March Was A Solidly Warm Month In Vermont

Paw prints left in the snow from Henry the Weather
 Dog after he took some weather observations on 
March 20 in St. Albans, Vermont. The month 
turned out to be solidly warmer than average.

The weather headlines in the United States was the extraordinary heat that shattered all-time record March highs. 

Vermont was on the outside of all this weather excitement, much cooler than the extreme heat in the South and West. 

Even so, we in Vermont ended up with a March that was solidly warmer than normal. As measured in Burlington, the average temperature was 36.4 degrees, a good 4.1 degrees milder than average. It was 19th warmest out of the past 139 years.

As the month opened, we had just been through four consecutive cooler than normal months, and were entering yet another winter cold wave. By the morning of March 2, it was below zero statewide.

But then, that was about it.  The warming trend peaked on March 7-12, when every day was at least 14.4 degrees warmer than normal. 

The heat peaked on March 10. Burlington reached 73 degrees, breaking the date's record high by an impressive 10 degrees. It was also the warmest temperature for so early in the season. Other hot Vermont cities that day include  71 in St. Johnsbury and 74 in Bennington, 

Before the mid-month heat wave, Vermont rivers were locked up in thick ice from a long, cold winter. The sudden warmth led to numerous ice jams in the Green Mountain State, Some of them caused minor flooding. It could have been a lot worse if there had been a lot of rain, but precipitation during the warm spell was light. 

The rest of the month toggled between relative warmth and winter chill, but there never were any particular extremes. 

Winter did return after the heat wave that was centered around March 10. A storm on March 20 had been forecast to dump half a foot of snow on northeastern Vermont, but only a couple inches in the Champlain Valley. 

Instead, nearly five inches of "wet cement" snow came down in just a few hours during the late morning an afternoon. It turned out to probably be the biggest traffic snarler since a similar late day dump of wet snow in November. 

It was a reminder that winter was not over. 

That day's snow (which fell as rain in southern Vermont) was a good shot of some needed precipitation, though. There's drought lingering from last autumn in parts of the state, so a wet spring is actually a good thing this  year. 

The news on the precipitation front in Vermont was sort of meh as rain and melted snow rain just about normal statewide. An exception was in the southwest, where Bennington turned up with a nice 4.36 inches of precipitation, which was 1.71 inches above normal ,

On the hand, Burlington;s precipitation of 2.27 inches was only 0.03 inches above average,  That was just the 68th wettest March out of the past 144 years. 

APRIL OUTLOOK

The month has begun with its usual schizophrenic attitude, with rapidly changing temperatures, and weather. 

Overall, NOAA expects most of the the U.S. to be warmer than normal in April. An exception is the Great Lakes a New England area a tossup: It'll end up either warmer or colder than normal, out somewhere near average. Precipitation would be above normal if NOAA's forecast is accurate. 

Vermont March Was Among Wettest, Maybe THE Wettest, And Among Warmest

Heavy snow falling in St. Albans, Vermont on
March 20.  The month was among the wettest
and warmest on record in Vermont. A fair amount
of that heavy precipitation fell as snow. 

 If you thought March this year was a never-ending mud season in Vermont, you have good reason to think that. 

It was among the wettest Marches on record, and parts of Vermont might have had the wettest March.  

In Burlington, 3.97 inches of rain and melted snow fell, enough to make it the fourth wettest March on record. 

However, Burlington was "dry" compared to most other places in the Green Mountain State. Montpelier had 5.09 inches of precipitation. St. Johnsbury clocked in with 5.23 inches. Both those places had more than double the normal amount we should expect in March. 

It was even soggier in southern Vermont. Rutland reported 6.29 inches of rain, which was 3.65 inches above normal. Bennington saw 6.35 inches, about two and a half times their normal March allotment. Woodstock had a whopping 7.24 inches.  

So yeah, March really was a waterlogged month. Small wonder you felt like you were going to sink completely into our Vermont dirt roads.  

Unlike the super wet Marches of 1913 and 1936, the precipitation was distributed through the month, and often came in the form of snow, or at least mixed with snow. This kept runoff manageable.  There were a couple bouts of minor flooding but nothing to get excited about. After last summer and this past December, we definitely were happy about the lack of March flooding this year. 

March was also super warm in Vermont this year, especially during the first half. Overall, pretty much everyone in the Green Mountain State was between five and six degrees warmer than average. At Burlington, March turned out to be the seventh warmest on record. 

That first half of the month put us on pace that would have made March the warmest or second warmest on record. By March 15, Burlington was running a full ten degrees warmer than normal.

The second half of the month brought a few bouts of winter weather, though mild days were interspersed in there. 

The big event, of course came on March 22, which brought one of Vermont's largest spring snowstorms on record. Up to 33 inches of snow was reported in the southern Green Mountains, and numerous towns had more than two feet.

Now that we're into April, we're at risk of another big spring snowstorm that could also rewrite the weather history books. But never fear, spring will win out. 

In fact, long range forecasts give us a nice glimmer of hope, if they turn out to be accurate. That prediction has warmer than average April weather after the first week of the month.