Warm March Vermont Day; Snowcover Will Be Influence

Visible satellite photo of New England and eastern New York from Sunday.
You can click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see. Areas
with bare ground, including most of southern New England, southern
New Hampshire and the deeper valleys of southwestern and southeastern
Vermont will absorb sun, helping high temperatures reach well
into the 60s.  Snow covered areas will be cooler. 

We know today will be a very springlike mild day here in Vermont.

Most of us will get into the 50s, a few of us will touch at least 60 degrees.  That's fairly impressive, given that normal high temperatures this time of year are in the mid 30s to around 40.

The interesting thing for us weather geeks to watch today will be how snow cover influences temperatures.  Snow is a natural refrigerator.

The sun's heat gets bounced back to space to an extent where there's a decent snow cover.  Those places wouldn't get as warm as those that have no snow cover because the snow doesn't absorb the sun's heat very well.

The darker surface of the ground in snow-free areas absorbs heat more efficiently, so temperatures would be warmer there.

Most of Vermont was still snow-covered as of this morning.  But parts of the state have bare ground, mostly in the low elevations of southwestern Vermont and the floor of the Connecticut River valley from about White River Junction south.

There, today's sun will help temperatures skyrocket.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some highs in mid to upper 60s pop up today in places like Bennington and Brattleboro.  Some areas of snow-free southern New England could easily reach 70 degrees today.

In most of the rest of Vermont, highs will probably hold in the 50s, due to the chilling effects of the snow cover.

One computer model's forecast highs for today.  The areas shaded in
yellow and orange, depicting expected high temperatures at
or above 60 degrees, mirrors the snow free areas in
the satellite photos above. Blue areas in Vermont show
forecast highs in the 50s over snow-covered ground. 

A bit of a wildcard is the central and northern Champlain Valley.  In the valley, many open areas have lost almost all of their snow, especially from about Milton south.

However, wooded areas still have some snow cover, with some bare spots.  It's a mixed bag. The areas of bare ground will help heat the atmosphere, but the snowy woods would temper the warmth some. Still, it could easily hit 60 degrees around Burlington.

Further north in the Champlain Valley where I live in St. Albans, there's still quite a bit of snow on the ground, though there are large snow-free areas on open fields. The woods still have a fair amount of snow on the ground, especially away from Lake Champlain.  My guess is we'll make it to the upper 50s here.  

Right near Lake Champlain, wind blowing off the ice and very cold open water in the middle of the lake means people on the shores of the lake will see cooler temperatures than the rest of the region.

Today's warmth, though quite unusual for early March, won't set records, at least in Burlington.  On this date in 2016, the temperature reached 70 degrees in Burlington.  It won't get that warm today in the Queen City.

That balmiess on March 9, 2016 was briefly the earliest in the season on record for a 70 degree reading.  However, the very next year, the temperature reached 72 degrees on February 25, for a new early season record.

It'll remain on the mild side through Tuesday. But the expected clouds and light rain will make the sun's effects less of a factor. Temperatures will trend down toward near seasonal levels by the end of the week.