More Record Vermont Warmth, Hot Year, And Eta Trouble

Another record warm, sunny November day is dawning in
the Northeast, so we've put our palm tree back out on
our weather deck in St. Albans, Vermont 

 More record highs are falling around Vermont and elsewhere as a strong November heat wave continues.  

Among the record highs were 70 degrees in Montpelier, 69 degrees in St. Johnsbury and 72 degrees in Springfield

No fewer than 46 record highs were reported in the eastern United States Sunday. More records are sure to fall today and tomorrow.

Burlington, Vermont fell short of a record high Sunday. It "only" got to 72 degrees, just shy of the record 74 degrees set in 1996.

Today, Burlington has a better shot at a record high.  The record high for today is 68 degrees and the forecast high is 70. 

This is quite a contrast to last year, when winter hit early and hard.  Exactly one year before Burlington had that 72 degrees, the high temperature on November 8, 2019 was just 30 degrees. And there was 2.6 of snow that day.  

We ain't getting any snow for a few days at least, folks. 

We've had a lot of warm weather this year in Vermont, no doubt.  We could easily have one of our top 10 warmest years on record. 

I added up all the temperature records so far this year, then assumed temperatures in November and December would come out just exactly at average.  That would make this year the fourth warmest on record in Burlington, with a mean temperature of 48.5 degrees.

The warmest year on record was 2012, with a mean temperature of 49.2 degrees.

We could even move up in my projected rankings.  It's really beginning to look like this November will come out warmer than normal.  But of course who knows what December will bring.

I'm beginning to sound like Steve Kornacki at the NBC Big Board on election week, so I"ll stop with this for now. 

TROPICAL STORM ETA UPDATE

We had yet another landfalling tropical storm in the United States last night as Tropical Storm Eta moved over the Florida Keys. 

It was the 12th tropical storm or hurricane to strike the United States this year. The previous record for most tropical storms to hit the U.S. was nine, back in 1916.

Storm surge flooding and high winds hit the Keys, but it seems the worst effects of Eta so far are in South Florida, especially in and around Miami and Fort Lauderdale. 

Feeder bands of torrential rains keep swirling into South Florida and were continuing to do so early Monday morning.  Many roads and streets there are under water and impassable.

Tropical Storm Eta might strengthen into a hurricane for a time in the eastern Gulf of Mexico over the next day or two.  It looks like it's going to meander aimlessly out there much of this week, then maybe head back toward northern Florida.  That forecast is still on the uncertain side, though.