What a long-drawn-out winter! I mean for skiers it might have been amazing, but I prefer biking and running, and it's been hard to get a satisfactory jog in around Burlington lately. As much as I like my job, making CPA websites is a terrible way to keep yourself robust.

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!

Check this out. Here's a breakdown of our usual snowfall...

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. I've broken down the average annual value into months below to get a better idea of what can be expected on a monthly basis.

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. 11.3" of the monthly total came on February 2nd when a very vigorous low pressure system moved through the Ohio River Valley early in the day and rapidly moved ENE'ward toward southern Nova Scotia. It did get worse though. We had a couple days in early march that humbled the hardiest of us. 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. This is unprecedented. According to the NWS this is the most snow we've had since they started keeping local records in 1884. I have to admit, as keen as I am for spring to come it will certainly be a very dreary mud season.