Summer Switch: Cold Memorial Day Weekend To Yield To Heat; Rain So Far Underwhelming

 A little moisture from overnight light rain coaxing a peony
bud to bloom in my St. Albans, Vermont garden this morning.
Rainfall, though was underwhelming.  Hopes for more
rain later this week before likely heat takes hold. 

One way to unofficially mark the start of summer is always Memorial Day, and this one in New England, including Vermont has been anything but summer-like.  

We've already mentioned the high elevation snow in southern Vermont Saturday.  Sunday was chilly statewide under overcast skies and at least spotty light rain. 

Today, Memorial Day, won't be much better.  The morning will be especially foggy and drizzly and perhaps showery. Western Vermont and on into New York might brighten up a bit toward late afternoon and evening. 

Temperatures though, will be stuck in the 50s east, with maybe low 60s west. 

Another way to consider the start of summer is what is known as climatological summer.  That starts tomorrow, June 1, and goes through August 31.  It's a convenient way for meteorologists and climatologists to measure and compare overall weather season to season and year to year. 

The first week or two of climatological summer in Vermont is increasingly looking hot. Tomorrow through Thursday, temperatures will only be near normal for this time of year, which is vastly toastier than it was over the weekend. 

That means highs will poke into the 70s for much of the week.  Signs continue to point to a strengthening Bermuda High, which indicates hot, humid conditions could take over by the end of the week and possibly go on for several days after that. 

Rainfall with this nippy Memorial Day weekend has so far been underwhelming at best in the northwestern half of Vermont. As of early this morning, Burlington had just 0.16 inches of rain and Montpelier a little over a quarter of an inch.  Although today will be rather cloudy and gloomy and chilly, only perhaps a tenth of an inch of additional rain will come through the Champlain Valley. 

At least southeastern Vermont has gotten some decent precipitation. Springfield has gotten more than an inch of rain so far this weekend. 

The only real hope for a bit more drought relief might come Wednesday night into Friday.  A warm front, marking the eventual start of the hot, humid weather, is forecast to slowly advance into Vermont during that time frame. 

If it works out as hoped, we'd get quite a few showers.  We wouldn't get an overwhelming amount of rain, but we'll take anything.  

Once that Bermuda High fully takes over by next weekend, the rain will shut off again, aside from the usual widely scattered afternoon thunderstorms over the mountains which is typical during hot weather in New England. 

The latest long range forecasts for New England heading all the way toward the middle of the month suggest warmer than average temperatures and less rain than normal.