Top 5 Cities: Burlington, Essex, South Burlington, Colchester, and Rutland
Vermont climate data from NOAA Climate at a Glance
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Precipitation, Sunshine, Frost and Snow are converted to standard deviations from their own average so they can share an axis with Temperature anomalies.
Metric
Insight
Temperature
10-Yr AverageActual Year
Climate History
30 of 30 events
1912Volcanic
Novarupta (Katmai) eruption
The largest volcanic eruption anywhere in the world in the 20th century - 13 km3 of magma, about thirty times the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption - at Novarupta in Alaska on 6-8 June 1912. Ash reached 100,000 ft and cooled the Northern Hemisphere by roughly 0.3°C over 1912-13. Unlike a tropical eruption such as Pinatubo, a high-latitude eruption's haze stays in its own hemisphere, so it did little to the Southern Hemisphere.
Up to 9in of rain on already-saturated soil; 85 deaths, 1,285 bridges destroyed - Vermont's worst natural disaster until Tropical Storm Irene (2011), which VT officials repeatedly described as the worst since 1927.
After the Second World War, coal and oil use grew rapidly across Europe, North America and the Soviet Union. Global sulphur dioxide emissions rose from about 30 to about 130 million tonnes a year by 1980, and the sulphate haze they formed masked part of the greenhouse warming underneath - the effect known as 'global dimming'.
Between 24 August and 6 September 1953 the north-eastern United States recorded 1,097 readings above 90°F, 546 above 95°F and 129 above 100°F. New York City spent twelve consecutive days in the 90s. At least 59 people died directly of the heat in that fortnight, and 576 across the year - most of the country from the Rockies to the Atlantic was described at the time as suffering its worst heat and drought since the Dust Bowl.
1963 was Vermont's 2nd-driest year on record here - 878 mm, 20% below its 1961-90 average. It was not one dry year but five: 1962-66 as a whole averaged 15% below that baseline.
The 1970 Clean Air Act set strict national standards for sulphur dioxide and particulates, and American skies got measurably cleaner over the decades that followed. There is a climate sting in that success: sulphate aerosols reflect sunlight, so removing them removed a cooling effect that had been partly masking greenhouse warming. Measured here, Vermont averaged +1.36°C warmer across 2006-2025 than across the two decades before the Act, 1951-1970, the 8th-largest rise of the 49 states measured and above their median of +1.09°C. Cleaning the air was right for human health. It also uncovered warming that was already there.
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a North Pacific pattern, and its influence on this side of the country is weak and indirect - mostly through how it nudges the winter jet stream downstream. Its 1976-77 flip marks a genuine shift in Pacific-basin climate, but for eastern states the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is the ocean cycle that matters more.
Global sulphur dioxide emissions peak at about 130 million tonnes a year, then begin a long decline as Europe, North America and Japan clean up their air. As the aerosol mask thins, the rate of global warming picks up through the 1980s.
A sulphur-rich eruption in Mexico whose aerosol cloud stayed in the stratosphere for more than two years, cooling the Northern Hemisphere by about 0.2°C.
El Niño has only a weak pull on Vermont's winter rainfall - it is not one of the seven states where ENSO reliably moves it. In 1982-83 Vermont's winter rainfall was close to its 1961-90 average (-6%), with temperatures +2.8°C. On NOAA's RONI index, which strips out background ocean warming, this is the strongest El Niño since 1950.
Daytime warming catches up with the night-led pattern
Across 1961-90, 81% of the world's land saw nights warming faster than days. Across 1991-2020 the pattern reversed: 70% saw days warming faster, as the industrial haze that had been dimming daytime sunshine was cleaned up. The study compares two fixed thirty-year windows; measured as a turning point, this site's own global series turns around 1982.
1990 is Vermont's 14th-warmest year in this site's 1950-2025 record. Mild winters did most of it: January-February 1990 was the warmest start to a year the contiguous US had recorded, a record that stood until 1998.
Pinatubo's cooling is only faintly visible in Vermont's own record. 1993, two years after the June 1991 eruption, ranks 17th-coldest of the 76 years there, though 1997 has since been colder. A single large eruption can hold temperatures down for two or three years; it cannot reverse the trend.
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation flips to a warm phase
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation flipped to a warm phase in 1995, and for the Northeast its reach is through the Atlantic hurricane season: the warm phase since includes Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012. It is a natural cycle of roughly 60-70 years, so it shifts the baseline rather than driving the long-term trend.
In 1997-98 Vermont's winter rainfall ran +24% against the 1961-90 average, with temperatures +3.5°C - though ENSO's pull on rainfall here is weak. It is often treated as the textbook strong El Niño.
The January 1998 ice storm coated the Champlain valley and northern Vermont in freezing rain, causing extensive forest and power-line damage. The storm's centre of gravity lay to the north and east, across Maine and into Quebec, where it became one of the costliest disasters in Canadian history.
Pacific Decadal Oscillation flips back to a cool phase
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation returned to a cool phase around 1998-99. Its direct effects are western - drier conditions across the south-west, changes in North Pacific fisheries - and its influence on this side of the country is weak and indirect. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, which flipped warm in 1995, is the ocean cycle with more bearing on eastern weather.
2001 is Vermont's driest year in this site's 1950-2025 record - 873 mm, 20% below its 1961-90 average. Lake Champlain fell in January 2002 to its lowest level in thirty years, and record low stream flows were set across the state that autumn.
2006: a national heat record that lasted six years
2006 is Vermont's 5th-warmest year in this site's 1950-2025 record. It was the warmest year ever recorded for the contiguous United States at the time, beating the 1998 El Niño record - and it has since been pushed down to 10th nationally, passed by nine warmer years in under two decades.
Start of the sustained rise in US heatwave frequency
Vermont's own Heatwave Days (WSDI) count rose from a 1961-90 average of 3.1 days a year to 11.1 in 2016-25 - more than a threefold increase, well ahead of the 2.4x averaged across the 50 states.
2011 is Vermont's wettest year in this site's 1950-2025 record - 1,479 mm, 35% above its 1961-90 average. Irene's rainfall on steep terrain destroyed roads and bridges across the state in a single day, and is still measured against the Great Vermont Flood of 1927.
2012: the warmest year on record for the contiguous US
2012 is Vermont's 2nd-warmest year in this site's 1950-2025 record. Nationally it was the warmest year the contiguous United States had recorded, 3.2°F above the 20th-century average, with a record-warm March that broke more than 15,000 daily records; 19 states set record-warm years.
5 of Vermont's ten warmest years on record have occurred since 2013 - fewer than in most states - but 8 of the ten have come since 2000, with 2024 the warmest of all. The acceleration is clear in Vermont's data; its year-to-year swings are simply wide enough to spread the warmest years further apart than the national mean does.
In 2015-16 Vermont's winter rainfall ran +29% against the 1961-90 average, with temperatures +5.3°C - though ENSO's pull on rainfall here is weak. By the raw ONI index it was the strongest El Niño ever measured - a reminder that a strong index does not guarantee a strong local outcome.
Globally, the eleven warmest years on record have all happened since 2015. In Vermont the pattern is weaker: only five of its eleven warmest fall in that span, with 2012, 2011, 2010, 2006, 1998 and 1953 outside it. Its warmest year is 2024. The warming is in Vermont's record; it simply arrives in a different order.
New international shipping rules cut the sulphur allowed in ship fuel from 3.5% to 0.5% almost overnight, removing about 8 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide a year. With less sulphate haze over the oceans, it may have added around 0.1°C of warming by 2023-24.
A strong El Niño arriving on top of long-term greenhouse warming, with the cut in shipping sulphur from the 2020 fuel rule adding a little more. Together they produced the record global temperatures of 2023 and 2024.
Source: NOAA Climate at a Glance — US states & climate regions (tavg, pcp), plus GPCC (Snow, water-equivalent). Anomalies are vs the 1961–1990 baseline. See methodology.
Vermont has a continental climate (Köppen Dfb: Humid continental - warm summer), with distinct warm summers and cool-to-cold winters. July is typically the warmest month, averaging 20.2°C, while January is the coldest at -6.6°C. Annual precipitation averages around 1145mm (about 86mm of it as snow), spread fairly evenly across the year.
Warmest month
Jul 20°C
Coldest month
Jan -7°C
Annual rainfall
1059mm
Wettest month
Jul 128mm
Annual snowfall
86mmwater-equiv.
Snowiest month
Jan 18mm
RainSnow (water-equivalent)
Monthly climate normals (2016–2025) - bar colour and height show average temperature, the shaded area shows average monthly rain, with snow (water-equivalent) shown separately.
Data: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (temperature/precipitation; frost: World Bank CCKP; snow: GPCC (DWD)).
How spring and autumn have shifted in Vermont. Spring is defined as the date monthly temperatures first rise above the long-term annual mean (5.3°C, from 1950–1979); autumn is the date they fall back below it. Temperature swings 28.1°C peak-to-peak across the year - a classic four-seasons rhythm.
Shifting summer
8 days Longer
Warm Season
1950–1979 Baseline: 20 Apr → 27 Oct · 190 days
2016–2025 Now: 16 Apr → 1 Nov · 199 days
−4d+5d
JanJFebFMarMAprAMayMJunJJulJAugASepSOctONovNDecD
Spr 4 days EarlierAut 5 days Later
baseline avgrecent avgClickTap a marker for each decade
1950–19792016–20251950–1979 annual mean
Baseline vs recent monthly temperature climatology. Biggest warming: Feb (+3.1°C).
Data: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (temperature/precipitation; frost: World Bank CCKP; snow: GPCC (DWD)).
Every figure on this page is sourced from official, openly published climate datasets. Anomalies are calculated against the 1961–1990 baseline (temperature) and 1991–2020 (rainfall, sunshine, frost) - see the Methodology & Sources page for the complete dataset list and update calendar.
Vermont is warming in line with the rest of the world. The page above shows the latest monthly temperature anomaly versus the 1961-1990 baseline, the long-term annual trend, and the region's rank in the historical record. The headline panel also shows the long-term trend rate per decade and the warmest and coolest years on file.
What is the climate like in Vermont?
Vermont has a continental climate (Köppen Dfb: Humid continental - warm summer), with distinct warm summers and cool-to-cold winters. July is typically the warmest month, averaging 20.2°C, while January is the coldest at -6.6°C. Annual precipitation averages around 1145mm (about 86mm of it as snow), spread fairly evenly across the year.
What extreme weather affects Vermont?
NOAA's Storm Events Database recorded 1 damaging weather events in Vermont in 2025 - storms, floods, heat, drought and wildfires that killed or injured anyone or did $1M or more of damage - against an average of 2.9 a year in 2016-2025, with 0 deaths. No event since 1996 has killed 10 or more; the deadliest killed 4. GDACS, the UN and European Commission's disaster alert system, issued 0 Major (Red) and 0 Severe (Orange) alerts for Vermont in the last 12 months. Live alerts are on this page and on the Extreme Weather tracker.
Where does the climate data for Vermont come from?
Climate data for Vermont comes from NOAA Climate at a Glance (temperature and precipitation), refreshed every month, when the upstream temperature and rainfall data are refreshed.
What is the climate baseline used on this page?
Anomalies on this page are calculated against the 1961-1990 climatological baseline, which is the standard reference period used by the Met Office, NOAA, IPCC and most national climate services. Some panels also show the source-native 1901-2000 (NOAA) or 1991-2020 (WMO) baselines for verification. See Methodology & Sources for the full reference.
Which areas does the Vermont climate data cover?
The Vermont climate profile covers Burlington, Essex, South Burlington, Colchester and surrounding areas. Vermont climate data from NOAA Climate at a Glance
How often is the Vermont climate update refreshed?
The Vermont climate update is refreshed monthly, typically a few days after the previous month closes and the upstream provider (Met Office HadUK-Grid, NOAA Climate at a Glance, Copernicus ERA5 or the Global Carbon Project) publishes its update. See the Climate Rankings for cross-region comparisons.
What counts as a Heatwave Day on the Vermont climate page?
Heatwave Days use the Warm Spell Duration Index (WSDI) - the WMO/ETCCDI-standard heatwave measure: days that are part of a run of 6 or more consecutive days above the local 90th-percentile temperature for that calendar day. The 90th-percentile threshold varies by time of year (a hot day in January is judged differently to one in July) but is fixed to the 1961-1990 baseline for every year shown - it does not shift as the climate warms, which is why Heatwave Days trend upward over time.
Does the Vermont climate page include frost and snow data?
Yes. Frost Days (days with a minimum temperature below 0°C, World Bank CCKP) and snow water-equivalent (GPCC) are shown alongside temperature and precipitation, each measured against the 1961-1990 baseline where a like-for-like historical comparison is available.
What major climate events has Vermont experienced?
Major climate events in Vermont include The Great Vermont Flood of 1927 (and Irene 2011); The 1962-66 Northeast drought; The Ice Storm of 1998; 2006: a national heat record that lasted six years; The Northeast's record summer of 2010; 2012: the warmest year on record for the contiguous US. The Climate History panel on this page lists 30 sourced events and pattern shifts relevant to Vermont, the earliest from 1912 - 12 about Vermont itself and the rest global context such as volcanic eruptions and El Niño events. Each entry carries its own sources and can be searched, filtered to local events or by category, and sorted by date; scrolling the list moves a cursor across the chart above so you can see where each event falls in the record.
Where does the Climate History list for Vermont come from, and how is it checked?
It is a hand-reviewed register, not an automatic feed. Every entry is sourced, and each one records how it was verified - against this site's own data series, against a peer-reviewed paper, or against the public record of the event. 19 of the 30 entries here are written specifically about Vermont, usually quoting its own ranking or measured figures. The rest give global or national context shared with wider pages. Where a figure is narrower than it first appears, or a famous claim does not hold locally, the entry says so.
Are nights warming faster than days in Vermont?
The Long-Term Trends chart has a Day/Night toggle showing Day Highs and Night Lows anchored around the average trend, so they always bracket it rather than both drifting to one side. Across most of the world, nights warmed faster than days from the 1960s to the late 1980s (air pollution dimming daytime sun), and days have generally been catching back up since, as skies cleared. Toggle Day/Night on the chart above to see which pattern Vermont follows.
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