 |
| Ice jam on the Missisquoi River in Swanton, Vermont in January, created by large swings in temperatures. |
Who'd have thunk, given the frigid opening to the month, but the numbers don't lie.
The mean temperature in Burlington for the month was 20.1 degrees, which was 1.4 degrees warmer than average. That's not extreme warmth by any measure, but it was definitely on the mild side.
As we know, though, temperatures were all over the place. Seventeen of the 31 days in Burlington's January were at least 10 degrees warmer or colder than normal.
Most other weather stations in Vermont ended up just a bit mild for the month of January, too. Montpelier was just under a degree warmer than normal. St Johnsbury also bested normal by a degree.
In the southeastern part of the state though Springfield was just a smidge cooler than normal - 0.3 degrees chillier than average, to be precise.
January was also a bit on the wet side in January, too, with most places across the state running anywhere from about a quarter to three quarters of an inch wetter than average.
Of course, a lot of that precipitation came in the form of rain or mixed precipitation, not snow.
Even though January was just a little milder than average, the winter so far is running a little on the cool side. December in Burlington was 3.5 degrees colder than average, more than outpacing the wane January "mildness."
We'll see what February does. As I always say, forecasts beyond a few days are notoriously iffy. Let's take a stab at it anyway. At this point, it looks like the overall pattern for the first half of the month looks to be on the cold, or at cold-ish side.
Some computer models are hyping a very frigid first half of February while many others keep the worst of the cold air well to our north and west, leaving us with a somewhat cold, but not ridiculous February.
We'll find out eventually, won't we?
No comments:
Post a Comment