Scenes From A Vermont Spring Snow

Snow falls on gardens in Burlington, Vermont's
Intervale Tuesday morning. 

Tuesday was quite the spring day in Vermont wasn't it?

April showers bring May flowers. But snow? Well, we needed the moisture I suppose. But I much prefer the rain showers, thank you.

A general one to three inches of snow fell over most of central and northern Vermont, and adjacent areas of New York and New Hampshire.

The 2.1 inches of snow that fell on Burlington was a record for the date. Of course, it doesn't usually snow much late in the season, so the old record was a paltry 0.6 inches.

Tuesday's snow also tied for the fourth snowiest day of the entire winter season in Burlington, if you consider running from autumn through spring.

Since we basically had a year without a winter, it stands to reason I guess we have a year without a spring. Just semi-winter going on and on.

Daffodils battered by Tuesday's snow in
Burlington, Vermont.  

Toward evening yesterday, I found myself saying. "Enough snow melted by late this afternoon that I was able to get a little work done in my garden.

Not something you want to say just days befor the start of May.

Still, it has been dry, and as I said the moisture from the snow helped. It wasn't a tremendous amount of "white rain" but what the heck.

I'm trying to do the glass half full thing here.

No more snow is in the forecast, but cold weather sure is. It was generally in the 20s regionwide this morning, with a few upper teens in the cold spots.

A few towns in the North Country never made it out of the 30s Tuesday. Today, most places will be in the 40s, which is an improvement of sorts. Though it's supposed to be in the low 60s this time of year.

Lilac buds catch snow in Burlington, Vermont Tuesday 

Tonight will be as cold as last night, maybe even a little worse, with clear skies and calm winds expected.

That's not going to help the perennials struggling with this chilly weather, is it?

This is the first spring I can recall that daffodils have been damaged by cold. It looks like I'll have far fewer blooms this spring that I expected.

And will I get lilacs?  What about the apple orchards? We'll wait and see how they do.

By late afternoon, the snow had melted off my gardens
in St. Albans, Vermont but these flowers
faced three nights of hard freezes. Would they survive?  

Thursday, the cold lingers with highs in the 40s to low 50s, and another hard freeze Thursday night.

It'll warm up some by Friday and the weekend, but temperatures will remain a little cooler than normal.