the snow cover on a few south facing slopes and under evergreen trees. 

It was back to reality this morning. 

An ill-timed batch of snow lifted from north to south across Vermont this morning, screwing up road conditions in time for the morning commute.  Roads  might be in rough shape in a few spots by the time you read this. 

In most places, those roads will improve by later this morning. But only temporary.

BIG PICTURE

We're in for a kind of a wild ride over the next week.  March of all months tends to bring us the most wild swings in temperature and storminess.  (For instance in Burlington, it has the widest potential swings in temperature. It's been as cold there in March as 24 below and as hot as 84 above).

There's also big differences between valleys and mountains. While the snow has been melting in the valleys, it's continued to pile up on the Green Mountain summits. Burlington's snow cover has dropped from 18 to 12 inches in the past week. 

Meanwhile atop Mount Mansfield Wednesday, the snow depth reached 97 inches, the most so far this winter. They'll probably break 100 inches over the weekend. 

Yes, I know March doesn't officially start until Saturday, but in the weather department, March has gotten off to an early start right now. 

There's going to be changes in the weather almost minute by minute over the next week and probably beyond. And confidence in forecasts is a little lower than usual. But let's take you through the next few days, looking at how we think it will shape up. 

TODAY

The burst of snow will taper off briefly as temperatures warm. Then some rain will move in this afternoon. The exception might be eastern and northeastern Vermont, where enough cool air could hang tough to keep most of the precipitation as snow. 

The National Weather Service's forecast of snowfall
around the region between this morning and Sunday
morning. The Green and White Mountains and
Adirondacks could see locally near a foot of snow
while most valleys will be in the three to eight
inch range. Results may vary. 

Highs for most of us should get into the 30s to low 40s. 

The warm air should hang on into the evening but big changes are on the way, of course!

FRIDAY

It will be one of those backwards days. The high temperature for the day will probably hit just a minute after midnight early in the morning and fall all day, bottoming out near 20 degrees or so in the late afternoon, when you're normally supposed to have the high temperature for the day. 

Snow showers will grace the mountains in the morning and then taper off.

Then at night temperatures will start to rise again as the next storm heads our way with another batch of snow starting in the hours before midnight.

SATURDAY

A quick moving, pretty strong Alberta clipper type storm is the culprit here. This should deposit a good two to six inches of snow on most of us by mid-morning Saturday, with more possible in the mountains. 

The path of the storm suggests temperatures could briefly rise above freezing Saturday morning before the storm's powerful cold front crashes through. Temperatures should fall fast during the day, and we will be at risk of snow showers and some heavy snow squalls here and there. 

Overall, between this morning and Sunday morning total snow accumulation should be in the two to four inch range in the Champlain Valley and southern Vermont valleys, four to seven inches in central and northern Vermont, and eight to 12 inches in the central and northern Green Mountains. Maybe more than that in a few favored summits. 

SUNDAY AND MONDAY

Mid-winter cold.  Highs only in the teens Sunday will lead to lows near or below zero Monday morning. It'll start to warm up only a little Monday afternoon, getting into the 20s before a bigger warmup starts Tuesday. 

MIDWEEK WORRIES

Some computer models are hinting at a hit from briefly warm temperatures, and worse, heavy rain toward Wednesday. If that happens, we'll need to worry about flooding and ice jams.  . Could be bad, but we don't know enough about it yet. There's still time for forecasts to change radically, so this could still very much be a false alarm. We'll keep an eye on it. 

Vermont Governor Trying To Scale Back Climate Initiatives

Flooding in Richmond, Vermont, July, 2023. Climate driven
disasters are increasing costing Vermonters a lot of money.
Efforts to combat greenhouse emissions also cost 
money, leading to political tension in Montpelier. 

 Vermont Gov. Phil Scott is a Republican, but he's by no means a Trump Republican

In fact, the two men do not get along with each other, at least based on Scott's past comments about the current president. 

Trump hates any efforts to fight climate change, as he considers the science a hoax.

Scott thinks climate change is a real thing, so I guess he's certain hurdled that low bar. The Vermont governor also thinks we should act to combat climate change. But it appears he thinks we've gone to far with that project. At least for now. 

As WCAX reports: 

"Gov. Phil Scott wants Vermont lawmakers to change course on fighting climate change and proposes lawmakers roll back mandates to decarbonize. For the governor, it's all about affordability. What state lawmakers choose to do or not to do will have a direct effect on what Vermonters may pay for heating oil, electric rates and more.

Environmental advocates are sounding the alarm over what they see as the state walking back on a commitment to the climate and the future."

"We say no to these rollbacks because it is a moral imperative,' said Laura Zakaras of Third Act Vermont."

Scott has long opposed some if not all the climate initiatives passed in recent years by the Vermont legislature. Democrats had a super majority, which meant anything they passed was veto-proof. So the Democrats in recent years passed a flurry of anti-climate change legislation. 

In November, Republicans made gains in the legislature, so now Scott has more power to oppose Democrats. And try to roll back some of the more ambitious climate initiatives now enshrined intoVermont law. 

It's not that Scott doesn't want to combat climate change. He does. He's seen first hand how climate-worsened disasters have made life harder for Vermonters in recent years. His tack is to develop a plan of his own to deal with climate change. 

Per VTDigger:

"'We agree on the need to reduce emissions,' Scott said when announcing the proposal at a January 30 press conference. 'But we need to be realistic about what we can do and make sure we're on a timely that makes sense, and doesn't harm Vermonters financially as a result."

One law is troublesome for both Scott, and the actual deadlines in the statute The Global Warming Solutions Act sets deadlines to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, 2030 and 2050. That Democratic legislature overrode Scott's veto of the bill in 2020.

This Global Warming Solutions Act requires a lot of self-discipline, accountability and creativity in Vermont for it to work and signs are we might not have enough oomph to comply with it. 

There's no plan in place that would satisfy the 2030 deadline, and that could get messy. Here's why, as VTDigger reports:

"A specific measure within the law, called a legal 'cause of action,' allows citizens to sue the Agency of Natural Resources if the state isn't on track to meet its deadlines. The Conservation Law Foundation has already filed a lawsuit challenging the Agency of Natural Resources' projection that it will meet the 2025 deadline."

A Republican sponsored bill would get rid of the part of this statute that allows those lawsuits if Vermont doesn't meet those emissions deadlines. 

This is all just another example of how hard it really is to reduce emissions and combat climate change. It's costly now, and people living pay check to pay check don't have the means to pay higher taxes, or inflationary costs on other goods, like fuel, if that's what the emissions rules.

Then again, if nobody contributes to cutting emissions, it's more costly for all of us down the road. Climate change is kind of a lose/lose in that regard.   

We don't know what will happen this legislative session, of course.  Fighting climate change is a hard enough fight in tiny little localities like Vermont. 

No consider doing this on a global scale

It's daunting. 

   

 

And there's the tension that always seems to come in these potential expensive ways to deal with climate change.

It's kind of pay now or pay later. with even well-meaning