Five Years Ago Today: More Than Two Feet Of Snow

Buried cars in Burlington, Vermont, March, 2011

It's going to turn out to be a springlike week in Vermont, unlike the same week five years ago as we were recovering from one of the deepest snowstorms on record.

Burlington received 25.8 inches of snow on March 6-7, enough to be the third greatest snowstorm on record.

The snow fell atop an already deep snow pack which led to destructive flooding later that spring when the snow melted and heavy rain arrived.

The flooding was bad along Vermont's rivers, and even worse along the shores of Lake Champlain, which had record flooding.

Snow clogged street in Burlington, Vermont, March, 2011

As if to demonstrate how extreme March can be, the very next year, 2012, brought a March that was by far the warmest on record. It featured a week during which daily high temperatures were in the upper 70s and low 80s, pretty close to July levels.

But in March, 2011, we were digging out, thinking that spring would never get there. But it did, after that flood disaster.

This post contains photos of what Burlington, Vermont looked like during and after that storm.

(Shudder)

Church Street, Burlington, Vermont, March 2011