Where's spring?
Vermont's extended winter takes its toll
Toolbox
By STEVEN PAPPAS Times Argus - Published: March 22, 2008
Even meteorologist Roger Hill is sick of this weather.
"I'm exhausted," he said midday Friday from his home office in Worcester, blizzard-like conditions blowing across the region - just as he accurately had predicted this week. "I've never seen anything like this."
Hill, a popular weather forecaster used by the media and utility companies around Vermont, wasn't talking about the fresh blanket of snow further guaranteeing a few more weeks of slumber for crocuses.
Hill was describing a relentless weather pattern that's breaking snowfall records across New England. It's not "Perfect Storm" unusual, but it's the kind of "active pattern" that makes the day of most weather wonks.
Unless they live in its path, like Hill. Because even meteorologists have to shovel their decks.
To hear Hill follow the weather's track in his high-pressure meteoro-lingo, you roll across the "Panhandle Hook Low," which builds over Texas and Oklahoma, across the Plains, and eventually colliding with a wall-like cold front near Canada, before changing direction East and dropping mixed precipitation all along the border.
In short: No major Nor'easters in the Northeast this winter - just lots of little storms.
Much to the dismay of gardeners and farmers, and anyone else eager to see green, more storms are coming, well into April, Hill predicted.
And some of 'em will be snowy.
"I realize that's not going to make me very popular," he said.
But Hill, who has loved weather since childhood when he saw a massive hailstorm in Yellowstone National Park, tracks weather at least 13 hours a day these days. He has seven monitors following weather going at once in his office, and he's looking at trends 10 days to two weeks in advance.
Of this weather pattern: "We'll get a week or so break after the Greenland Block buckles," he said of the pattern holding in place off the coast. "Usually, (patterns) want to jump off the coast to where warmer water is. ... That'll happen around April first, but then (the weather pattern) will reform, come back. ... It will just be a little teaser of spring."
That's really bad news for those people who were grousing about the weather yesterday.
Friday morning's snowfall was somewhat unexpected, disruptive and rough on many people's moods.
While no schools were called off, police statewide answered scores of calls for rollovers, slide-offs and fender benders.
The Middlesex barracks of the State Police, for example, reported more than 20 accidents between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m.
According to one news release, "One driver in particular was found by the Waterbury Police Department to be off the road on Route 2 in Waterbury at approximately 7:45 a.m., and then after being pulled back onto the roadway by a tow truck, the same driver was found by the State Police to be off the side of Interstate 89 in Berlin at approximately 10:15 a.m."
High winds, which Hill says accompanies this particular weather pattern both at the front and back of each storm, caused howling winds, whiteout conditions and significant drifting. Some trees were blown down, and several homes reported power outages, according to utilities.
It was not very spring-like, either.
The high temperature was well below freezing, with some pockets of the state reporting single-digit temperatures at dawn.
The cold, wintry weather is having other effects, as well.
High school spring sports, which started recently, have had to relegate practices to inside. A few teams have been seen out on the main roads jogging, but high snow banks and slick sidewalks have made exercising treacherous.
Dick Millar of Montpelier, who is training for both the Vermont City Marathon and the Boston Marathon this spring, said the snowy winter has interfered with his training regimen.
"It's very slow some days," he said. "It can be discouraging."
Millar has fallen three times this winter because of icy roads, and there is nowhere for him to go between cars and narrow streets crowded by massive snow banks.
"It's tough to get the motivation to go out there," he said.
But exercise is one way to defeat the winter doldrums. Or extended winter blues.
"Winter certainly takes its toll," said Dr. John Matthew of the Plainfield Health Center, who said depression and anxiety are worthy concerns each year. The body adapts to the lack of sunlight, and for some people, those effects are more profound.
Some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, while others are not getting enough Vitamin D in their system to help their bodies adjust. Others gain weight in winter, oversleep and, generally, face depression.
"It's very common in winter," Matthew said, adding that he often prescribes either homemade or store-bought light treatments for people suffering from SAD.
But this year, in addition to tough strains of flu and a respiratory virus in March that filled every hospital bed in the state for weeks, the long winter is generating another medical side effect: anxiety.
Matthew said lots of people coming into the clinic also are voicing concerns about rising fuel costs, the poor economy and how they are going to heat their homes and feed their families.
"It is causing stress," he said. "It's having an effect."
In fact, towns statewide are reporting record numbers of requests for fuel assistance, in addition to depleted sand and salt budgets, overtime for plow drivers and their own rising fuel costs.
Meteorologist Hill agreed that the extended hammering by storms this season is tough.
"Everyone seems to be feeling it and talking about it," he said. "It certainly has affected my workload. It's been very high, very active. ... By the end of the day, I don't want to talk about the weather anymore."
So what happens when spring finally springs eternal, Roger?
"Mud season could be the worse we have ever seen," Hill warned. "Sorry, but it's true."
Contact Steven Pappas at steven.pappas@timesargus.com.
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