It’s been a wonderful season for winter sportsmen, but it’s been a grueling one for those of us who would rather be biking and running. Typically we Vermonters welcome the snow for the tourists, and the cash, it brings into the state but the recession has moderated that windfall. I, at least, am making plans for some balmy weather. I relish my job. Making CPA websites is terrific fun and it’s excellent cerebral exercise, but it’s no way to keep your body in shape.

We’ve gotten a ridiculous amount of snow here. Burlington, like most of NW Vermont, Burlington has almost doubled the seasonal snowfall average this year, and the winter’s not even over yet!

So what does Burlington normally get?

On average, according to the National Weather Service, Burlington should get an average of 67.4 inches of snow each winter. Up here that means pretty much October through April. The study for calculating this average was done with a 30 year sample of data from 1977-2007. Last month, just out of curiosity, I decided to crunch some numbers. I used the NWS study to calculate average annual values by month.

Average Monthly Snowfall Totals
October – 0.5”
November – 5.5”
December – 14.2”
January – 19.5”
February – 11.8”
March – 13.2”
April – 2.7”

Then I compared these figure with this years actual snowfall.

As of March 23rd, when I ran these figures, we had seen 127.1 inches! Our snowiest month so far has been February with a total of 43.1 inches. Almost a foot of snow fell in a single storm on Feb 2. That’s a lot of snow. However, the most impressive one day snowfall total that we received actually occurred shortly before I ran these figures. Between March 6-7th, Burlington received 24.3” of snow! 17.1” of that 24.3” fell on the 7th and produced a daily record!

Below are the monthly totals that we have received for this year. When October and November occurred, I was beginning to think that we were going to have another below average season. I never thought that we’d crush our seasonal average the way the season had begun.

2010-2011 Snowfall Totals for Burlington, VT
October – 0.1”
November – 0.3”
December – 27.9”
January – 26.9”
February – 43.1”
March – 28.8” (As of March 23rd)

What about the remainder of the season?

So Burlington, VT is way above normal for the year, but were we going to see any more snow? I took a look at the short range models for the next 5 days and the long range models that went into early to mid April. Between March 24-25th, we did have the chance to see some total snow accumulations between 1-3” but beyond that time period, I really didn’t see another chance for snow until the beginning of April. With the current long range forecast that was in play, it seemed possible we could see another 2-5” of snow between April 01st through April 08th.

What it boils down to is this… It’s been a very white winter. According to the records I was looking at, which go back to 1884, we’ve never seen this much snow before. I have to confess, as keen as I am for winter to end it will certainly be a very dreary mud season.

by Brian O’Connell:
Brian O’Connell is the President and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of North America’s leading edge website businesses dedicated exclusively to CPA Websites.

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