Analysis of Large Precipitation Events for Burlington, VT from 1900 to 2016

The Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) has suggested that extreme precipitation events in the Northeastern US have increased significantly since the late 1950s. In our study, we examined hourly and daily precipitation records from the National Climate Data Center for the Burlington, Vermont weather station to determine the frequency and intensity of large precipitation events from 1900 to 2016. In addition, we evaluated the occurrence of winter storm events and compared their frequency and intensity between two time periods: 1900 to 1950 and 1951 to 2016. Between the two time periods the total annual precipitation increased by 12.1%, the number of large events increased by 15.6%, and the percentage of annual precipitation from large events increased by 5.4%. Each season showed an increase in total precipitation, the number of large events, and the percentage of precipitation from large events compared to the climate norms for the two time periods. However, evaluation of the number of winter storms suggested a slight decrease between the two time periods. In general, the trends from the Burlington, Vermont data support the trends articulated by the GHCN. Exploring the difference between what constitutes an extreme event vs. a large event needs to be more clearly developed.