Trump Administration Screws Hurricane Helene Victims Again

FEMA is dragging its feet in approving buyouts
for North Carolina homeowners whose property was
wrecked by Hurricane Helene 15 months ago. 

A popular Federal Emergency Management Agency feature is the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. People whose homes were wrecked in disasters and are at risk of being hit again after repairs can apply for a buyout. 

Qualfied applicants under the voluntary program can get the pre-storm value of their home. Then they can take the money and move somewhere that's less disaster prone. 

The damaged home is torn down, and the site would never be developed again. The community benefits because they won't have to deal with that property in the next disaster, since there would be no house there.  

More than 800 Hurricane Helene victims in western North Carolina applied for buyouts, some of them as long ago as this past February. North Carolina officials, having vetted the applications, sent nearly 600 of those to Washington for processing. More will likely get approved in North Carolina.

But so far, the only thing FEMA has heard in response is crickets. FEMA has not so much as approved one of the buyout applications.  

Reports the Washington Post:

"So far...not a single approval has come through. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein has called the paralysis 'absolutely unacceptable,' and has pushed for answers. Earlier this month, he wrote to FEMA's acting administrator, detailing the startling number of applications that 'remain without a final decision.'"

By the time the Washington Post published the story more than a week ago, nobody from FEMA responded to requests for comment. 

However, once the story was published, the agency sent a short statement, saying it "remains committed" to North Carolina Helene recovery. The FEMA statement said many applicants had not been approved yet "because they do not comply with federal regulations." 

That's news to William Ray, the director of North Carolina Emergency Management, as NPR reports. "we do not have anything in hand that says that officially things are ineligible. We are not able to get a good answers from FEMA as to why they are not moving forward."

Join the club, William.  

Maybe the problem is Homeland Security Director Kristi "Ice Barbie" Noem, whose department has authority over FEMA.  She has a rule in which she personally approve every expenditure over $100,000.

My accusation is all conjecture and sarcasm on my part, but it wouldn't surprise me if Ice Barbie is gumming up the works with FEMA assistance because she's so busy kicking non-whites out of the country and cosplaying some sort of weird ICE assassin or something.  

 In the best circumstances, these buyouts take awhile to arrange. A 2019 study found that it takes a median of roughly five years to complete a buyout from start to finish. However, FEMA says it usually takes two years to complete. 

However, the Trump administration has deeply cut staffing at FEMA this year, so who's left to manage the buyout process. Plus, the very existence of FEMA is in question, as its future is being debated both Trump Powers That Be. 

Which leads us to another broken Trump promise. He had said that he would "slash through every bureaucratic barrier" and said "every single inch of every property will be fully rebuilt, greater and more beautiful that it was before."

So far. Trump's administration hasn't even been able to tear down damaged properties, never mind build everything back. North Carolina is still a mess, 15 months after the hurricane. 

I'll let WaPol handle this:

"The reality is that local governments continue to wait for large sums in federal reimbursements for debris cleanup and other projects. Roads still need repairs. Renters and homeowners remain displaced."

Click on this link to read the entire, very worthwhile WaPo article. 

     

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. 

 

Incredibly, Vermont Just Had A Top 10 Warmest Year, Sixth Year In A ROW That Happened

A torrid reading on a bank time/temperature sign in
St. Albans, Vermont on June 23. Incredibly, as 
measured in Burlington, 2025 was the sixth
consecutive year that was among the top ten
hottest years on record. 

Crunching the year 2025 weather data from Burlington, Vermont, I was surprised as hell to find out that the year just ended was the ninth warmest on record. 

That makes 2025 the sixth year in a row that was among the top ten warmest on record. 

There are 12 years in the top ten warmest years list, due to ties. Now, all but one of the top ten warmest years in Burlington happened since 2006. The rather recent year 1998 is the only other year in the top ten. Records go back to the 1880s.

Climate change is making its mark in Vermont, that's for sure. 

According to an April, 2025 Climate Central report, Vermont is the 6th fastest warming state in the U.S. Out of 242 U.S. cities Climate Central analyzed, Burlington is the fifth fastest warming city, after Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada and El Paso and Tyler, Texas. 

I was surprised 2025 scored in the top 10 because we had such a chilly December,  But the streak goes on. 

Still, 2025 was the coldest year since 2019, which was the 28th warmest on record, which is still a pretty high ranking. 

Until things started cooling down at the end of the year, 2025 was consistently warm. Burlington logged in with the fifth warmest spring and the fifth warmest summer on record.

March and July tied for the sixth warmest on record, Burlington tied for the seventh warmest June on record and tied for the tenth warmest September. 

The hottest temperature of the year was 99 degrees on June 23rd, which ties for the third hottest day on record in Burlington. Across the pond in Plattsburgh, it reached 101 that day, their hottest day on record. 

Seven daily record highs were tied or broken in Burlington during 2025. The 86 degree reading on October 5, tied the all time record for that entire month. That 86 degree October high was first set just a year earlier, in 2024.

Seventeen days in 2025 in Burlington reached 90 degrees. That brings to ten the number of years that have had at least that many 90 degree days. It was the sixth year in a row with at least ten 90 degree days. Until now, that hadn't happened before. 

RAINFALL AND DROUGHT 

The past year might be most remembered as slamming Vermont with a severe drought. It's true that precipitation in the summer and early autumn was below normal. But we've seen worse. The trouble had a lot to do with the above normal temperatures. 

Climate change again. 

Things were drying out by mid-August but then a weird heat wave hit. We endure three days of temperature sin the mid and upper 90s peaking with a reading of 98 degrees on August 12. Most Vermont heat waves are quite humid. The record June heat wave brought some of the highest dew points on record. It was actually far more muggy than Florida. 

The August heat wave was different. It was desert dry. So dry, that it set off a flash drought, Things deteriorated to dangerous levels in days. Then it kept worsening gradually until right after that record heat in early October. October was actually the fourth wettest on record in Burlington.

Gradual recovery ensued. 

Overall, rainfall in Burlington was 38.19 inches, or 0.66 inches above normal. It was actually the 29th wettest year in the 132 years I analyzed. 

We also had the third July 10 flood disaster on record. Severe flooding on July 10, 2025 mostly hit the Northeast Kingdom. It wasn't as bad as in 2023 and 2024, but bad enough. 

You Betcha! Vermont December Was A Chilly One: 2nd Coldest Of This Century So Far

Henry the Weather Dog spent a good part of New Year's
Eve day wrapped in blankets and pleading for warmer
weather after the second coldest December in the 
past 25 years. If long range forecasts are correct,
Henry is going to be disappointed. 

EDITORS NOTE: I'm starting the first morning of the New Year with a look back at December.  A rundown of the entire year of 2025 is coming in a post later today. For now, let's take a not-so-nostalgic look back at December 2025. 

If you felt like we had an old fashioned type of December in Vermont, you're absolutely right. 

In Burlington, it was the second coldest December in the past 25 years. Only December. 2017 was a smidge chillier than the month we just ended.

But in our climate-changed world, December, 2025 wasn't all that cold compared to many years in the 20th century. 

In Burlington, by my reckoning, it was just tied for 48th coldest out of the past 135 years. In other words, it was just a slightly chilly but unremarkably cold month. 

The climate change-influenced "new normal" compares this month to the average of years between 1990 and 2020. By that standard, December 2025 was right around five degrees colder than "normal" statewide. 

Nights were colder compared to average than daytime highs. Daily low temperatures last month were six to seven degrees cooler than the "new" average across the state. Daytime highs were between 3.5 and 4.5 chillier than that average. 

In terms of precipitation, I'll give you an oxymoron: It was the most extremely normal month I can remember. 

I say that because total rain and melted snow were almost exactly average for December in the reporting stations I looked at. Precipitation was around three inches, give or take. 

Burlington was just a third of an inch wetter than average. Montpelier was less than a quarter inch on the dry side. Bennington was about a tenth of an inch on the wet side. Rutland, St. Johnsbury and Woodstock were all within 0.06 inches of normal. 

It's really remarkable that rain and melted snow in the whole state was that close to normal. 

Moderate to locally severe drought continues in northeastern Vermont, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. It's been that way for weeks. I don't think it's as dire as it looks. The ground is largely frozen, so water isn't seeping in yet. A lot of precipitation lately has been in the form of snow. That's just banked up moisture for the spring.

Unless the rest of the winter is remarkably dry, I think you'll see the lingering drought easing up during the spring. 

Snowfall was somewhat above normal statewide. I noticed Burlington, Rutland and St. Johnsbury, to take some examples, were about five inches on the plus side for snow. 

If your hat kept blowing off during December, there's a good reason for that. Especially in the Champlain Valley. In Burlington, 21 days out of the month had gusts to 30 mph or greater. Eight of those days gusted to 40 mph or more. 

Periodic local power outages were the theme of the month.

We only had two big storms during the month, both in the second half of the month. 

On December 19, we had a brief break in the cold as a powerful storm passed by to our west. Burlington soared to 63 degrees, shattering the old record for the date, which was 49 degrees. Strong winds blasted through Vermont during the storm. As many as 20 percent of Vermont households and businesses lost power at various points in that storm. 

Another storm on December 29 dumped a bunch of freezing rain on much of the state.  Power was again cut to thousands of homes and businesses. Police agencies throughout the state dealt with hundreds of car crashes and spinouts on icy roads and highways. 

LOOKING AHEAD

January is beginning as December left off. It's cold out there. 

Most of the snow from last night was finished as of mid-morning today. We have a frigid several days to look forward to. 

Temperatures in the teens this morning will fall into the single numbers by this afternoon.  A stinging northwest wind will make it feel worse. Pretty much everyone in the Green Mountain State will see the,peratures below zero overnight and into tomorrow morning. 

Each day through next Monday will feature highs in the chilly teens and lows within a few degrees either side of zero. There are signs we might see something of a warmup toward the middle and end of next week. We're not sure how big that warmup might be or whether it will last more than a couple days. 

There are no large or even mid-sized storms in sight for the next several days. The next chance of even a somewhat noticeable storm isn't due until maybe next Wednesday. And so far, even that potential storm looks kind of underwhelming. 

Longer range forecasts can be unreliable. But the NOAA is predicting an overall January weather pattern almost identical to the one we had in December. That means - if this forecast is accurate - we'll have another colder than normal January, possibly even well below normal. NOAA has equal chances of us seeing above or below normal precipitation.