Cool Weather Returns To Vermont, But Much Of World Has Had Hot Spring

Extreme warmth in the Arctic (dark red) more than offset
relative coolness in central North America, southern South
America and parts of Asia during March

Here in Vermont, after a relatively warm spell during the middle of this month, we're back into a cool regime.

High tempereratures this time of year should be around 60 degrees, give or take.

Highs over the past couple of days have been closer to 50 degrees or so, and that state of affairs should continue most of this week. 

Meanwhile, some other parts of the nation have been quite chilly, with two snowstorms having already affected part of the Plains and Midwest in the past few days. A third snowstorm is brewing in the Rockies and High Plains of Colorado and Wyoming over the next couple of days.

Vermont, or the Northern Plains, are not the entire world, of course. The world, it turns out, has been having a generally very warm spring, in keeping with trends over the past few years and even decades. Climate change is at least partly to blame for that warm trend.   (And yes, I'm fully aware it's autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Work with me here.)

We can start by looking at March. That month was a little chillier than average here and Vermont and it was quite cold compared to average out in the northern Plains and northeastern Rockies of the United States. Montana was especially chilly with mean temperatures as much as 10 degrees below normal.

But the world as a whole had its second warmest March on record, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.  March was also tied for fifth place in the list of all months with the greatest departure from normal on the hot side, so March was a pretty remarkable month globally.

March also seemed awfully extreme, with notable cold actually popping up, as noted in central North America and to a lesser extent around India.

This chill was more than offset by incredible warmth for the season in Alaska, northwestern Canada, most of Europe and northern Asia, especially Siberia, southern Africa and Australia.

April data isn't available yet, since we have a couple more days to go in the month. Still, there have been some pretty impressive pockets of early season heat.

Vietnam just in the past week recorded its hottest temperature on record - 110 degrees. It's normally in the 80s this time of year in the part of Vietnam that was so hot.

This tmight be temporary, but Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record for the season as of mid-April. Greenland was as much as 36 degrees warmer than normal earlier this month, and the summer melt season got underway too early for sure. Whether these worrisome trend continues into the summer depends upon weather patterns and cloud cover over the next few months in the Arctic.

Wildfires have started up in weird places for April, including moors in West Yorkshire, England during a record Easter heat wave. Those record and near-record Easter highs in Great Britain ncluded 74 degrees in Edinburgh, Scotland, 70 degrees in Northern Ireland and 76 degrees in London.

In northern and central India, intense heat has settled in and is expected to last into May.  While punishing heat waves always occur in this region before the seasonal monsoons set in, this year is similar to recent years in which the heat arrives earlier in the spring than what had long been considered normal.

As always, with or without climate change, there have been some cold patches, too.

While part of Australia had that record late season heat in mid-April, a sharp cold front from Antarctica brought very chilly air into western Australia and New Zealand earlier this month. Parts of southeastern Australia had its coolest morning in three decades for so early in their autumn season.

Of course, it remains to be seen where big heat waves next develop around the world. With summer fast approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, we run the risk, especially with climate change, of seeing frequent, intense, near record heat waves like we did in 2018.

In all depends upon the underlying weather patterns and cycles.