Vermont Weather, Honestly — a stop on Vermont Route 100.
A word about weather, since it governs everything here and since Vermonters famously claim five seasons rather than four.
Winter is long and genuinely cold, with real snow — several feet of it, on the ground for months. The roads are well plowed, because Vermont has no choice, but this road climbs and shades and ices, and a rear-wheel-drive rental car in January is a bad plan.
MUD SEASON is the fifth one, roughly late March into May, and it is not a joke. When three feet of frost comes out of the ground from the top down, the surface turns to a bottomless soup while the ground below is still frozen solid. Dirt roads become impassable; there are stories of vehicles sunk to the axle. Many back roads post closures. Route One Hundred is paved and fine, but the side roads may not be.
Then spring arrives late and fast, summer is warm, green and beautiful with genuinely cool nights, and September and October are as good as weather gets anywhere.
One thing to be ready for year-round: it changes quickly and the mountains make their own. A clear morning in the valley can be fog and sleet on the ridge. Carry a layer even in July, and if you're hiking, carry two.