Yeah, It Was Cold: One Of Vermont's Strongest Early Season Frosts In Many Years

A close up of frost on my lawn in St. Albans, Vermont
this morning. The freeze was at least two weeks
earlier than normal.  

Winter came early to the North Country this morning as expected.

If anything, it was even a tad colder in many areas than forecast.

The worst I've seen so far was the perennial cold spot of Saranac Lake, New York, where it got down to at least 21 degrees.

Burlington, Vermont reached 32 degrees, which tied the record low for the state set in 1959.

It was the first time in 14 years there was a freeze in September, and it was the earliest fall frost in at least two decades.

St. Johnsbury, Vermont also tied its record low for the date, reaching 29 degrees.

Temperatures well down into the 20s were widespread through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and northern New York, so countless gardens are pretty much kaput.

This early frost bucks a trend in which the first frost in the autumn has been getting a bit later in New England, and the last frost of the spring is getting a little earlier. 

Mornings like this prove that, although there are trends in climate, it's uneven, and you can get spells of weather that go against those trends. You also can't count on what the average freeze date is to plan your garden. Freezes can come much earlier or later than what is considered "normal."

It'll warm up some this afternoon, and we're done with the frost and freezes for at least a few days in New England. The exception is the cold pockets of the Adirondacks and Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, on into western Maine, where there might be some local frosts.

But those places were so cold there's no gardens left to protect, so those cold hollow frosts are now no big deal.