Winter…Finally?

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.