Chilly, Boring Weather For A Few More Days Of Vermont "Winter Doldrums"

Yet another day of Henry The Weather Dog trying
to stay warm. On New Year's Day, he took full
advantage of a patch of sun coming through the
window and landing on his favorite chair. 

 We've settled into the core of our cold weather pattern in Vermont, as we continue on with our shivering and complaining. 

Well, most of us are doing that. I understand that there are some folks out there who live for zero degree cold and gusty, wind-chilled January days in the great outdoors.  

I've just gotten soft in my old age, is all. 

The New Year's Eve weather drama mostly passed us by to our south. Although some northern Vermont highlands did manage hare in the snowy fun. 

Smugglers' Notch reported six inches. Morgan in the Northeast Kingdom clocked in with 5.5 inches. Westfield and Woodbury both reported five new inches of powder

Dramatic snow squalls swept through parts of the Mid-Atlantic States and blasted through central and southern New England bright and early on the first day of 2026.

'Those squalls and periods of heavy snow clipped southern Vermont, especially the upper elevations.  

As previously expected, the far southern Green Mountains had the best snowfall New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Wilmington reported eight inches of snow, Londonderry and Landgrove both reported six inches of new snow. 

Otherwise, the Champlain Valley missed out with most places there getting a half inch or less Most of the rest of the Green Mountain State saw the predicted one to three inches of snow. 

Skies cleared last night, allowing most places in Vermont to go below zero. It's been a chilly welcome to 2026. 

FORECAST

We now look forward to a few days of cold, boring weather. It's the winter doldrums. Happens a few times almost every year in late December and in January and February. 

The doldrums feature constant cold weather. Not extreme cold. Not icy enough to garner news headlines but enough to let you know spring is still a distant dream. 

This kind of weather pattern isn't stormy, either. What snow is on the ground just sits there and sort of ages. But it does get a little freshened up from time to time by passing snow flurries.  

Generally speaking, we'll have high temperatures in the teens daily through Monday. Overnight lows will be in the single digits either side of zero. The coldest temperatures at this point looks to be Sunday night into Monday morning. 

Current forecasts have everybody in Vermont below zero with probably several places in the teens below zero. Again, nothing extreme for a Green Mountain State January, but still noticeable. 

A WARMUP?

For those of you who lack enthusiasm for frigid weather, we do have some good news. That Greenland block/Arctic oscillation weather pattern that tends to keep cold air locked in around here looks like it's going to break down. Temporarily, perhaps, but who knows?

At least this upcoming shift originating up in Greenland will give us a break from the cold. It still remains to be seen how warm it will get toward the middle and end of next week, but we're pretty sure it will get warmer. 

Current projections have temperatures during this mild spell getting a little above freezing most days. We're still not looking at any big storms when that milder air hits, but a few modest things will come through. Since temperatures will be marginal, we'll probably end up dealing with mixed precipitation again. Though just not on the scale we saw last Monday. 

We don't yet have specifics on the timing of these little storms during the warm spell or exactly when they'll come through. 

As for how long the "warm" air  lasts, early guesses are it'll start on Tuesday and last until about next Sunday, January 11.  It also looks like the cold air that eventually comes in after that mild spell won't be brutal. Just kind of typical for midwinter.

So yes, kind of a boring weather start to the year, but boring weather is much better than scary weather.