It's official: Stella is our No. 2 snowstorm

Winter Storm Stella is already one for the history books: Its payload of snow is Burlington's second-largest ever, according to the National Weather Service.

On Wednesday evening the weather service broadcast the final tally for the storm that began Tuesday: 30.4 inches.

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By mid-afternoon Wednesday, what meteorlogist Eric Evenson described as the storm's "huge fluff-factor" edged it past the storm of Dec. 25 - 28, 1969 by one-tenth of an inch (approximately 3/32nds of an inch, or 2.5 mm).

Burlington's all-time record for a single storm is 33.1 inches, which fell Jan. 2-3 in 2010, according to the weather service.

Five of the city's top-10 snowfalls have taken place in the 21st century.

That doesn't necessarily mean that we'll be expecting more record-breakers in the decades to come, Evenson said: Trends in temperature are easier to track than trends in precipitation.

But we can probably expect more extremes of weather, he added.

"Think about it. Last winter our snowfall was next to nothing," Evenson said. "This February was the warmest on record. Then in early March we posted a daily record-low maximum temperature."

Subjectively, our perceptions of a storm can be shaped by timing, he continued.

If Burlington's top snowstorm in 2010 doesn't make a lasting impression, he noted, it might be because it took place over a Saturday and Sunday — and didn't disrupt school schedules or commutes.

"People just stayed home for that one," Evenson said.

Burlington's snowfall; new rankings:

1. Jan. 2-3, 2010 — 33.1 inches

2. March 14-15, 2017 — 30.4 inches (8 p.m. Wednesday)

3. Dec. 25-28, 1969 — 29.8 inches

4. March 6-7, 2011 — 25.8 inches

5. Feb. 14-15, 2007 — 25.7 inches

6. Jan. 13-14, 1934 — 24.7 inches

7. March 5-6, 2001 — 22.9 inches

8. March 13-14, 1993 — 22.4 inches

9. Nov. 25, 1900 — 20.0 inches

10. Jan. 25-28, 1986 — 19.7 inches

11. March 16-17, 1937 — 19.1 inches

Contact Joel Banner Baird at 802-660-1843 or joelbaird@freepressmedia.com, and on Twitter at @vtgoingup. Do you have a breaking news tip? Call us at 802-660-6500 or send us a post on Facebook or Twitter using #BFPTips.