---
title: "Report Finds Vermont Is No Longer the Climate Refuge Many Expected"
description: "The state’s third climate assessment says Vermont is 3.6 degrees warmer than in 1900 and swinging between floods and drought."
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-23T15:52:37.387Z
modified: 2026-10-24T12:59:30Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/report-finds-vermont-is-no-longer-the-climate-refuge-many-ex-7ca0ba
language: en
tags: ["climate", "infrastructure", "floods", "drought", "health", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Report Finds Vermont Is No Longer the Climate Refuge Many Expected

*The state’s third climate assessment says Vermont is 3.6 degrees warmer than in 1900 and swinging between floods and drought.*

By rews desk · October 23, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/report-finds-vermont-is-no-longer-the-climate-refuge-many-ex-7ca0ba

## In brief

- UVM’s Gund Institute released the 2025 Vermont Climate Assessment on Friday, the state’s third after 2014 and 2021
- Average annual temperature is up 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900, and snowfall is down 27.5 inches since 1960
- Floods in 2023 and 2024 did more than $1 billion in damage, and 2025 brought the worst drought since 2000
- About 10,000 buildings sit in floodplains, a third of residents lack air conditioning and Lyme rates have quadrupled
- The report projects 4 to 9 more degrees of warming by 2100 and makes no specific policy recommendations

The University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment released a statewide climate assessment on Friday that concludes Vermont is not the climate refuge it was once thought to be, after five years of floods, drought, heat and wildfire smoke.

The 2025 Vermont Climate Assessment is the state’s third, after reports in 2014 and 2021, and nearly 200 experts and practitioners contributed to it, [according to the institute](https://www.uvm.edu/gund/vermont-climate-assessment). It found that Vermont’s average annual temperature has risen 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900 and that average annual precipitation is up 7.3 inches. The report’s [summary of findings](https://www.uvm.edu/gund/vca/key-findings) puts that rise at 20 percent. Winters are warming faster than summers, and the state has lost 27.5 inches of snow since 1960.

“Vermont is not a climate refuge, as once believed,” Jessica Balerna, a postdoctoral fellow at the institute, [told The Boston Globe](https://bostonglobe.com/2026/10/23/metro/vermont-climate-change-report/). “Our aging infrastructure, aging population, and rural geography make us more vulnerable to climate impacts that are both interconnected and compounding.”

Gillian Galford, the report’s lead author and director of the university’s Climate Measurements Center of Excellence, said the data from the past five years showed a state in “climate whiplash.” Floods in the summers of 2023 and 2024 did more than $1 billion in damage, the Globe reported, as rivers rose over towns, homes and businesses. Then came 2025, and the worst drought Vermont had recorded since 2000.

The authors singled out July 2023. In one month, the state had heat waves, wildfire smoke and the worst of that summer’s flooding.

“When basements are flooded, Vermonters need to open their windows to control mold growth,” Dr. Balerna said. “But what do we tell them to do when wildfire smoke or extreme heat makes opening windows dangerous, as well?”

For years, the worry ran the other way. “Even five to 10 years ago, people were very worried about climate refugees sort of overwhelming the state of Vermont,” Dr. Galford said. “Increasingly, we’re just seeing probably everywhere is being impacted, and there probably isn’t a true climate refuge.”

The direction of the change matches what the earlier assessments found. The authors said the speed had picked up. Days above 90 degrees have doubled since 1900, according to the report, and the past five years brought the warmest average winter temperature and the heaviest single-day rainfall on record.

Much of the state isn’t built for that. The report describes aging dams at risk of catastrophic failure and utility poles overdue for replacement. About 10,000 buildings sit in federally designated floodplains. Roughly a third of Vermonters don’t have air conditioning.

Cold-adapted species are under pressure, among them red spruce, white cedar, Bicknell’s thrush and the Canada lynx. Lyme disease rates have quadrupled in the past decade as more ticks survive the warmer winters.

Jon Copans, executive director of the Foundation for a Resilient Montpelier, said the assessment was “a confirmation of what we’re experiencing” and would guide the adaptation work that towns and cities have to do. His group formed after the capital flooded in July 2023. More than three years later, Montpelier is still dealing with damage to its city hall and trying to protect its wastewater treatment plant, which came within a foot of catastrophic flooding.

“And Montpelier is not alone,” Mr. Copans said. “Every community has this evolving punch list of projects we know we need to get after to make our communities more resilient.”

The few gains in the report come with conditions. The freeze-free growing season is nearly 24 days longer than in 1900, which could help farmers, but large swings from year to year, along with spells of extreme heat and drought, make it harder to plan. Ski resorts have welcomed higher average river levels in February, Dr. Balerna said, because the state uses that measure to set how much water they can draw for snowmaking. They need more snowmaking because winters are getting warmer.

The report projects that average temperatures could rise another 2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 and 4 to 9 degrees by 2100. It makes no specific policy recommendations. Its authors said they hoped lawmakers and other leaders would use it both to slow climate change and to adapt to it.

“Across all sectors, more action is needed,” Dr. Balerna said.