How might the drought this summer in Vermont affect this coming year’s winter?
With the drought this summer people are wondering how this winter’s snowfall might turn out and what kind of snow it’s going to be- fluffy, powder, wet, slush, or packed snow, or if even will really snow.
From October – December the temperature in Vermont is predicted to be above average, sitting at higher temperatures with the precipitation being equal to past years or below average.
Currently, Vermont is in a freeze and frost watch during the night. At night it gets down into the thirties but during the day it’s in the seventies pushing eighties most days while when it rains it stays around the sixties as of the beginning of October.
With what weather stations are saying now we are going to have a longish fall and in higher elevation places the first snow fall will be late October while in valleys it’s going to be expected around early November and Early December in Vermont stated Burlington press.
Commonground asked history teacher Rob MacLeod if he thinks this coming winter will be similar to past winters.
“I’m not very sure yet, and honestly you can’t really predict winter anymore due to the climate change that has been happening. It honestly reminds me of the winter flood of 2022, how everything was going great till it wasn’t. There was heavy rain that was prolonged and a temperature rise that led to water rushing the rivers,” said MacLeod.
We had also asked them when they thought the first snow was going to be.
“Middle of December seems like a good guess with temperatures and how they are going, but again you also have to think about climate change,” MacLeod continued.
This winter is on the minds of ski resorts. Recent reporting by NBC5 stated ski resorts are used to pivoting due to the constant change in weather and not being predictable with climate change happening.
Sugarbush is trying to open the week before Thanksgiving having a few trails open. They have also invested about half a million dollars into a new snowmaking gun for the coming season.
As of right now the winter could be either good or bad.
If there is no snowfall or the ground freezes before the extra water can be absorbed, it’s not going to be good. There’s just going to be sitting water and once the ground thaws it is not going to absorb, the ground isn’t going to recover.
As of right now there is not enough water in the ponds for the ski resorts to make snow. There is enough for opening days but most likely not enough for the whole ski season.