Welcome May Sunny Spell Helps Erase Memory Of Hopelessly Gloomy April

The Intervale in Burlington, Vermont is greening up very fast under
sunny skies and warm termperatures.

You've surely noticed here in Vermont we're in the middle of a spell of sunny, gorgeous spring weather.

All the plants and trees are falling over themselves to turn green in the sunshine, as if they were just chomping at the bit to put on their annual spring show. We love it. 

The sun and the warmth and our newly lush green surroundings are making us forget what a gloomy, wet April we had.

It was, at least in my opinion, one of the worst Vermont Aprils in the weather department I can remember. And to think we didn't have it so bad -- it was even worse in the Upper Midwest.  They seemed to have constant snow and bitter cold. We here in the Northeast just endured constant clouds, rain and wet snow.

The snow that seemed to fall so frequently in April got most of the attention, but the almost constant precipitation, clouds and gloom really told the tale.

It was among the wettest Aprils in Vermont weather history. Burlington was a relative "dry" spot with 4.84 inches of rain and melted snow. That made if the 6th wettest April on record.

Other communities in Vermont were even wetter. Montpelier had 5.61 inches of precipitation, St Johnsbury had 5.03 inches.

These weren't short, sharp bursts of rain that caused this. Which is probably a good thing, in that the slow, steady drizzles and snows that seemed to last all month meant that there was little flooding. Everything stayed soggy, but there were not big blasts of water coming off the mountains to flood lowlands.

The steady rains were enough to help bring Lake Champlain to flood stage. At last report, it was just above the 100 foot level that signifies flooding. A flood warning is up along the lake until the water goes back down. That could be soon, if it stays dry.

The April gloom was tedious. Burlington had 19 days with measurable precipitation during April. I counted only four or five days during the month that could be characterized as sunny.

The next chance for any rain in Vermont is on Thursday, mostly in the afternoon and night as a cold front approaches and passes. I don't think there will be a huge amount of rain with this one. More rain is likely Saturday and  Sunday. The weekend, which sucks. But I don't think it will rain the entire weekend. We'll probably just have to keep dodging showers.