The calendar says spring started on March 20. But tell that to the Thurber family at West Brattleboro's Lilac Ridge Farm, where the third generation of maple sugarmakers fired up the sap boiler at the beginning of the month.
Or talk with lift operators at the Killington Resort some 72 miles up the map and 4,000 feet up the mountain, where the state's largest snow-sports area launched its spring pass last week.
Or ask the volunteer organizers of the Joe's Pond Association in Danville, where a nearly half-century tradition of holding an "Ice Out" prediction game means the exact day and time of arrival is, literally, anyone's guess.
"It's hard to define what the start of spring really means, as it varies a lot," said Eric Myskowski, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Burlington. "It begins down in the valleys and works its way up into the mountains."
But regardless of location, spring has begun to sprout, winter-weary experts agree.
The smell of maple steam is one of the earliest signs, according to the state's more than 3,000 sugarmakers.
In West Brattleboro, the Thurber family has tapped trees for three-quarters of a century, ever since the late patriarch Stuart Thurber first tried as a 10-year-old in 1948. Farmers originally started boiling as local talk heated up at March Town Meeting. But amid news of climate change, they've recently found sap flowing as early as Valentine's Day.
This month, after what meteorologists deem a snowier-than-normal February, maple trees are back to their old ways.
"In general, sugaring usually starts here," third-generation farmer Ross Thurber said of his location, "and this year is prototypical."
Thurber said the same about mud season, which has slowed but so far not stopped traffic along the farm's dirt Ames Hill Road. (For confirmation, signs installed by Brattleboro Public Works feature a QR code that cellphone users can scan to learn the latest driving conditions.)
As for wildlife, staffers at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies in White River Junction report sightings of such migrating birds as red-winged blackbirds, as well as salamanders and wood frogs wriggling from wintering grounds to mating pools and ponds.
"Usually, all it takes for them to be on the move are rainy, warm nights over 40 degrees," staff biologist Amber Jones said of the amorous amphibians.
Meteorologists caution that Vermont can still receive snow through April. That's the hope at Killington, which is promoting the "Longest Season in the East" after launching its spring pass March 14 with aspirations of skiing and snowboarding even after moving to Friday-to-Sunday hours as of May 11.
"Historically, March has been our snowiest month," Killington spokesperson Amy Laramie said. "We're hoping Mother Nature brings us another storm or two."
The view also remains wintry in the Northeast Kingdom town of Danville, home of the nearly 400-acre Joe's Pond, which has won mention in The New York Times as "usually the last in Vermont to melt."
Organizers of its annual "Ice Out" guessing game place a pallet on the frozen surface, connect it to an electrical cord attached to a shoreline clock, then wait until a thaw unplugs the timepiece to show which of the more than 15,000 entrants most closely has predicted the state's unofficial final farewell to winter.
Winners in the past five years have selected dates between April 10 (2021) and April 19 (2022). But this year, organizers reported 40 inches of snow on Town Meeting Day, enough to bury the measuring gauge.
"There are still people out on the ice, but you can see some cracks," Michelle Walker, a member of the organizing committee, said this week.
The Joe's Pond Association is selling online chances until April 1 for $1, with money collected divided between the closest guesser and a fund for water quality efforts and Fourth of July fireworks.
"Most everybody can afford a dollar, so why not let everyone have a shot?" Walker said. "In this neck of the woods, it really is something to watch."
This Special section item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.