Vermont January Weather On Paper Was Pretty Average, But February Looking Harsher

An intense snow squall loomed over Lake Champlain, as
seen from Burlington, Vermont on January 22. It was
one of the few instances of weather drama in the state
this January. While the rest of the U.S endured extremes.
Vermont just kind of poked along with near normal weather.

It might not seem like it, given the recent bone-chilling weather in Vermont, but overall, January was right around average both in terms of temperature and precipitation. 

A relatively warm start to the month and a cold finish sort of balanced January's books. 

Compared to most Januaries,  and compared to the weather drama January, 2026 caused elsewhere in the nation, Vermont's version of the month was quiet and shy.  

TEMPERATURES

Burlington's average temperature for January, 2026 was 20.0 degrees, which was just 0.9 degrees cooler than normal.

Out of the past 137 years of accurate records in Burlington, this January was the 55th warmest, or 82nd coolest, however you want to look at it. So pretty much in the middle.

An odd trend I found statewide is that average high temperatures for this January were cooler than normal but overnight lows were close to average. In Burlington, the average high for the month of 26.6 degrees was 2.3 degrees on the chilly side. But the daily low temperature average was 13.5 degrees which was a little more than half a degree on the warm side. 

I found the same trend of chilly high temperatures and near average low temperatures when I looked at Montpelier, Rutland, St. Johnsbury and Woodstock.  

This was the first time since January-March, 2015 in which Burlington had three consecutive colder than average months. 

Temperatures during the month never got on the extreme side, either. The warmest it got in Burlington was 49 degrees. The warmest it's ever been in January is 66 degrees, in 1995. Likewise, Burlington's low temperature for the month was 8 below. The coldest it's ever been in January is 30 below, in 1957.

PRECIPITATION

Rain and melted snow were pretty average during January in Vermont, too. Burlington had 2.19 inches of precipitation, which was just 0.06 inches above average. I was able to find 144 consecutive years of reliable January precipitation data for Burlington. January, 2026 was the 45th wettest or 99th driest, depending on how you want to loo at it. Again, nothing scary in that department either. 

Snowfall was near to above normal, riding mostly on the large snowstorm on January 25-26 that dumped around 20 inches of snow in some parts of the state. This was part of a massive, destructive winter storm that basically trashed most of the southern and eastern parts of the U.S.

True to form, though, Vermont's version of the storm was just a pretty, fluffy, happy winter snow day. The only other semi-dramatic day came on the 22nd, when there were some pretty intense, but brief snow squalls around the state. 

It was, as usual for winter, a windy month, especially in the Champlain Valley. Fourteen days had wind gusts at or above 30 mph in Burlington. Winds reached 50 mph on January 9. 

OUTLOOK

January is usually the coldest month of the year, but in 2026, February has a very strong chance of being the chilliest month of the winter. 

The cold weather pattern that took hold in the final week or so of January looks like it's going to stubbornly hang on for quite awhile. Who knows? Maybe all month.   

The weather pattern that has set up for February tends to be very dry, too. We call it a "continental month" since winters smack dab in the middle of North American tend to be very cold and very dry. 

The forecasts are pretty unanimous that depending on the day, it'll be either sort of cold or really cold through the middle of February. 

There's a chance of some sort of pattern change later in the month, but we don't know if or how that's going to arrange itself. If this cold pattern lasts all of February, though, we have an excellent chance of seeing one of the driest Februarys on record. 

The driest February on record in Burlington was in 1978 with just 0.21 inches of precipitation. That was a classic "continental month" as well, as it still ranks as the fourth coldest February on record in Burlington, with an average temperature of 9.5 degrees.

If any of you asking weather February, 1978 was when New England's Blizzard of '78 happened, it did. However that blizzard largely missed northwest parts of the Green Mountain State. To really geek out, all but 0.01 inches of February, 1978's meager precipitation came on Feb 6-8, when the blizzard was passing by to the southeast of Burlington. 

December Weather Was Extreme One In Vermont; Made Several Top 10 Lists

Floodwaters cover fields near Williston, Vermont on
December 19. The month was wild, with a destructive flood
combined with extreme warmth for the entire month in Vermont.

 I'll have a post later today with some wild weather news about the just-ended year of 2023, but I figure I'll start with an appetizer by reviewing December in Vermont.  

There's plenty to cover. If you thought the weather in December was weird, you're absolutely right. 

 Burlington, Vermont had its second warmest, second wettest and eighth least snowy December on record. It's very rare to have so many different items in the Top 10 list. 

INCREDIBLE WARMTH

December, 2023 would have easily been the warmest on record if not for the absolutely bonkers month of December, 2015, which was off the charts warm by nearly seven degrees above the old record. The just past month was an impressive 2.2 degrees hotter than what until now had been the second warmest December. 

The warmth was consistent, and most prominent at night. Burlington only had the fifth warmest average high temperatures for December, but easily the second warmest average minimums (again behind the tropical December, 2015).

An impressive 13 days during December never went below freezing, and the low for the entire month was a balmy 14 degrees.  I believe all Decembers in Burlington dating back to the 1880s - except for 2015 and 2023 - got into the single number at least once. Most had below zero readings. 

All of Vermont was - of course - wicked warm in December.  Many places, including Montpelier, Rutland and Bennington, were more than 7 degrees warmer than average. The average low temperature during December in Rutland was a whopping 10 degrees above normal. 

The warmth was also widespread beyond Vermont. It looks like all of the Lower 48 might have had a milder than  normal December. Areas around the western Great Lakes and northern Plains were especially warm. 

Normally frigid International Falls, Minnesota, known as the "Icebox of the Nation", was a whopping 15.8 degrees warmer than normal and never got below zero during December.  Mornings there are normally below zero in late December and it's been as cold as minus 41 degrees there during the month

I'll have complete national statistics for December in a week or two.

RAINFALL

December was punctuated by yet another destructive Vermont flood, so of course it was wet. Burlington saw 5.78 inches of rain during the month, easily the second wettest on record. Only 1973, with 5.95 inches, was soggier. 

Not only was December warm and wet, it was also gloomy.
Most days were overcast and fog was frequent, like
in this scene from St. Albans on December 28

Woodstock measured 6.05 inches during the month, and more than half of that came during the December 18-19 flood storm. 

The damage tally for the flood is still being assessed, but I'm sure at least parts of Vermont will be declared a disaster area again. 

And that wasn't the only impressive storm of the month. Systems on December 3-4 and December 10-11 deposited fairly heavy rains in the valleys, certainly enough to pre-soak the ground for the December 18 deluge.

Those two early month storms also featured heavy, wet snow in high elevations, which each cut power to more than 10,000 Vermont homes and businesses. So definitely a rough month. 

The month was remarkably gloomy as well.  I count 23 out of 31 days that were overcast.  December is normally a cloudy month, but 2023 was especially so. We had a number of foggy days as well, especially toward the end of the month. 

SNOWFALL

You'd think with such a wet December, a fairly big portion of the precipitation would fall as snow. In the valleys, that definitely wasn't the case. Burlington only mustered 2.9 inches of snow, making this the 8th least snowy December. 

For comparison, that super wet December, 1973 in Burlington included a respectable 24.1 inches of snow for the month. 

Other valley locations were on the light side with snow, too. St. Johnsbury, for instance, only had 7.5 inches, more than a foot below average. 

OUTLOOK

As always, it's not really worth it to get into any detailed forecasts beyond five days out. But, for laughs and giggles, the temporary period of relatively quiet weather we're enjoying as the New Year dawns might not last. 

Long range forecasts into the middle of the month suggest it might turn stormier, though it could stay relatively warm. Not bonkers warm like December was, but still, a little milder than average, in general. 

That doesn't mean we won't have a hard core winter. There's plenty of time for that in the second half of January, February and much of March. 

2022 Hurricane Season Just Ended (Maybe): Not As Bad As Feared, But Still Awful, And Weird

Satellite view of Hurricane Ian just about to slam
into southwestern Florida on September 28.

Sometimes the end of a season is a good thing. The conclusion of hurricane season last week is one of those good things.  

The Atlantic Ocean's hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, though you can get a tropical storm sometimes outside of those dates. In fact, as I write this, a disturbance in the central Atlantic Ocean has a decent chance of becoming a subtropical or tropical storm this week.

Overall, this hurricane season was both less intense than in recent years and also less intense than had been predicted. 

As Jeff Masters, writing for Yale Climate Connections reports:

"The 2022 hurricane season draws to an official close on November 30, after generating 14 named storms, eight hurricanes, two major hurricanes, and an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) of 95.  Those numbers compare with the 1991-2020 averages for an entire season of 14.4 named storms, 7.2 hurricanes, 3.2 major hurricanes and an ACE index of 123.

Thus, the season was near average for number of named storms and hurricanes, and below average for major hurricanes and ACE index, and it breaks an unprecedented streak of six consecutive years with an above average ACE index."

I'd better explain ACE index here. 

Accumulated cyclone energy, or ACE, is kind of complicated. Without getting totally in the weeds, it has to do with a tropical storm or hurricanes maximum sustained winds, as measured every six hours. 

It is a convenient way to compare hurricane seasons. A long lasting, strong hurricane will contribute many ACE points. Then again, a large swarm of modest tropical storms or relatively weak hurricanes would do the same.

We did see two or three really destructive, extreme hurricanes amid a season that featured plenty of weak, short-lived tropical storms. It only takes one or two hurricanes to really cause some pretty extreme disasters. We had that for sure in 2022.

The worst of the bunch was surely Hurricane Ian, which killed at least 145 people and caused more than $50 billion in damage. It was the fifth deadliest Atlantic hurricane of the past 60 years, Masters reports.

The National Hurricane Center recycles hurricane names every six years unless a particular hurricane is exceptionally destructive and/or deadly.  So I'm sure they'll ditch the name Ian, and come up with some other name for the "I" hurricane in six years. 

The 2022 hurricane season got off to a really quiet start, which surprised pretty much everybody. 

When there's a La Nina weather and ocean pattern, the Atlantic hurricane season is almost always pretty damn active. (La Nina is a cooling of the Pacific Ocean waters off the west coast of South America).

La Nina was big in 2020 and 2021 and we had plenty of tropical storms, including a pretty high number of early season storms. 

Satellite view of Hurricane Fiona dumping feet of rain on
Puerto Rico. Fiona later turned north, causing the worst
storm damage on record in Atlantic Canada.

We had no named storms in the Atlantic Ocean between July 3 and August 31, the first time that has happened since 1941, notes Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a Colorado State University hurricane expert.

Meteorologists are puzzling a bit over the lack of storms early in the season. For some reason, upper level winds over the Atlantic remained strong, which tore apart any system that wanted to become a tropical storm. Also atmospheric moisture over much of the Atlantic Ocean was lacking in July and August.

La Nina probably influenced the later part of the 2022 hurricane season, which was especially busy. October was super quiet, then November hit. 

November doesn't usually produce many tropical storms and hurricanes, and those that do form tend to be nothing burger tropical storms or brief, weak hurricanes. 

Here are the November stats, from Klotzbach:

-- November had three hurricanes (Lisa, Martin and Nicole, tying with 2011 with the most November hurricanes on record.

---Hurricanes Lisa and Martin had top sustained winds of 85 mph at exactly the same time in November. That's the first time two November hurricanes were simultaneously that strong since 1932.

--- Hurricane Lisa hit Belize on November 2 the first November hurricane in that Central American nation

---Hurricane Nicole was the latest calendar year hurricane to make landfall along the east coast of Florida. 

So let's face it, the marquee hurricanes in 2022 were Ian, Fiona and Nicole.

HURRICANE IAN

Hurricane Ian will be most remembered for its incredible storm surge around Fort Myers, Naples and Sanibel and Pine islands.

Masters in Yale Climate Connections again:

"The primary reason for Ian's high death toll is straightforward:  A large number of people in a vulnerable location being hit by a strong hurricane, increasing the risk of deaths. The amount of risky development that has occurred in southwest Florida, near sea level, on barrier islands, and on former wetlands - was a disaster waiting to happen, and it happened. Cape Coral, where some of Ian's deaths were reported, was a particularly vulnerable location because of unwise building practices."

In general, deaths from hurricanes in the United States had been declining, but Ian added more evidence that that lower death toll has bottomed out and reversed, as I noted in a post back in October.  Ian was the nation's sixth deadliest hurricane since 1963.

Hurricane Ian was also the eighth costliest United States hurricane, in a list corrected for inflation over the years. Ian caused at least $50 billion in damage.

HURRICANE FIONA

To be honest, it's not all that surprising that Hurricane Fiona caused so much trouble in Puerto Rico.  The island regularly gets hit by hurricanes.  Flash flooding on Puerto Rico's steep topography is inevitable. 

Still, rainfall on Puerto Rico was extreme even by their standards. Ponce received 31.34 inches of rain. Rio Cerrillos, Puerto Rico had 27.14 inches of rain within 24 hours, setting a new record on the island for most rain in that short of a time period. 

The island also has a criminally weak haphazard electrical grid, so power outages become widespread even in relatively mild tropical storms.

After trashing Puerto Rico Fiona took a sharp right hand turn and made a beeline into Atlantic Canada, with devastating results. 

Dying tropical storms and hurricanes hit parts of eastern Canada occasionally, but Fiona was especially concerning, and might well have been influenced by climate change. 

Water temperatures off the coast of New England and Canada were far above average, following a pretty consistent trend in recent years. The warm water allowed Fiona to maintain much of its strength, even as it was in the process of transitioning from a tropical system to an intense non-tropical system.

This meant Fiona's wind and storm surge were much worse than Atlantic Canada has seen from past tropical systems. Damage came to at least $495 million, making it the worst storm on record for this part of Canada.

HURRICANE NICOLE 

Hurricane Nicole demonstrated graphically how a previous hurricane can "prime the pump" and make a new hurricane much more damaging than it otherwise would be. 

Although Hurricane Ian primarily damaged southwestern Florida, Ian still caused a lot of beach erosion and other coastal damage along the east coast of Florida.

There was really no time to repair that damage before Nicole came ashore not far from Vero Beach in November.  Although Nicole arrived unusually late in the season, on November 10.  It was "only" a category one hurricane, with top winds of 75 mph.

A Florida hurricane of that strength would normally only cause minor to moderate storm surge damage, relatively light wind damage and some inland flooding. 

However, with the previous damage from Ian still there, Nicole caused enormous damage to coastal homes and high rises. Numerous homes, especially near and in Daytona Beach, toppled into the sea.  Several high rises were evacuated after being undermined by Nicole's storm surge.

These three destructive hurricanes show that even in what is considered a "meh" year for tropical storm activity, the United States and other nations can suffer extraordinary cruel blows from these storms.

2021 Was World's Sixth Hottest; United States' Fourth Warmest Year On Record

The only part of the world that was cooler than average was
an area of the eastern Pacific Ocean, due to La Nina, a
natural cycle in that area of oceans. 

The world experienced its sixth hottest year on record in 2021, say NOAA's Centers for Environmental Information.

Last year had a La Nina weather pattern. Such a pattern which involves a notable cooling off the waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the west coasts of South and Central America. 

This phenomenon tends to bring down global temperatures a bit.  Which means that 2021 scoring within the top ten warmest was quite a feat.  

Hmm. Makes you think climate change is continuing on, unabated. 

The data that just came in means that each of the last nine years is somewhere in the top 10 of warmest years in Earth's recorded history.  Also, if you're under the age of 45, you've never experienced a year that on a global basis that was cooler than the 20th century average.

The following little factoid from the Centers for Environmental Information might help explain why the past decade has been so hot:

"The annual global surface temperature has increased at an average rate of +0.14 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1880; however, since 1981 the average rate of increase is more than twice that rate (+0.32 degrees Fahrenheit)."

NOAA had another stat that alarmed me: 

"The upper ocean heat content, (OHC) which addresses the amount of heat stored in the 0-2,000 meters depth of the ocean, was record high in 2021, surpassing the previous record set in 2020. The seven highest OHC have all occurred in the last seven years."

The oceans act as storage for added global heating in the future.  Also, the La Nina pattern that supposedly cools the world will at some point revert to the opposite, known as El Nino.  That tends to warm the world, as a little extra of that stored heat content in the oceans is released into the atmosphere, giving a boost to global air temperatures. 

As I just wrote recently, climate change in many cases likely worsened weather disasters in 2021.  A very warm El Nino year could potentially really accelerate these weather extremes. 

By the way, December, being the fifth hottest on record, contributed to the hot 2021 globally. In December, the only land areas that were cooler than average were western Canada and a corner of northwestern Europe.   

 UNITED STATES

All of the United States averaged warmer than normal in
2021, except for the scattered white areas in the South,
which were near normal. 

Climatologists have been crunching the numbers and have just come up with this stat: The United States experienced its fourth warmest year in 2021.

The six warmest years on record in the United States have all occurred since 2012.  They've been keeping track of annual temperatures for 127 years.  

The 2021 heat was widespread.  No state had their warmest year on record, though New Hampshire and Maine had their second hottest year on record. 

Nineteen states, including Vermont, had one of their top five hottest years in this data set. Only 13 states in the Lower 48 did not have one of their top ten warmest years. 

Almost all of the Lower 48 had warmer than normal temperatures for the year. The only exceptions were a handful of places in the Southeast between Texas and Georgia, which were near normal. 

Most of those areas were ground zero for intense February cold snap that brought the coldest weather in 30 years to these areas.  That spell helped bring down the year's average a bit.  

United States Weird Weather Of 2021: Things Really Got Out Of Hand

Middlebury, Vermont made the cut in the Weather Channel's
list of weirdest national weather of 2021. A tornado
struck the town on March 26, severely damaging this
home. It's the only known March tornado to have
occurred in Vermont 

The Weather Channel in one of their year end reviews, highlights a list of what they view were the weirdest weather events of the year.

They had plenty to pick from this year, with the weather so often off the rails, due largely to climate change.

Most of the weird list includes odd warm and hot spells and strange storms in places that aren't used to such things. 

 Vermont made the Weather Channel's list of weird weather. They highlighted that tornado that struck Middlebury in March.  Tornadoes are rare in Vermont and they're completely unheard of in March in the Green Mountain State. At least until now, I guess. 

Speaking of tornadoes, New Jersey seems to be the nation's new Tornado Alley. Thirteen tornadoes have been confirmed in New Jersey this year, as opposed to the annual average of one or two.

Wildfires loomed large in the headlines during 2021. Among the weirdest moments was a photo of a snow making machine going full blast at a ski resort called Sierra at Tahoe resort in August. They were not trying to get an early jump on the ski season.

It was a desperate attempt to wet the ground and increase the humidity in the air as a huge wildfire approached the resort.  Between the snow making machines, firefighter efforts and luck, the resort survived the fire.  

In other smoky news, a huge area of Siberia was on fire this summer, something that has become increasingly common.  But for maybe the first time in recorded history, smoke from the fires went right over the North Pole in August.  

Snowmaking equipment was pressed into service this 
summer at a Nevada ski resort to battle huge wildfires in
the region.  Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via 
Getty Images.

NASA scientists can't absolutely confirm this is the first time it happened, it does seem to be the first time this has been caught on satellite imagery. 

The Weather Channel says another wildfire in British Columbia generated an enormous thunderstorm the size of Georgia

The updrafts from the intense heat and smoke of wildfires sometimes generate clouds known as pyrocumulonimbus, which is a thunderstorm generated by those updrafts. These are dangerous because they produce erratic winds that spread the wildfire beneath it. The lightning spitting out of these pyro-clouds start new fires.

This one was arguably the worst fire-generated thunderstorm on record. It yielded 113,000 cloud to lighting bolts, which is 5 percent of Canada's normal yearly total. That's impressive, as thousands of thunderstorms form in the vast landscape of Canada each year.

There was also strange heat in places we wouldn't expect. We know about British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest in June. But how about this? It was100 degrees in North Dakota. At the end of September. 

It does sometimes get to 100 degrees in that northern state in the middle of summer. But it certainly has never happened on September 28. Until this year. It got up to 100 degrees in Dickenson and Watford.

The other odd heat wasn't that hot, but certainly bizarre for the location.  The top of Greenland's ice sheet is more than 10,000 feet above sea level and is always frigid.  

Ice core data indicates it had never been above freezing at Summit from at least the late 1800s to 1995, when it briefly got above freezing. Other brief thaws happened in 2012 and 2019. But rain had never been seen there.

Until August 14, when it rained at Summit Station and stayed above freezing for nine hours.  If all that isn't a disconcerting  sign of climate change I don't know what is. 

In other warm weather news, cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan bloomed the earliest in the season in at least 1,200 years. 

And one final small weird moment: Near Madison, Wisconsin in September, small hail that resembled donuts or more accurately Cheerios turned up. 

Photos: Vermont Year In Review - Weather And Nature

At the end of every December,  I like to put together a YouTube slide show of some of my favorite weather and nature photographs from the year.  

This year is no exception. Like the year before, I didn't get out quite as much as I would have liked, due to a busy schedule and some restrictions due to Covid. 

Many of the photos were shot right on my St. Albans, Vermont property.

Having a good view and plenty of flower gardens does help. 

Although we had our extremes here in Vermont, mostly on the heat side, the weather year in the Green Mountain State wasn't nearly as off the rails and as dangerous as it was in many parts of the world. 

Which of course is great, and I hope our luck continues in 2022. 

Weather off the rails can make for some great photographs. The snow in spring photos in my slide show are a small example of that. 

That said, I'm not exactly into death and destruction weather, so here's hoping my photos for the upcoming new year feature mostly pretty clouds, flowers and trees as they did this year. 

As always, mobile uses might not be able to see the video on this screen, so click on this hyperlink to view.

Or if you see the video image below, click on the arrow and the the YouTube logo for best viewing 

Here ya go! 

Review: Mike Olbinski's Latest Storm Time Lapse Video Is Sublime

My two favorite storm chasers on YouTube are Pecos Hank and Mike Olbinski.

Pecos Hank doesn't take himself too seriously, and he's a great storyteller. Plus unlike in so many other storm and tornado chasing videos, the ones Pecos Hank gives us are not yell fests.  The focus is on the storm, not the chaser.  

Olbinski is a favorite of mine because he is such an artist. He pays the utmost attention to the details in his cinematography.  

He's the best at capturing the grandeur of both the storms he captures and the landscape those storms affect. 

Olbinski's best video yet, "Shadows In The Sky"  has just recently been released.  I'm not going to show it in this post, as I want to make sure to direct all the clicks directly to the video.  He deserves each and every one of them.  

We all expect a sharp crispness to Olbinski's photography, and that's precisely what you get and more. After all, when he's not chasing storms, he's an accomplished Arizona wedding and portrait photographer. His editing technique comes through expertly.  He can make lemonade out of lemons  

You can tell that some of the storms Olbinski encountered that he used in "Shadows In The Sky" had sub-optimal light and surroundings. You can't expect every storm to do the work for you. 

But the photo editing made those problems disappear without compromising the reality of the storms. Nothing looks fake here.  That he is Arizona based helps, too, as he captures some awesome desert microbursts and haboobs.

With this video, Olbinski took a chance by using music with vocals. There's a big payoff with this. The song, "The Last Goodbye"  by Eric Kinny, featuring haunting vocals by Danica Dora, is the perfect accompaniment  to Olbinski's roiling storms. 

The music adds to the emotional mix of apprehension, awe, foreboding and excitement Olbinski's time lapses offer.  And it builds to a surprisingly satisfying crescendo. 

Weather geeks like myself of course will want to watch "Shadows In The Sky" repeatedly.  I also encourage people who are not the least bit interested in the weather to check it out.   If you like photography and art and fascinating video, this is the required viewing. 

I feel sorry for people who never pay attention to the sky, the clouds, the  heavens. Olbinski is creating converts to the happy club of people who are in awe of what nature can create when it is in a stormy mood. 

February National Weather Full Of Drama, Here in Vermont, Yawn

February, 2021 in Vermont featured several light snowfalls,
like this one in St. Albans, Vermont on February 9.

February's weather statistics are in the books, and for much of the nation, it was quite the wild ride.  

Much of the nation, especially the middle third of it, had a very cold February overall. Though the beginning and the end were warm, that intense cold wave mid month really drove the average temperatures down. 

At least 154 cites in the Lower 48 had one of their top 10 coldest Februaries on record. Nine stations had their coldest February, never mind Top 10. 

Winter storms blasted most of the nation, and heavy precipitation for February had led to flooding on a good chunk of Appalachia.

It was a February to remember in the weather department, except here in Vermont. 

In the Green Mountain State, temperatures in February came out right near normal.   There were no real extremes of heat or cold.  Precipitation was below normal, but not by all that much. Snowfall was near normal. 

In Burlington, the mean temperature for February came out at 21.8 degrees, just 0.3 degrees on the warm side. Montpelier was an outlier, coming in more than two degrees cooler than normal, but that is probably because of missing data from February 27 and 28.

Places like St. Johnsbury and Springfield came out very close to normal.

The highest and lowest temperatures of the month were nothing special, either. The coldest night in Burlington got down to minus 5 and the warmest day was 44 degrees.

For perspective, the coldest February temperature on record in Burlington is minus 30 and the highest was 72 degrees. Yeah, we never came remotely close. 

Now, as of March 1, it's meteorological spring. That, as I've said before is for neat record keeping for climatologists.  Meteorological spring runs from today to May 31.

The character of March in Vermont usually, but not always, changes markedly from the opening day to the closing bell on the 31st. Often, we are deep in the depths of winter on the opening day and it's spring by the 31st. 

We'll see how this year turns out, but, judging from the start, it March seems to want to take its usual course 

The opening week of March in Vermont will be cold and dry. There are uncertain signs that things will start to warm up in the second week.  

March is fickle, though. Many of our biggest snowstorms on record were in March. Think the Pi Day Blizzard of 2017 (30.4 inches in Burlington); the big snowstorm of March 6-7, 2011 (25.8 inches) and Blizzard of '93 (22.4 inches)

Yet, it's been as high as 84 degrees in Burlington and elsewhere in Vermont (1946 and 1998). And it can get more than nippy. It was 37 below on March 4, 1938 in St. Albans, the coldest it's been anywhere in New England in March. 

Severe floods have happened in March, too. (See: March, 1936 and Montpelier in 1992). 

So expect anything. 

Nation's Hot And Cold Spots

Map showing the location of daily hottest and coldest
places in the United States in 2020. Click on the map
to make it bigger and easier to see. 

NOAA's Weather Prediction Center put out a pretty cool map showing where the daily hot spots and cold spots were in the nation during 2020.  

The usual suspect had the bulk of the cold and hot spot reports. On 106 days last year, Death Valley took the honors of being the hottest spot in the nation. 

Taking second place for the most days this in 2010 capturing the prize for the hottest spot in the nation was Rio Grande Village, Texas.  

That's in an area along the Mexican border southeast of El Paso where the Rio Grande takes a big bend toward the south. 

Top honors for the most frequent cold spot in the United States in 2020 was a lovely sounding spot called Peter Sinks, Utah.  It was the cold spot 94 times. 

New England was the cold spot a number of times in 2020. Mount Washington took the honors 20 times, but I don't think it's fair they were included. After all, it's a mountain summit, which tends to get more extreme weather. And Mount Washington is certainly know for it's extremes.

A place in northern Maine called Estcourt Station was the cold spot 16 times. 

Locations in Vermont took top spot for cold in the contiguous United States twice in 2020.  The data provided by the Weather Prediction Center doesn't give the names of locations for the cold or hot spots if they were one-offs. 

The nation's cold spot in 2020 on one day was up in the Northeast Kingdom. That must have been notorious cold spot Island Pond.  Another cold spot for the nation was a town a little south of Rutland, but I'm not sure which one 

Record Number Of Billion Dollar Weather Disasters Was Another Reason To Hate 2020

The nation experienced 22 weather-related disasters
during 2020 that each caused at least $1 billion in 
damage. Another reason to hate the year 2020.

The United States last year faced a total of 22 weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage.  

It was the most such disasters for any year on record.  It's just one more reason why the year 2020 really, really sucked. 

According to CNN:

"The cumulative cost of these disasters in 2020 is $95 billion, the fourth-highest total annual cost since 1980, behind 2017, 2005 and 2012 (all inflation adjusted to 2020 dollars)."

CNN continues: 

"This is the sixth year in a row that the US has experienced 10 or more separate billion dollar disasters,' NOAA climatologist Adam Smith told CNN Weather. Ten disasters has become the more recent standard of what to expect in a year, he added."

Hurricanes tend to be the most expensive weather disasters. Seven of the billion dollar disasters in 2020 were caused by hurricanes. If there's a silver lining, it's that this year's hurricanes didn't strike heavily populated places like Houston, Miami, and New York while they were at full strength. 

Those three other super expensive years involved hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria; in 2017; Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005; Sandy in 2012).

The most expensive disasters in 2020 were Hurricane Laura, with $19 billion in damage; western U.S. wildfires, at $16.5 billion, and the August 10 derecho in Iowa and surrounding states, $11 billion.  

People might be quick to blame climate change for the increasing costs of these disasters.  They're partly right, but there's a lot more going on than just a warmer world. 

Development continues to boom in places that are vulnerable: Ocean front property that can be wrecked by hurricanes, houses in the woods in wildfire zones, that kind of thing. 

Here in Vermont, we had the usual share of locally damaging storms but we were not part of any of the 22 $1 billion disasters that hit the nation in 2020.

The last time any part of Vermont had a weather related disaster declaration was from the Halloween storm of 2019, which caused widespread, destructive flooding and wind damage across northern and central Vermont. 

The Green Mountain State has proven prone to disasters, especially in the past decade or two.  Parts of Vermont have been declared weather-related disaster areas 18 times since 2010.  Most of those disasters primarily consisted of flooding. 

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In Vermont 2020 Was Second Hottest Year; Whole Decade Hot

A small thunderstorm forms southwest of St. Albans,
Vermont on a hot, humid summer evening in 2020.
The year was the second hottest on record in Burlington,
and July was the hottest on record. 

 In Burlington, Vermont at least, the year 2020 will go down as the second hottest year on record. 

The average temperature for the year was  49.4 degrees. The only year that was hotter was 2012, which came in at a scorching (for Vermont) 49.9 degrees. 

Records for Burlington go all the way back to the 1880s, but the eight hottest years have all occurred since 1998. The four warmest years have all been since 2012.  

That's quite a streak.  Climate change, anyone?

The heat was consistent through the year in Vermont. In Burlington, the only month in 2020 that was cooler than average was April, which was 1.4 degrees below normal. 

The year 2020 brought us the hottest July on record (76.8 degrees), the ninth warmest March (37.3 degrees) the third hottest November (43.3 degrees) and the sixth warmest December (31.3 degrees).

This past year bucked one trend we've been noticing. It's generally been getting wetter over the past few decades in Vermont.  Five of the top 10 wettest years have been since 1998. 

But 2020 was dry.  Burlington accumulated 31.38 inches of rain and melted snow. That's 5.44 inches below averages. We weren't in the top 10 list of dry years, but it was a bit thirsty. 

Other than the warm temperatures, we in Vermont didn't see a lot of the extremes we have had in recent years, but they were there. 

Some examples:

1. This was the first May in which Burlington had both measurable snow and temperatures above 90 degrees. 

During a sharp cold wave on Mother's Day weekend, Burlington eeked out 0.1 inches of snow.  Other towns in Vermont had several inches. 

On May 27, the temperature soared to 95 degrees in Burlington, setting a new all-time high temperature for the month of May. 

Smoke and haze aloft obscures the sun over South 
Burlington, Vermont in summer. Signs of climate
change: The smoke from western wildfires, and
a decade in Vermont with the hottest years
on recor. 

2. Hot days: After the two 90 degree days in May, Burlington would go on to total 20 days with 90 degree readings. That's the most since 1988.  

Burlington also had the fewest days of any year with temperatures reaching the single digits. There were only 16 such days in 2020.

3. Tropical Storm Isaias on August 4 became a rare such storm to move directly over Vermont. It was still characterized as a tropical storm when it was over Rutland late that day. 

The tropical storm dumped one to five inches of rain, mostly on western Vermont. However, it had been dry before that, so there was little flooding.

Strong winds on the east side of Isaias caused power outages in eastern Vermont. 

4. Tropical storm Isaias prompted tornado watches in southern Vermont.  That was one of three tornado watches to be in effect in Vermont in 2020.  Thankfully, no tornadoes are known to have touched down.

Still, in this topsy turvy year, Vermont had tornado watches in 2020 than most of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and western Oklahoma, the heart of tornado alley. 

5. This was one of the worst years in American history for wildfires.  No big wildfires occurred in Vermont, but the sun in the Green Mountain state in August, September and October was often dimmed by smoke and haze aloft from those western fires. 

6. November in Vermont is known for its chill gloom and overcast. However, the first part of the month was delightfully sunny and warm.  Numerous record highs in Vermont were reported under mostly clear skies from November 6 to 10. Burlington had four consecutive days in the 70s, the most such readings on record for Vermont. 

7. An epic snowstorm struck mostly the southern third of Vermont on December 16-17.  Pending verification,   42 inches in Peru, Vermont is likely the heaviest 24 hour snow on record in Vermont. The snow came down incredibly heavy, with reports of 18 inches of snow in six hours or less. The storm largely missed northern Vermont. 

8. Vermont experienced its warmest Christmas on record. Burlington had a record high of 65 degrees. At 8 a.m. Christmas morning, Burlington was at 64 degrees. This made it at that hour the warmest place in the contiguous Lower 48 United States.  The warmth, combined with rain, caused some flooding in southern Vermont as the deep snow cover from the earlier storm rapidly melted. 

Vermont September: Dusty And Hazy Until A Final Deluge

We Vermonters just missed out on having what would have been the easily the driest September on record.  

A very hazy sun due to smoke aloft from western forest fires,
as seen from South Burlington, Vermont on Sept. 16. 

Had those downpours not arrived late Tuesday and early Wednesday, rainfall in most places in the Green Mountain State would have been measured in tenths of an inch, which is ridiculously below normal. 

Even with those downpours that ended Wednesday morning, September was still generally a dry month. 

The numbers are in for September, and no wonder the drought intensified through the month. For instance, Montpelier managed to be the lone major Vermont station that managed to eek out above normal precipitation for the month. 

Montpelier had 3.75 inches of rain for September, just a smidge above normal. However, all but 0.34 inches came during the final two days of the month. 

Elsewhere, precipitation was decidedly below normal. Burlington's 2.29 inches was 1.35 inches shy of normal. St. Johnsbury's 1.89 inches was one and a half inches on the light side. Springfield's 2.84 inches was an inch or so below normal. 

Temperatures for the month in Vermont worked out to be pretty close to average. A sharp, frosty cold wave mid-month was offset by mild weather at the beginning and especially the end of the month. Burlington was just 1.6 degrees warmer than average. Most other places were less than a degree either side if normal 

Unlike some Septembers, when you can get some snow flurries at mid and high elevations, I'm not aware of any snow falling anywhere in Vermont, including the summit of Mount Mansfield. 

That mid-month cold snap ended the growing season prematurely for many of us.  Montpelier and St. Johnsbury had three consecutive days of record cold, an oddly long streak of broken records. 

On the closing day of September, the smoke aloft had cleared
for now, rains cleaned everything up, and the clouds and
fall foliage made for a gorgeous evening in 
St. Albans, Vermont. 

Burlington managed to stay above freezing all month, with the lowest reading at 34 degrees. So its frost free warm season continues.  The first day with 32 degrees or lower in Burlington on average is around October 7. 

September in Vermont is known for its cool, crisp brilliant days with deep blue skies and bright sunshine. We did have a few of those days, especially during that mid-month cold snap. 

However, what would have been quite a few other such days were marred by smoke overhead billowing from those massive forest fires in the western United States. 

I found that to be a little depressing, frankly.  I counted at least 16 days during September with smoke overhead. 

The smoke never made it in any appreciable way to the surface, so we didn't have to worry about the health effects of those smoke and soot particles like folks out west. But it was a reminder that the climate is out of joint, and will probably worsen 

The drought in Vermont was worrying and the mid-month frosts were disappointing, but both seemed to contribute to an early and especially brilliant fall foliage season so far. The weather is bringing out more of the reds and deep orange, as seen in pictures and videos from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, which has reached peak foliage.

In lower elevations, it's not quite peak yet, but there are brilliant splashes of color that point toward a spectacular start to October.

You never know what the next month will bring, of course. Long range forecasts unfortunately call for a return to dry weather. Nice for foliage watching, bad for those near empty wells out there