Few More Rain Chances Here In Vermont; Heat Drags On In West

This little guy took advantage of a bright, cool, clear early 
morning today to have a salad breakfast on my 
St. Albans, Vermont lawn. 

I'm sure more than a few people from places like California, Arizona, Nevada and other western states wish they were in or near Vermont this morning. 

As that dreadful, wicked, record breaking heat wave grinds on in that part of the nation, a burst of cool air from Canada is keeping us refreshed.  

After a mild, breezy Wednesday, temperatures took the plunge last night under clear skies. It was nothing that unusual for mid-June, but still cool. 

Saranac Lake, New York hit 34 degrees; Gallup Mills, Vermont saw 36 degrees, Shrewsbury, Vermont 38 and Island Pond, 39 degrees.

We'll enjoy another nice day today, with highs well up in the 70s.  Sunshine and low humidity will keep things drying out, though, which isn't good. There are some chances of rain coming up, though. More on that in a bit. 

First, that heat out west. There are still some impressive numbers coming in.  Las Vegas got to 116 degrees, tying the record with numerous other days as the second hottest reading on record there. The desert city of Needles, California got to 118 degrees.

Furnace Creek in Death Valley made it to 125 degrees. It's always hot there this time of year, but that's ridiculous.

The heat extended as far east as the Dakotas.  My relatives in Yankton, South Dakota sweltered through a high of 102 degrees. Mitchell, South Dakota got to 105. 

It didn't even dawn on my until I read an Associated Press piece that heat waves like this in the southwest cause an influx of patients to hospitals with serious burns.

A typical scenario is an elderly person falls onto a hot sidewalk in, say, Phoenix when it's 115 degrees in the shade and can't get up.  The concrete or asphalt sidewalk is at 180 degrees or even more in the sun, so a person who falls and can't get up gets serious burns. 

Last year, 104 people were admitted to the Arizona Burn Center for injuries from contact with hot surfaces and seven of those people died from those burns, the AP reported.

Up here in Vermont, we're fortunate in that respect

Frequent disturbances coming in from the west and northwest will mostly keep the heat at bay in the Green Mountain State. We might get a brief squirt of some hot, humid air Monday before another cold front comes in.

Before that, you'll notice it warming up tomorrow somewhat ahead of an initial cold front.  It's got a lot of energy with it, so severe storms are likely today in Iowa, tomorrow in the Ohio Valley and perhaps Saturday in New England. 

The early thinking is the best wind and updraft profile will come through New York and western Vermont too early in the day to trigger much in the way of severe storms, but some nasties could fire up further east. 

Forecasters will watch the timing of this thing to give us further details tomorrow on whether to expect any severe storms Saturday. 

I don't think there will be all that much beneficial, needed rains for Vermont with this.  It will be another hit and miss affair, with a few places getting decent, brief downpours with this. The showers and storms will be fast movers, so there won't be an opportunity for them to drop much rain before racing on toward New Hampshire. 

Another cold front has the potential for more showers early next week. We'll take anything we can get, I suppose.