It's Autumn In Vermont As Far As I'm Concerned

I have a very mild condition that many, many other people have. When I exercise or work hard in chilly air, I'll  have a bit of a cough for up to 18 hours afterwards.  It's called exercise induced asthma, and unlike the severe form of asthma we most often hear about, what I experience is harmless. 

It's coming! It'll look like this pretty soon
here in Vermont 

The reason I bring this up is because yesterday, I spent much of the day working vigorously outdoors, and afterwards briefly detected a hint of that winter time cold weather exercise cough.  

As far as I'm concerned, that means for me, it's autumn. 

Goodness knows it wasn't exactly cold on Sunday.  Daytime temperatures were in the 60s, but there was also a pretty stiff northwest wind.  Low stratus clouds mixed with the sun, and made the sky resemble what it's like during peak foliage season.

Speaking of foliage, I saw quite a few orange sugar maple leaves mixed in with the greenery. 

The onset of a new season is basically whatever a person feels. Sure, there's official dates, like the autumn solstice later in September. But for me, I'm now in autumn mode, and Sunday sealed the deal. 

We will still have warm, humid days, but the chances of another long stretch of 90 degree heat are pretty low at this point. That means we won't break the record for the year with the most 90 degree days.  We've had 20 such days this year in Burlington, Vermont. The record is 26 days. 

We'll find out tomorrow whether this was climatologically the hottest summer on record, based on data from the National Weather Service in South Burlington. It's going to be close. The bottom line is, as we turn toward autumn, we can certainly say we weren't cheated out of a summer in 2020. 

Now that summer weather is almost over.  There's no getting around it. 

You see it everywhere. Pallets of wood pellets are parked near basement doors. Most of the vegetable gardens look exhausted and depleted. I've noticed the pink Clarence Brown home fuel delivery truck going up and down my road in the past few days.

The entirety of this upcoming week will be warmer than it was Sunday, but not exactly oppressive. The season has turned in Vermont. It's time to start thinking about taking the sweaters and hoodies and boots out of summer storage, I'm afraid.