BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont and the North Country are experiencing an impressive start to the winter season. Snow at the stake on Mount Mansfield hit 50 inches on Thursday, the earliest in the season it’s ever hit that milestone.
Thursday’s snow depth of 50 inches on Mount Mansfield broke the previous daily record of 43 inches set in 2018. Average snow at the stake on December 4 is just 17 inches.
Before this year, the earliest snow at the stake had reached 50 inches was December 7, 1981. Snow depth on Mount Mansfield has only reached 50 inches at any point in December 18% of years since records began in 1954. The last time it happened was December 30, 2016. On average, snow depth at the stake doesn’t reach 50″ until late January.
Thursday’s snow stake record was followed by an early season Arctic blast that broke several low temperature records in our region.
Saranac Lake dipped to -22 degrees Friday morning, breaking the previous daily record of -20 set in 2003. Montpelier dropped to -8, which broke the previous record of -7 set in 1971. Plattsburgh also set a new daily low temperature record of -4. The old record was zero set in 1971.
Burlington was just as cold as Plattsburgh Friday morning with a low of -4. While it was not a record for the city, it’s the coldest temperature Burlington has seen by this point in December since 1989 — 36 years ago. We normally don’t see temperatures that cold until the end of December. Friday’s sub-zero low was colder than Burlington got at any point during the 2023-2024 winter.
Snowfall in the valleys hasn’t been as noteworthy as it’s been in the northern mountains, but it’s still been a strong start to the snow season. Burlington has received 13.3 inches of snow so far. Out of 132 years of record keeping, this year ranks 25th overall for most snow accumulated by this point in December. It’s the snowiest start to the season Burlington has had since 2019.
The impressive start to the snow season also extends well beyond our region. The contiguous U.S. hasn’t had this much snow in early December since 2005. As of Friday, 45.4% of the country had snow cover.
Temperatures in our region have been well below normal so far this month. The temperature outlook remains below normal through at least the third week of December. After a brief warmup this weekend, another round of frigid air is expected to move into our region early next week.
