Classic Indian Summer This Weekend In Vermont

Indian Summer is a period of warm, dry, often hazy weather in the autumn following some of the first freezes of the season. 

Even the fading perennials in my St. Albans,
Vermont gardens are adding color to the
landscape as autumn progresses. Expect
Indian Summer type weather this weekend

By that definition, we've got a classic Indian Summer going on right now. 

As we all know, the growing season ended in most of Vermont last weekend as some record cold descended on the Green Mountain State. We had a bunch of frosty mornings there. 

It has warmed up nicely in the past few days, and it will get even warmer for the weekend. 

Meanwhile, the  fall foliage is really popping, especially in the Northeast Kingdom and the higher elevations of the Green Mountains, so get out there and enjoy. 

I think the drought conditions are helping promote the brilliant reds in some of the trees, making the foliage more brilliant. I guess that's a rare positive in the bad news drought we're experiencing in New England. 

All this is part of that amplified weather pattern we've been talking about, the one that will bring hot, dry, windy weather to the West. That is worsening those wildfires out there. Those wildfires will maintain the haze here, as the smoke is blowing across the nation. 

Just to be clear, just because I like Indian Summer a LOT, I do hate that the haze is coming from the wildfires. I'm sure we'd happily live without the haze if it meant no destructive wildfires. 

Temperatures this weekend and the start of the week will actually be pretty close to normal for mid-summer, not the end of September.  Daytime highs will be in the mid 70s to low 80s and lows will be in the 50s to low 60s. 

South winds will be increasing all weekend. Since it's so dry, don't do any outdoor burning, and be extremely careful with campfires, cookouts, discarded cigarettes and such.  You could start a forest fire. 

It's true that the humidity will be increasing somewhat this weekend, so it won't be "perfect" conditions for fires, but it will be bad enough  to make you want to take precautions. 

Meteorologists, looking at ever evolving data, have been forced to greatly postpone the onset of any rain we might get. Originally, early in the week, they were talking about rain coming in Sunday afternoon or evening. That rain has now been pushed back to Tuesday afternoon or evening. 

As delightful as the weather will be this weekend, I am so ready for a good soaking rain to limit the dust out there and perhaps begin to recover just a bit from the drought.