March In Vermont Seemed Bad, But It Was Only Because Of Long Winter

Scene in my yard this morning definitely felt like an April Fool!
After a snowy March, the snow cover had finally mostly disappeared
by yesterday, only to return overnight to greet me this morning.
After a chilly day today, seasonable temperatures the
rest of the week should get rid of this inch of snow cover.

It's April Fool's Day! Which means its time to assess Vermont's weather in March.

The statistics show, at least from my perspective, that it wasn't as bad as I thought. 

In Burlington, it was essentially a normal March. Temperatures were just a tad cooler than normal, with a mean temperature of 30.4 degrees.

It was actually about 0.6 degrees cooler than average in the Queen City, but that's essentially run of the mill normal.

Precipitation - rain and melted snow - was pretty much spot on average at around 2.3 inches.

The month's snowfall, 15.2 inches, was only a little more than an inch above normal. Remember, though, that many areas of the state had much more snow than that during March.

I would have guessed the March statistics would have come out worse than they did. But it was psychological. Vermont did not have a particularly harsh winter, though snowfall was definitely above average.

What made us weary by March was the fact that winter came in early, sudden and fast in mid-November and there were few if any breaks to the relatively cold weather and nearly constant snows.

In March, the Champlain Valley benefitted at times from southerly winds that warmed that region more than other parts of Vermont.  Also, most of the time, deeper snow cover means chillier nights, dragging down the average temperature for the month.  Snow cover was definitely thicker away from the Champlain Valley, and that refrigerated other parts of the state.

For instance, Montpelier's March is coming in around three degrees chillier than average. St. Johnsbury had a shivery month, coming in a little more than four degrees colder than normal.

Looking ahead into April, we can definitely say winter is over. I know that sounds like an April Fool's Day joke, given that there's a coating of fresh snow on the ground in many places across northern Vermont this morning. (We had nearly an inch of new snow at my place in St. Albans last night.)

It was so wintry during this opening dawn of April that Vermont State Police reported that a number of cars slid off icy Interstate 89 between Montpelier and Richmond this morning.

There will probably be some wintry reminders this month, for sure. For instance, normal April snowfall in Burlington is 4.1 inches.

Still, we can finally say goodbye to any extended periods of wintry weather.

Unlike last April, when we had to endure frequent bursts of snow, ice and chill during the first three weeks of the month, forecasts for the first half of April, 2019 seem OK.

There's still what will be an intense nor'easter to watch around Tuesday night and Wednesday that still looks promisingly like it will completely miss Vermont.  If it were to hug the coast, we'd probably get another fairly significant wet snowstorm.  But so far, all the guidance has it much too far to the east to do us any harm. By that I mean, no snow.

While wintry surprises can certainly happen, it's still looking like temperatures during at least the first half of April will be near or above normal, which is nice.  Again, though things can change, I also don't see any blockbuster storms in the near future, so major flooding is pretty much out of the question for now.

However, there's still a lot of snow left in the mountains yet to melt, so we'll need to keep an eye on that.

Time to watch the landscape slowly wake up and turn greener this month after a long, long winter.