2019 In Vermont: Warm And Quite Wet

April flooding alaong Lake Champlain in Alburg threatened this mobile
home.  Vermont experienced heavy rains through much of 2019,
resulting in two disaster declarations for parts of the state
due to flooding in April and November. 

In the era of climate change, we manage an exception of sorts in 2019:  The year was not among the warmest on record here in Vermont.

It was still warmer than normal, of course.  The mean temperature for the year in Burlington, Vermont was 46.3 degrees, which is 0.5 degrees above the long term average.

A half a degree might not seem like much, but for a period lasting a year, it's a fair amount above average.

Still, this was the first year since 2015 that the yearly average temperature was not among the top ten warmest  on record. You do have to consider, though, that three years in a row, 2016 through 2018 being in the warmest list is unprecedented. That couldn't go on forever.

And, I would remind you again 2019 was warmer than average.  And by the way, eight of the ten warmest years in Burlington have happened since 1998, which echoes global climate trends.

Many climatologists say that climate change is also making our area wetter than it used to be, overall.  Sure, there has been and will be dry years in recent decades, but the overall trend is wetter.

The year that just ended followed that trend. In Burlington, total precipitation for 2019 came to 43.47 inches. That makes 2019 the seventh wettest on record.

While the trend toward wettest isn't as stark as the trend toward warmth in recent years, there is still a noticeable move toward more precipitation in Vermont.  Including 2019, five of the top ten wettest years in Burlington have happened since 1998.

A February 6 ice storm made walking in downtown Burlington,
Vermont a tricky, dangerous exercise. 

The bottom line is, if you think climate change is affecting us here in Vermont, the answer, based on the stats, seems to be yes.

These stats are a better measure of how the footprint of climate change is affecting us than more subjective measures.  Climatologists say that global warming is causing more extreme weather events.

I get the feeling that the weather and climate in Vermont has gotten more extreme than it used to be, but how do you measure that?  Sure, perhaps a storm you experienced recently might have been more intense than you're used to, but is that reality?

In any event, here are the most notable weather events in Vermont during 2019:

January 19-21: An unusually cold, heavy snow.  Burlington had a storm total of 18.6 inches.  During the storm, low level cold air drained south from Quebec, keeping temperatures below zero for the bulk of the storm. It's odd to get that much snow in such cold temperatures. Other sections of Vermont were a little warmer.

Nevertheless, a statewide thaw and heavy rains on January 24 subsequently caused ice jams and local flooding.  Overall, 41.8 inches of snow fell on Burlington during January, making the first month of 2019 the >>>> snowiest on record.

February 5: Burlington reached a daily record high of 53, exceeding the 51 set in 1991. However, freezing rain the next day caused numerous accidents in the Champlain Valley and had some people stranded on Interstate 89 for nearly four hours.

My St. Albans, Vermont driveway awash in heavy early spring snow
on March 23.

March 22-23: Parts of Vermont received a large, late season snowstorm. Burlington got only seven inches of snow, as precipitation there mixed with rain.

However, St. Albans got a foot of heavy, wet snow. The town of Averill in the Northeast Kingdom had four feet of snow on the ground immediately after the storm.  

April 15-16: Significant spring flooding hit Vermont, especially in southern and central parts of the state. A line of strong thunderstorms with heavy rain hit the southern half of Vermont. That, combined with snow melt, led to the flooding.

Six counties in southern and eastern Vermont were declared major disaster areas, as there was $2 million in public infrastructure damage. Most of the damage came in the form of road washouts.

That was state highways. Municipalities had it worse. For instance, there was $1.5 million in damage to roads in just the town of Bethel, says WCAX-TV.

May 14: Late season snow hit parts of northern and high elevation parts of Vermont.  Greensboro and Woodford reported four inches, Danville got 3.5 inches, Plainfield 2.5 inches, 2 inches in Marshfield.

June 20: Flash flooding again caused some damage in parts of central and southern Vermont, though this wasn't nearly as bad as the April storm.  Orwell reported 3.25 inches of rain. Severe storms downed trees in Hartford, Rutland, Mendon and Clarendon.

Extensive damage in Sheldon, Vermont following a severe
July 30 thunderstorm. 

July 30: Damaging thunderstorms struck parts of Vermont in the strongest severe weather outbreak of the year.  Winds gusted to 76 mph in North Hero.

A microburst that traveled from the northern Champlain Islands through Franklin County pushed a Highgate mobile home off its foundation and toppled hundreds of trees. A separate severe thunderstorm caused a lot of damage in the New North End of Burlington, Colchester and Milton.  

A second round of storms on July 31 wasn't as severe, but caused a city-wide power outage in St. Albans and street fooding.

July 31: The mean temperature in Burlington for July ws 74.9 degrees, the third hottest on record. Only 2018 and 1921 were hotter.

August 17: A cluster of severe thunderstorms moved across Rutland and Windsor counties, felling trees near Lake St. Catherine, and in West Rutland, Plymouth and Windsor.  (Windsor would be struck bu a tornado four days later. See next entry.

August 21:  A tornado hit the town of Windham, Vermont. This was the first tornado in the state since 2012.  (Vermont averages one  tornado per year, so this ended a tornado drought of sorts in the Green Mountain State). The Windham tornado was an EF-1 with winds of 105 to 110 mph.  Several homes suffered window, roof and siding damage.

October 1: Strong thunderstorms and heavy rain hit northern sections of the state. Golf ball sized hail fell on Massena, New York and lightning cut power to the St. Albans area. Flooding and washouts occured in some areas. Westfield picked up 3.25 inches of rain, and Wheelock got 3.16 inches.

A large uprooted willow tree on my St. Albans, Vermont property
following the big storm of October 31-November 1.

October 31-November 1:  The most destructive storm since Irene struck Vermont with heavy flooding and strong, damaging winds.  Parts of the Missisquoi and Lamoille rivers had record high crests, with serious flood damage to homes and buildings.

The entire month had been wet, saturating the soil, and then an additional two to five inches of rain fell on western and northern Vermont. East Berkshire reporte 5.26 inches of rain, with 4.85 inches in Enosburg Falls and 4.8 inches in Fletcher.

Numerous roads and culverts were washed out, and much of Vermont was declared a disaster area for the second time in 2019. High winds caused additional substantial damage to power lines, trees and some homes.

Mid-November: Record cold settled on Vermont and much of the northeastern United States. Burlington dropped to a record 9 degrees on November 13, the coldest for so early in the season. Rutland dropped to 6 degrees. An early season snowstorm just before the cold wave also dumped six to ten inches of snow, with locally higher amounts in northern  Vermont. A second push of record cold air arrived on November 16-17.

December 30: A messy mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain fell across the state, most heavily in southern sections of Vermont.  Some trees and power lines came down.  Lightning and thunder were reported in Bennington and Windham counties.

Super Active 2017 Weather Year Was Second Warmest On Record, Burlington, Vermont

Ice accumulation in St. Albans, Vermont during a
January 23, 2017 ice storm. 

As we woke up on this subzero first day of 2018, after enduring six days of such weather with plenty more on the way, here's something that might warm your heart.

Vermont - at least the National Weather Service office in South Burlington - had its second warmest year on record in 2017.

The mean temperature for the year was 48.7, second only to the record hot year of 2012, which had a mean temperature of 49.9.

This leave us with a list that shows all of the top five warmest Burlington years have happened since 1998, and seven of the top 10 warmest have been since that year, 1998. Records in Burlington go back to the 1880s.

December was cold, as we well know, clocking in at 3.5 degrees colder than normal. March was cold, too. But January, February, May, September and October were all at or near record warm, so that powered the toasty 2017.

Near zero visibility and stuck cars on Fairfield Hill Road in
St. Albans, Vermont during the March "Pi Day Blizzard"

Although some months in 2017 were quite wet, others were quite dry.

Precipitation for 2017 averaged out only somewhat wetter than normal, nowhere near any records. Burlington had 36.8 inches of rain and melted snow, which is just over three inches wetter than average.

Below is a pretty long list of weather highlights from 2017 in Vermont. It was an incredibly active, dramatic year, full of sometimes unprecedented weather events. Seems like everything was off the rails in 2017, including the weather.

January 23: An ice storm hit much of Vermont on this date. Luckily, in most places the ice accumulation fell just short of causing major damage or power outages, but there were a few power failures and quite a few small to mid-sized branches fell.  

Mid-February: A series of mid-February snowstorms in Burlington, Vermont brought the total for the month to 29.8 inches. That's the seventh snowiest February on record. That deep snow didn't last long. See next entry.

This very snowy April Fools Day 2017 scene in Burlington,
Vermont made us think that spring would never arrive,
but temperatures quickly warmed in the days
after this photo was taken and the snow quickly melted.

Amazing Late February Heat: The temperature at Burlington, Vermont soared to 63 degrees on February 23rd, breaking the record for the hottest February day on record. (Old record was 62 degrees in 1981)

But this was just a hint of what was to come. Two days later, on February 25, the temperature at Burlington soared to 72 degrees.

It's rare for a monthly record to be broken, and rarer still for the record to be broken by more than three degrees. But this was by nine degrees. Needless to say, this was by far the earliest 70 degree reading on record for Vermont.  

The temperature also hit 72 degrees in Bennington.

This heat wave ended that evening with a strong cold front, which brought strong to borderline severe thunderstorms to parts of Vermont. Also incredible for Vermont. Tornadoes were reported as far north as western Massachusetts, again unprecedented for February.

March 14-15: The "Pi Day Blizzard" struck the Northeast, hitting the northwestern half of Vermont, much of New York and Pennsylvania the hardest.

A thunderstorm approaches Colchester, Vermont on May 31,
2017. The shelf cloud had a telltale blue tint, indicating hail
was in the offing. It hailed heavily a few minutes after
this photo was taken. 

Burlington, Vermont tallied 30.4 inches of snow, the second biggest snowstorm on record for the Queen City. During the height of the storm, Burlington picked up five inches of new snow in just one hour.

Elsewhere, Bolton Valley, Vermont received 58 inches of snow from the storm. Lake Placid, New York clocked in with 42 inches, Hartwick, New York had 48 inches and Utica, New York had 36 inches. Binghamton, New York had its greatest snowstorm on record with 35.3 inches.

For the month of March, Burlington had 36.8 inches of snow, the third snowiest March on record.

April 28: The low temperature in Burlington, Vermont was 64 degrees. That's the warmest overnight low on record for any April day. Spring wasn't here yet, though. I got a half inch of snow at my house in St. Albans, Vermont on May 9.  

May 17-18: Record Heat, Severe Storms. Vermont got a very early taste of summer on May 17 and 18 as a brief, record setting hot spell enveloped the state. Plus, on the 18th, some very severe, mid-summer type thunderstorms struck.

A tornado over Sebago Lake, Maine on July 1, 2017 during
an unsually strong widespread severe storm and flash
flood outbreak in northern New England. 

On the 17th, Vermont record highs included 91 degrees at Burlington; 87 at Montpelier, and 89 in St. Johnsbury.

The next day, the 18th, Burlington reached 93 degrees, tying the all time record for the entire month of May.

Late in the afternoon, scattered, but very severe thunderstorms moved into Vermont. The worst was in West Addison, where an intense microburst blew a camp away with a 75 year old woman and her dog inside. Luckily, they were rescued with minor injuries. Other damage was reported in South Burlington, Williston and Barton.

May 31: Strong thunderstorms brought lots of hail and scattered wind damage to much of northern Vermont. In Colchester, so much hail fell that some remained on the ground four hours after the storm ended.  

June 11: Another brief early season hot spell peaked. Burlington, had a record high of 95 degrees, which was the hottest for so early in the season.

June 19: Scattered flooding was reported in southern Vermont. Parts of Rutland and Brattleboro flooded. A mudslide closed a section of Route 30 northwest of Brattleboro

Storm clouds loom over Lake Champlain off of Burlington,
Vermont in early August 2017/ 

June 30-July 1: Flash flooding and severe thunderstorms hit New England, especially in New Hampshire and Maine. Much of Vermont, except the northwestern part of the state, also endured flash flooding.

Several tornadoes were reported in New York, New Hampshire, Maine. Some counties in those states endured three different tornado warnings in one day. This in places that haven't had a tornado in years.

The National Weather Service in Gray, Maine issued seven tornado warnings on July 1. The previous record for the most tornado warnings in an entire year from that office was six.

This chill dude sporting special eye-protecting glasses
checks out the partial eclipse of the sun in Burlington,
Vermont on August 21, 2017

No tornadoes were reported in Vermont, though there was a rotating wall cloud reported in Wilder. Flash flooding was the problem in Vermont, as well as New Hampshire and Maine.

An uprooted tree floating down the raging Mad River in Waitsfield speared the side of the town's covered bridge. Several buildings were damaged by flooding in Hartford, Vermont, as well as in numerous towns in New Hampshire.

August 21: Great viewing in Vermont for the partial eclipse of the sun. (Total eclipse through the middle of the United States.) However, the sky was smoky as it was for most of August and September due to numerous wildfires in the western parts of the U.S. and Canada.

August 22: A rare tornado watch was issued for the western part of Vermont. Though no tornadoes touched down, there were numerous reports of severe thunderstorms. A roof blew off a barn in Vergennes. Trees and wires were reported down state wide. And Burlington, Vermont endured street flooding from torrential rains.

Sept 2: A cold morning in an otherwise warm month. 28 degrees in Saranac Lake, New York, 34 in Bennington, Vermont

Workers performing emergency, temporary repairs to a wind
damaged roof in Milton, Vermont after a severe October 30,
2017 windstorm cused widespread damage.

Sept. 24-27: An unprecedented late season heat wave hit the eastern two thirds of the United States, including Vermont. Burlington had four consecutive days in the 90s, by far the latest 90s on record. Montpelier and St. Johnsbury also had their latest 90s on record.

This was only the second September on record in Burlington that had four days in the 90s. The other, 1945, had 90s in the early part of the month.  

Interestingly, none of the eight days that hit 90 this year in Burlington happened during astronomical summer. The September 90s hit after the autumn equinox and the others occured in May and early June, before the summer solstice.

October: A record hot October in Vermont messed with the fall foliage season. The colors came up to two weeks late, and were subdued due to many unusually warm, humid days. Burlington broke the record for the hottest October by a large margin of 2.2 degrees above the previous record set in 1947.

Nearly six inches of fresh powder led to this holiday
scene in West Rutland, Vermont on December 25, 2017
The storm marked the beginning of a sharp, year-end
subzero cold wave that lasted into the first days of 2018.

October 29-30: One of Vermont's worst wind storms struck wide areas of the state, especially west of the Green Mountains. Widespread tree, power line and structural damage hit many towns, especially around St. Albans, Georgia, Milton and Colchester. Gusts reached over 70 mph in several locations.

More than 64,000 Vermont homes and business lost power, some for up to a week. There was also widespread wind and flood damage in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

November 10: An early morning cold front brought an unseasonable round of cloud to ground lightning, thunder and hail to much of Vermont. The cold front was followed by record and near record cold, including 5 above in Saranac Lake, New York, 15 in Springfield, Vermont and 16 in Morrisville, Vermont.

December 24-31: Winter storms were followed by intense cold to close out 2017. Many communities failed to rise above 10 degrees in the last five days of the month, with widespread teens and 20s below at night. Montpelier had its 10th coldest December on record.

Vermont Just Ended A Very Warm, Dry Year.

This image pretty much sums up Vermont's weather
in 2016, which was very warm and very dry. The
photo shows a forest fire burning in October
southeast of Richmond, Vermont amid fall foliage.

Most of the climatologists out there say 2016 was the warmest year on record.

Here in Vermont, we got close to the top spot, but not the winner.

If you take the data from the National Weather Service office in South Burlington, 2016 was the second warmest year on record.

The mean temperature for 2016 was 49.2 degrees. Only 2012 was hotter, coming in at 49.9 degrees.

Records for Burlington go back all the to the 1880s, but the top five hottest years in Burlington have happened since 1998, which is a blink of an eye in terms of climatology.

The year was definitely dry, too. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington measured just 27.73 inches of precipitation, which is about nine inches below average.

That's not among the Top 10 driest years, but you can see how the drought, that's really still ongoing in Vermont, slowly developed during the year.

Things looked OK in February, as we had the seventh wettest February on record. March rainfall was about normal, but each of the rest of 2016's months were drier than normal. None broke records for driest, but combined with the consistently warmer than normal temperatures the drought kept deepening through the year.

Wetter weather sort of returned in December, with very close to normal precipitation. Only a tiny corner of eastern Vermont is in severe drought, as opposed to much of the state a few months ago.

Most of the state is still in moderate drought. We'd better have a wet winter and spring.

Other climate highlights, as measured at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington

---- The winter of 2015-16 was the third least snowy winter on record, with just 34.3 inches of snow.  This winter, we're already up to 21 inches and it's only January 1.
---- February was the eighth warmest and sevenenth wettest on record.
---- March was the 11th warmest on record.
---- August was the warmest on record.
---- September was the second warmest on record. Only the year before - 2015 - was hotter. September was also the 7th driest on record.
----- There were 86 days in 2016 that reached 80 degrees or more in Burlington. That's more than any other year.

Storm clouds loom over Starksboro, Vermont in June.
Despite the dry conditions, there were several rounds
of severe thunderstorms in the state in 2016.

Other notable weather events in 2016:  

January 10: A strong storm brought rare mid-winter thunderstorms to much of Vermont. Strong downslope winds on the west slopes of the Green Mountains, gusting to near 70 mph, brought down numerous trees and branches, especially around Underhill and Cambridge. Burlington reached a record high of 53 degrees.

Click on this sentence for video of the Underhill/Cambridge wind.

February 24: A strong storm that brough severe weather and tornadoes to much of the eastern United States unleashed heavy rain on Vermont. Ice jams and flooding was reported along the Lamoille and Missisquoi rivers, among other places.

March 9: A high temperature of 70 degrees in Burlington was the earliest 70 degree reading on record.

April 4-6 and 26-29: Strong cold waves nipped buds that had started growing too early due to high early spring temperatures. This cut down on fall fruit harvests, and prevented many spring blossoms from blooming. Snowfall of 2 to 5 inches on April 26 made the chill seem even worse.

An isolated thunderstorm erupts over northern
New York state at sunset on July 23, as
viewed from St. Albans, Vermont

May 27-29: An early season heat wave brought temperatures into the 90s, with a record high of 91 at Burlington On May 27.

High heat and humidity cut short the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington on May 29 as heat and humidity was causing many medical problems.  

Later on May 29, severe thunderstorms ahead of an approaching cold front knocked down hundreds of trees and cut power in Franklin County.  Click here for a video of the storm in Franklin County

July 18: Severe thunderstorms caused scattered damage around northern Vermont. A supercell with a rotating wall cloud was observed over Lake Champlain near Colchester, but no tornado or waterspout touched down.  

July 22-23: Two days of severe thunderstorms caused damage throughout Vermont and killed one person. The storms on the night of July 22 produced near continuous lightning over northern Vermont.

The storms were worse on July 23. A man was killed by a falling tree in Hubbarton, and many boaters had to be rescued from Lake Champlain as the fast moving storms rolled throught. Thousands lost electricity in the high winds.

Click on this sentence to see heavy hail during one of these storms on July 23 in Shelburne, Vermont.

August 28: Storms in northwest Vermont dumped up to four inches of rain in a few hours in parts of northern Vermont north of Route 2. Flashf flood warnings were issued

Click on this setence to see a dramatic, fast moving shelf cloud with one of these storms over St. Albans, Vermont.  

Snow begins to accumulate during a
November snowstorm in St. Albans, Vermont

Late Sept/Early Oct: Scattered forest fires broke out amid foliage season in Vermont as the continuing drought left the region parched.

Oct 23-27: After what had been a rather warm October, several snowfalls hit mid and high elevations in Vermont. Jay Peak recorded 30 inches of snow over the course of the week and Bolton Valley Ski Resort logged 19 inches.

Power outages and slick roads were common in Vermont that week.

Nov. 20-21: Heavy snow caused power failures and tree damage across Vermont, especially the higher elevations of southern Vermont. Woodford, Vermont reported 26 inches of snow.

Dec. 26: High winds caused power failures and tree damage in Vermont's Champlain Valley. Winds gusted as high as 61 mph in South Hero. The Lake Champlain Ferry between Grand Isle, Vermont and Cumberland Head, NY had a rare weather-related shutdown because of the wind.

Year In Review: 2013 Was Warm, Very Wet Year

As is customary at the beginning of a New Year, we'll take a look at the previous year and see how it all stacked up.

2013 was a wet year in Vermont.
Here, July 4 flooding drowns a
Richmond swimming pool.  

Worldwide, it'll probably be the 7th warmest year on record, though various ways of measuring it only mean the year was somewhere in the top 10 warmest.  Every year in the past decade or two has been near the top of the charts in terms of global warmth.

Here in Vermont, 2013 was on the warm side and very wet.  Burlington is usually taken as the representative site in the Green Mountain State, though Burlington tends to be slightly drier than most of the rest of Vermont and relatively warm, too.

Anyway, Burlington had 44.99 inches of precipitation in 2013, making it the sixth wettest year on record. Most of the rain came during the epic storms that lasted from late May into early July.

The mean temperature for 2013 in Burlington was 47 degrees, which was 1.2 degrees warmer than normal. This, despite a cold end of the year which saw back to back cold months in November and December.

The year doesn't quite crack Burlington's top 10 list of warmest years. It's somewhere in the top 15.

The first few months of 2013 were relatively quiet, a welcome contrast to 2011 and 2012, which brought some of the most extreme and chaotic weather years in Vermont history.  However, by April and May, things began to get weird again in the weather department.

It was a windy, stormy year, a rough one for power companies in particular. After being beset by a series of particularly violent storms in  2013, Green Mountain Power just last week announced a surcharge on customers' bill to help cover the cost. On average, the surchage will be about $1.53 a month.

Here are some of 2013's weather highlights.

Jan. 30-31. After a seasonably cold first month of the year, temperatures soar to 57 and 56 degrees in Burlington on the last two days of the month. An early hint of spring.

March 20: What a difference a year makes. It was 33 degrees in Burlington on March 20, 2013, 47 degrees colder than the record heat exactly a year earlier.

Late April, early May: A dry, sunny spring before forests leafed out contributed to numerous brush fires across Vermont.  One brush fire destroyed a garage and forced the evacuation of five homes and a courthouse in Hyde Park. Other large brush fires burned in Bristol, Colchester, Milton, near St. Johnsbury and Ascutney.

May 22-23: Lines of thunderstorms repeatedly rolling over the same sections of Vermont caused severel flash floods, especially in eastern Chittenden County and parts of Lamoille County.   Several homes were damaged, and many roads were washed out, especially around Jericho, Underhill and Cambridge

It was an exceptionally stormy late spring and early summer
in Vermont. Here, menacing storm clouds loom over Fairfield.  

May 26-28: A long, cold, storm dumped prodigious amounts of rain and late season snow in Vermont. Burlington had four consecutive days with at least an inch of rain, the first time that has happened in records dating back to 1884.

On May 27, the high temperature was just 46 degrees, the lowest high temperature for so late in the season.

Many areas experienced late season snow, even in valleys. Six inches was reported in Walden, Vt, 4.5 inches near Marshfield. Some Vermont mountaintops got 18 inches of snow and the summit of Whiteface Mountain, N.Y reported three feet of snow.

May 31:   May was  the wettest on record in Burlington, with 8.74" of rain.  Some areas along the western slopes of the northern Green Mountains had more than a foot of rain during the month.

June 2: Severe thunderstorms swept much of Vermont especially in a line from west of Rutland to Fairlee, and along U.S. 2 from Montpelier to St. Johnsbury. About 14,000 homes and businesses lost power, many trees fell and hail the size of ping pong balls was reported in eastern Vermont.

Mid-June--Early July: A strangely persistent and destructive weather pattern set up over Vermont,  causing repeated rounds of flash flooding. Local floods hit all corners of the state. Many sections declared disaster areas. Damaging floods affected almost every corner of the state during the one month period of heavy downpours.

July 15-19: One of the strongest and longest heat waves in years settled into Vermont. Daily highs in Burlington were 93, 91, 95, 91 and 98.

July 19: The end of the heatwave was heralded by a band of severe thunderstorms that swept the state. Winds gusted to 52 mph in Burlington and near 70 mph in some areas. A "bow echo" line of dangerous thunderstorms concentrated the damage mostly across the northern third of Vermont.

A shelf cloud heralds the approach of a severe
thunderstorm near St. Albans Bay on July 19.  

Sept. 11: Severe thunderstorms hit parts of Vermont amid a late season hot spell that brought temperatures to the low 90s in some areas. Scattered areas of damage were reported statewide.

Oct 7: Squall line swept across Vermont, causing more power failures.

 Nov-Dec: The first back to back colder than normal months since in several years.

Dec. 20-22: Destructive ice storm struck Vermont, part of a vast ice storm stretching from Oklahoma, up through the Great Lakes, southern Ontario and into Maine. In Vermont, tens of thousands endured the cold without power, some for at least a week. Temperatures remained below freezing for days after the storm, prolonging the outages. Officials are assessing the damage in Vermont for a possible disaster declaration.