Clouds Save Some From Frost, But Raw, Cold Memorial Day New England Weekend Looms

We covered up some of the more tender potted flowers and
plants due to a forecasted late season frost here in St. Albans,
Vermont. A few high clouds came to the rescue overnight,
preventing temperatures from getting cold enough for a frost.

It was a battle last night between cold, dry Canadian air draining into Vermont and the rest of northern New England versus high clouds coming in from the west.

If the cold, dry air won out, there would have been widespread frosts and freezing temperatures. But for the most part, the high clouds won out.  

There were still quite a few areas of frosts and freezes last night, especially the further north and east you went. Those areas were the last to see the clouds, so they had more time to "bask" in the cold, dry "gift"from Canada. 

Some of the coldest readings I saw were 27 degrees in Island Pond, 28 in Gallup Mills and 30 degrees in Eden.

It stayed around 38 or 39 degrees at my  house in St. Albans, Vermont. We covered up our most tender plants, but it turned out to be unnecessary. No regrets, though. Better safe than sorry. 

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the unofficial start of summer. We've already had quite a bit of summer like weather this spring.  But for this weekend, not so much. 

It will be more of a wearing fleece, drinking hot chocolate and staying indoors watching Netflix type thing than a bikini and beer beach party weekend, I'm afraid. That's especially true the further south and east you go. 

Today will be by all measures cold for this time of year. The clouds that streamed in early this morning will continue to thicken up. That'll keep temperatures down in the 50s for highs. Rain will start to spread northward through the day and into the evening, but not make it all the way through Vermont

Areas along Route 2 and north should stay dry, and spots between Route 2 and Route 4 won't get all that much rain tonight.  Areas south of Route 4 should get a decent, soaking, needed, but cold rain this afternoon and tonight. 

The summits in the southern Green Mountains and southern Adirondacks could see some wet snow tonight. There, I said it. Snow. At least it won't be widespread.  At least the clouds tonight will protect us from another frost. 

Saturday isn't looking much better. In northern Vermont, some sunshine will return.  We're just over three weeks away from the summer solstice, so the sun is super strong. That'll turn the North into a relative banana belt, with highs reaching at least the low 60s. 

That's pretty cool for this time of year, but not totally unreasonable. 

In southern Vermont, the clouds will hang on longer, so highs will stay in the raw 50s.  In higher elevation towns way down in the south, places like Woodbury and Searsburg, high temperatures will only make it into the mid and upper 40s.  Welcome to, um, November?

Saturday night, we'll have to look out for scattered frost again, especially north where there will be fewer clouds

Earlier forecasts called for a dry second half of the weekend, but that's being called into question now.  A storm is now expected to come closer to the New England coast than expected. That will throw rain back inland, especially Sunday night. 

It remains to be seen how far north and west the rain gets, but it looks like at least eastern and southern Vermont will get some precipitation.  It could work further northwest than that, too. We'll see.

We'll get back into summer next week. It will warm into the 70s early in the week but the air will stay dry.  By the end of the week, it's beginning to look like warm, humid air will settle in. You know the drill, highs around 80, air muggy enough to make you sweat if you do any activity outside. 

The weather forecast for this weekend isn't great, obviously, but as always, I can point out that it's been worse. 

On May 31 1961, the temperature in Burlington plunged to 25 degrees, tying the record at the time for the lowest reading on record. (You'd expect the coldest weather at the beginning of the month.)

Needless to say, crops and gardens were wiped out that year in interior New England. We dodged that bullet this year, for sure. 

There was also a widespread frost and freeze across most of Vermont on June 3, 1986 - awfully late in the year.  And in May, 1992, a three-day heat wave with temperatures around 90 degrees from May 21-23 prompted pretty much everybody to put their tomatoes in their gardens.

By May 25 that year, the entire state experienced a hard freeze.

As you can see, disappointing weather can hit very late in the spring here in Vermont. I guess that's why we're so hardy.