January Turned Out Quiet And Dry In Vermont, A Break From Recent Chaotic Weather

The tone of January in northern Vermont: Snowy 
mountains, but not much in the valleys. 

We just got through a Vermont January and to sum up the weather for the month, I guess we can describe the month as, honestly, a little boring. 

Vermont weather during January frankly lacked personality. It didn't bring any exciting tales to tell in terms of storms. The month didn't wow us with temperature extremes.  If January, 2025 was a person, they would not be the type you'd want to invite to a wild party.  

We can't complain, though. Exciting usually means damaging and disruptive and chaotic when it comes to weather. 

Vermont has had more than our share of that kind of thing in recent months, so it was kind of a nice break to experience a rather colorless January. 

January temperatures statewide averaged out to be right near normal.  Of course this is the "new normal" as "average" is based on the past 30 years of weather. Climate change had already made things around here warmer over those three decades, so "normal" is toastier than it was a couple generations ago. 

A chilly mid-January sunset near Fairfield, Vermont.
This was a relatively rare day in which the sun
was out for a good part of it. 

Had this same month occurred, say in the 1960s or 1970s, we'd be remarking about how mild January was. 

The dull nature of the January, 2025 becomes more apparent when you dive deeper into the temperature data for the month. 

Across the state, average high temperatures for the month were a little colder than what is considered normal these days. Overnight lows for the month were a little on the mild side. 

That at least partly reflects the grey feel we had in January. It was usually cloudy, so that held daytime temperatures down while keeping nighttime temperatures up.

Despite all the clouds, it didn't really snow or rain much. Except for the northern Green Mountains, the entire state had a very dry January.  Most place had less than  half their normal installment of January rain and melted snow. 

It was driest in northern Vermont in towns west and east of the Green Mountains, where less than an inch of precipitation came down. The 0.75 inches of precipitation in Burlington tied with 1933 as the 13th driest January on record since the late 1880s, when reliable records started. 

After another cloudy day, late afternoon sun breaks
through to light up the trees if not the 
clouds in St. Albans, Vermont on January 15. 

Snowfall was below normal too, except for a small area in the northern Green Mountains. Generally speaking, most places in valley locations were about a half foot on the light side. 

Seasonal snowfall is seriously lagging especially in the Lower Connecticut and Champlain Valleys. Burlington should have had 46.6 inches of snow so far this season, instead only 31,2 inches had appeared through January 31. 

FEBRUARY

We've gotten ourselves into a highly variable weather pattern with lots of temperature swings, as I mentioned in an earlier post,  It's usually almost impossible to anticipate what the weather will be like for an entire upcoming month. February, 2025 is even more uncertain than usual.

For those of you who are not dark winter fans, on average, we're on the upswing. On average, the third week of January is the coldest of the year.. February begins a gradual upswing.

First of all, on Friday we had our first post 5 p.m. sunset of the year, at least as observed in Burlington. By February 28, the sun will set at 5:39 p.m. 

The average temperature does not go up much from January during February, but at least there's some improvement. Today's normal high and low temperature in Burlington are 29 and 12 degrees.  By February 28, the normal high and low are 35 and 18

Roller Coaster Vermont Weather Getting Even More Roller Coaster-y

Traffic camera picked up a winter wonderland with
nice dawn colors after last night's snow along 
Route 7 in Shaftsbury, Vermont this morning. 

 Friday evening's snow in southern and central Vermont is heading out, and now we're faced with more up and down weather.  Cold to warm to cold again. With even bigger extremes than we've seen. 

That tired cliche where if you don't like the weather in Vermont it will change in a minute seems to be especially true lately. 

As of early this morning, snow totals from last night are hard to come by as reports haven't really come in yet. I do see 5.2 inches in Norwich, down in Windsor County and 4.5 inches in Landgrave, which is in far southern Vermont. 

Roads were still slick in spots across central and southern Vermont early this morning, so take care on the highways. 

It was nice to see southern Vermont get the snow for a change. For the past month, any snow we have gotten has been mostly focused on the central and northern Green Mountains. 

Route 302 in Topsham was still pretty snow covered
as of 7:30 this morning so take care on the roads
in central and southern Vermont until things
are cleaned up after last night's snow.

The Friday evening snow made it as far north as Route 2, as Burlington reported 1.1 inches of snow last evening. 

Further north, here in St. Albans Friday's snow completely missed us, though we were getting a few flurries early today due to the frigid air blasting in from Quebec. 

In the Champlain Valley, there's still enough ice-free water on the lake to help produce some lake affect snows in parts of Chittenden and Franklin counties this morning.

 A few places could get one to three inches of fluff before that ends probably by noon or so. 

BRIEFLY FRIGID, AGAIN

Temperatures that were in the 30s in many places Friday afternoon were in the low and mid teens just before dawn today. Those readings will either stay steady or slowly fall through the day, even as the sun comes out in many areas this afternoon. 

That sets us up for what will for many of us be the coldest night of the winter so far. Which really isn't saying much since most of us have never been colder than the single numbers to teens below zero so far this season, which isn't all that wild. The record low in Burlington Sunday is 25 below, and we'll get nowhere near that. 

Even so, tonight, clear skies, light winds, Arctic air and snow cover will ensure it gets plenty cold.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington is going with an expected low of about 6 below in Burlington, to the low teens below in many areas, and low 20s below in the cold hollows of the Northeast Kingdom. 

All that's no where near record cold, but it will feel plenty nippy. 

SUNDAY/MONDAY

Only one to three inches of snow are expected in our
next round Sunday night, with a brief that likely
for many of us on Monday. 

Then we go back uphill on the roller coaster. We'll warm up cold again Sunday, meaning the temperatures will rocket upward but a stiff south wind will make it feel frigid. Especially in the first half of the day before readings get too warm. 

By late afternoon, most of us will be in the 20s.  Which means it will be a whopping 30 to 40 degrees warmer than it was at the start of the day. 

A warm front passing through Sunday night will give us a burst of light snow, with most of us getting one to three inches. A little less than that perhaps in the Champlain Valley. 

We'll have some "wrong way" temperatures overnight Sunday into early Monday as temperatures stay steady in the 20s or slowly rise toward the low 30s.

That brings us to Monday, and a brief thaw. Warmer valleys get into the low 40s with some light rain showers around. That'll be one peak in our roller coaster ride as those temperatures rocket downward again by Tuesday. 

TUESDAY-FRIDAY

The Tuesday cold snap won't be as bad as tonight's but by Tuesday night, we should be back down in the single numbers above zero, with a few places in minus territory.

But fear not! The temperature goes right back up again.  We can't have more than 12 hours of one type of weather before things switch again, right?

There's still a lot of questions about the next warm up and storm Wednesday to Thursday. But it has the potential to be bigger than these piddling little things we've had for the past month.  Preliminary forecasts have it going by to our northwest.

That would be a snow to rain scenario with a thaw. If it gets really warm and rains a lot, we could have trouble with a bit of flooding, actually. 

We have much more ice on rivers this winter than we did the previous two. That means ice jams are more likely this year during thaws. That'll be something to watch. If not next week then later in the winter or early spring.  

I wouldn't worry too much yet. It might not rain much, or the storm track will shift and it might end up being a little colder than the forecasts right now are saying. Some forecasts depict a weaker storm passing to our south, which would give us light snow instead of a thawing rain. 

Given our roller coaster weather pattern, that late week warmth probably won't last long. Chances are we'll be in the deep freeze again next Friday or Saturday.