Before I moved to Vermont, my new coworkers kept asking me during the interview if I realized how cold it would be up here. My response was that, "I hate the heat of the South." It's true. I have always hated Christmases when you can wear short sleeve shirts and shorts. I've always hated summers when you walk outside and the humidity causes you to instantly break out into a sweat. I hated having seasons that instead of being called Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall should have been named after salsa: Hot, Medium, and Mild.
So when I moved to Vermont, I bought all the winter gear necessary. It got the winter clothes, boots, and coats. I got the snow tires and winter windshield wiper blades. I got winterized. Then, the promised winter never seemed to come. Imagine my surprise when the majority of this "winter" seemed a lot like Alabama but with a bit more snow. Yes we've had weeks where it did not get above freezing, whereas Alabama would be in the 30s and 40s most of the time, rarely getting below freezing. There's one major difference I've noticed though. Alabama gets a lot more wind and rain in the winter than Vermont has gotten this year. When it is cold, windy, and rainy, it gets to your bones and it's hard to get warm. However, in Vermont there hasn't been as much wind and snow just doesn't feel as cold as those damp "winter" days of Alabama.
I realize that this is highly unusual for Vermont. The ski resorts are really struggling. I've heard that the maple syrup season is not going to be as good this year. Last night here was a news story about the poor snowshoe rabbit who turns white each winter and with the lack of snow now thinks it's camouflaged but sticks out like a sore thumb for predators to swoop in and feast on.
This week, things have begun to change. Apparently, we are finally getting the weather we should have had in November or December. Since Sunday we have gotten snow each day and the temperature continues to plummet. The news says we will be lucky to reach 0 degrees this weekend with lows between -20 and -10 degrees. The predictions I have seen are slightly better for the highs but it's supposed to be windy so the wind chill will drop that quite a bit. This is what my forecast looks like:
It finally looks like winter is supposed to look, at least this weekend does. Then, it's expected to warm up again next week. This weekend is apparently just temporary, but it's nice to see snow forecasted for each day. I'm sure I'm the only one (besides the ski resorts, ice fishermen, and maple sugar producers) who feels cheated by this mild Vermont winter. I still can't convince my family that it's just not that cold up here.
6 comments:
Hi Joe,
According to Yahoo weather, you may have even more to enjoy on Saturday. They show your high only going to +4 degrees on that day, so be sure all your new weather gear is at the ready!
My Texas mother thinks it is cold when it hits 20 degrees. Once when she complained about it a few years ago, I pointed out that it was twenty BELOW in Wisconsin that day. Our winter has been mild, too, by comparison. We have had out sub-zero days, but not as many in a row as in the past. Here winter is sometimes less depressing than the first weeks of spring. After all the white snow has melted, everything is a dullish gray or brown until the greens begin to emerge. After a few weeks of that, spring colors are as welcome as warmer temperatures.
Dear Joe,
Must tell you that up here, in Montreal and all over Province of Québec, this winter is kind of a YOYO season.
We have the same forecasts as yours and, except for ski resorts and winter carnavals and festivities, we are quite happy to NOT have such FREEZING temperatures as we had last year.
The good news is that my electricity bill will be less than last year...
I enjoy nice winter but I'm more at ease in the 3 other seasons.
Enjoy this REAL winter weather for many days now ....
Spring will come soon...
**BTW, here in some place, the maple trees were quite mixed up and some farmers did harvest some maple water in December... **
I completely fail to understand why you would constantly complain about a "mild" winter. Once you will have experienced a really cold, never ending one, you will be cured of your strange desire forever and wish you were back South (as far as weather is concerned).
I'm sure I will be. I'm not really complaining as much as this wasn't what I expected. By the way, I really do love cold weather, as long as I can be inside most of the time and it be warm inside. ;-)
The thing is that in that case you can do nothing else but sitting at home hoping one day you will be able to go out again without feeling an intense sense of disgust...
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