Who knew that 79 degrees was possible in Vermont during the first days of April?

 

On Friday, April 2, Burlington reached 79 degrees Fahrenheit which drew out crowds of college students to North Beach in bathing suits and shorts. The temperature on Friday, as well as on Saturday, broke temperature records that were set in 1967. And it didn't just break them,

it clobbered them, increasing by almost 15 degrees says the Burlington Free Press. A jump of 15 degrees! Think global warming is real yet?

 

Having survived the cold temperatures that a Vermont winter brings, students flocked in numbers both Friday and Saturday to celebrate the coming of spring and summer. "It was so beautiful outside, and I wanted to be with my friends in the sun," Emma Knickerbocker, a freshman at the University of Vermont, stated. And why North Beach? "North beach is the closest thing Burlington has to a real beach — sand, sun, water." 

 

It's true that Vermont is the only state in the Northeast to not have access to the ocean, being completely landlocked; Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and even New Hampshire have some form of ocean within their reach. Pennsylvania is debatable; the Delaware River Estuary comes from the Atlantic, even if Pennsylvania technically doesn't border an ocean.

 

So what does North Beach have? Sand, for one. It also has a great view of the mountains, as well as Lake Champlain sitting right in front of you. And when the day is breaching 80 degrees, it's a great spot for swimming. Not this weekend, however. It is still April, and all of the snow that was recently here is melting into Champlain, making the water temperature not preferable to lake dwellers. But as spring kicks into full gear and wanes into summer, North Beach will become more crowded with students finishing school and families lapping up the much needed sun. And if the temperatures stay this high, maybe we'll see some stragglers jump into the icy water of Lake Champlain. 

 

This is North Beach in 1955!