Vermont saw its warmest start to the year ever, continuing a warming trend in the region

The first half of this year was the hottest on record for Vermont, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Last year was a record breaking warm year for Burlington and St. Johnsbury, which saw their hottest years on record in 2023. This year could be another.

The Green Mountain State is not alone in this trend. Last year, dozens of cities across the Northeast saw their hottest years on record, and this past January through July was the second hottest period on record for the entire lower 48.

Warming temperatures affect Vermont in myriad ways. Data from the Vermont Department of Health shows the state sees more heat related emergency room visits on extremely hot days.

Additionally, Vermont sees more ER visits related to heat illness during years that are exceptionally hot. And the state has seen a steady uptick in ER visits for heat illness since 2003, though Vermont still sees relatively few deaths from heat exposure annually.

And many Vermont communities were flooded four times in the last year, all during events that scientists say were made worse by human caused climate change.

More from Vermont Public: Flash flooding tears through rural communities in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom

People who live in cooler parts of the state, like the Upper Valley or Northeast Kingdom, aren’t immune to the impacts of warmer temperatures — in fact, the health department says people conditioned to cooler weather can be affected at lower temperatures, making those parts of the state especially vulnerable.

But a hotter than normal summer and spring also has implications for agriculture.

Timothy Hughes-Muse of Laughing Child Farm in Pawlet grows about 30 acres of sweet potatoes.

“Over the years, we’ve kind of moved things up ahead of schedule a little bit, just trying to kind of match what the season used to be like,” Hughes-Muse said. “So we’ll plant earlier and we start harvest earlier and so on.”

But this year, he says, the potatoes are exceptionally far along.

“It seems like it’s about 10 days ahead of schedule, in terms of how big the potatoes are and how fast things happen,” he said this week.

In general, Hughes-Muse says it’s getting easier to grow sweet potatoes in Vermont because they like warm summer nights, when the temperature is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Vermont has seen an above average number of very warm nights since 2005, according to NOAA.

Jon Wagner of Bear Roots Farm in Williamstown has also noticed changes because of the heat this summer.

“We’re usually not harvesting until the end of August, into September, and we’re already pulling ripe pumpkins out of the field,” he said this week. “Same thing with our onion crop, that came in a month early.”

Wagner says last year they lost about 75% of their crop yield to flooding, so he welcomes the bumper year. And while this summer was abnormally warm overall, he says they didn’t see too many days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is when a lot of leafy crops start to be hurt by the heat.

Still, Wagner says it’s getting harder for farmers to predict and adapt to the seasons as Vermont’s climate changes.

He says if beans and corn and tomatoes also ripen ahead of schedule, farms could find themselves short on crops to sell at the end of the season.

“It feels kind of like we’re on the front lines of it all,” he said.

Globally, NOAA says July marked the 14th straight month of record-high temperatures. The agency says there is a 75% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year on record, and scientists broadly agree that burning fossil fuels is the leading cause of this warming trend.

Additionally, most of the Atlantic Ocean saw its hottest January-July period ever, which forecasters say is one of the key factors fueling a particularly intense hurricane season.

Already the remnants of Hurricanes Beryl and Debby have caused flooding in Vermont, and hurricane season extends through the end of November.

Looking ahead to the next few months, NOAA is forecasting a warmer- and wetter-than-normal fall for Vermont and New England.

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