Vermont In 2018: Mostly Hot, Kinda Wet

One of many hot, sunny days during July, 2018 in Burlington, Vermont
July and August were the hottest on record. The year 2018 as a whole
was tied for the sixth warmest on record. 

I'll take my first crack at looking back at the climate of 2018 here, but I'll go over the top Vermont 2018 weather events at a subsquent post soon.

It's the first day of 2019, I don't want to work too hard. Let's ease into things, right?

So I'll start with a skimming review of the weather data from Burlington, Vermont in 2018.  Statistics? I got statistics. Here we go:

Despite rather intense cold periods here and there, 2018 was a hot one.

The mean temperature for the entire year was 48.0 degrees, which is 2.2 degrees warmer than normal. It was enough to make the year tie for the 6th warmest on record, with data going back to the 1880s.

For comparison's sake, 2018 for the Earth as a whole looks like it will be fourth warmest on record.

This Vermont warmth from 2018 is part of a definite trend. There are actually 13 years in the Top 10 warmest, because some years had ties with other years.

Of the 13 years that are among Burlington Top 10 Warmest, nine of those have occurred since 1998.

The last time a year in Burlington was among the Top 10 Coldest was 1978.

The only cold months in 2018 were April and November, but neither were chilly enough to be in the Top 10 coldest. By contrast, July and August, 2018 were the hottest on record. February was the second hottest, May was the fourth hottest and September was second hottest.

The low temperature on July 2 in Burlington was 80 degrees, the warmest overnight low on record in Burlington.  February 21, 2018 was the second warmest February day on record. It would have beat the hottest February day on record by a whopping seven degrees had we not established an incredible February record a year earlier in 2017, when it got to 72 degrees.

Sixteen daily record highs were tied or broken in Burlngton during 2018, but only two daily record lows were tied or broken.

Precipitation for the year was much less exciting than the temperatures. Many weather stations in the eastern two thirds of the United States had their wettest year on record in 2018, or at least close to it.

Burlington bucked that trend. The Queen City recorded 39.27 inches of rain and melted snow in 2018. That makes the year 2.45 inches wetter than normal, but we were nowhere near the Top 10 list of wettest years. The wettest year, by the way, was 2011, with 50.92 inches of precipitation.

We did have some snow excitement. March was the sixth snowiest on record with 30.1 inches. November was fifth snowiest with 19.5 inches.