"Cold" Vermont July Was The Old Normal; Awfully Wet South, Though

A brief, heavy downpour in St. Albans, Vermont Friday.
While it wasn't that rainy here in far northern Vermont,
the southern  half of the state was repeatedly pummeled
by downpours in July.  The month was cool by recent
standards, but compared to 20th century levels,
temperatures were pretty close to average.

 We'd become accustom to hot, dry Julys here in Vermont so this year's was a shock to the system.

It was cool and in the southern two thirds of the state, very, very wet. 

Temperatures were below average statewide, at least as compared to the "new normal." brought on by climate change. 

 If the same July weather we had this past month happened four or five decades ago, it would have been just an average July, at least in terms of temperatures. 

Burlington is a terrific example. The mean temperature in July, 2021 was 69.6 degrees, which is 2.8 degrees below the "new normal" established this year. It was also the chilliest July since 2009.

The "normal." July temperature two decades ago was only 70.6 degrees, so this month would have been only slightly below average.

If this month's weather hit during the disco age of the 1970s, this past July's temperatures would have been exactly average. The normal July temperature back then was - you guessed it - 69.6 degrees. 

By the way, Burlington did not come remotely close to scoring in the top 10 coolest Julys this year. 

In other words, don't get used to "cool" Julys like this one in Vermont.  This will probably go down as one of Vermont's coolest Julys of the 21st century, though it was completely normal by 20th century standards. Climate change is here, folks

The unusual cloudiness of this July is what kept daytime temperatures suppressed. The average high temperature in Burlington in July was 77.7, which is way below the "new normal." The average low over the month was 61.5 degrees, pretty close to what is now considered normal.

By any measure, July in the southern half of Vermont was abnormally wet.  One weather observer I know near Woodford recorded 14.69 inches for July. Springfield, Vermont (water) logged 9.15 inches of rain in July, compared to a normal of just under four inches. Bennington, Vermont received right around 9.5 inches of rain in July, about five inches wetter than average.

As already reported, there were two damaging floods in southern Vermont in July.  Other downpours caused lighter, scattered damage. 

Some towns in southern New England received 17 inches of rain in July, 2021, about the same as Burlington, Vermont has received all year so far. 

Far northern Vermont, as we keep noting, missed out.  Plattsburgh, New York, is a good proxy for the northwest corner of Vermont.  Only about 3.5 inches of rain fell there in July, which is right around average.

Soggy southern Vermont seems to be under one more flood threat later today. As always, the rain coming in today and tonight will be most focused on southern Vermont.  Northern areas will get some light rain, but no biggie.

This isn't necessarily a blockbuster storm. There will be some locally heavy rain, and some areas in southern Vermont might get hit with a few repeated downpours. It' so wet in that neck of the woods that it won't take all that much rain today and tonight to set off new flooding.  Unsurprisingly,  a flash flood watch is up today and tonight for southern Vermont and parts of western New Hampshire.

As we get into August this upcoming week, the weather will trend less rainy and gradually warmer.  By the end of the week, it will feel summery enough with moderately high humidity and temperatures a wee bit above normal. 

Don't count the kind of clear air we saw yesterday during August.  Dozens of wildfires in the western United States and in much of Canada are belching untold tons of smoke into the atmosphere.  It's inevitable that the smoke will drift over Vermont frequently in August and September. Expect plenty of hazy days. 

Most of the time, the smoke will be higher overhead, so ground level air pollution won't be too bad. But sometimes, like we saw twice in July, the smoke might be right down here with us, so there is certainly the risk of a few more unhealthy, polluted days as we go through August. 

Hurricane season ramps up in August, so we will be watching the Atlantic for signs of development. It has been quiet out there the past couple of weeks, and as of this morning, there was nothing bubbling up.

It's only a matter of time, though, that a tropical storm or hurricane gets going.  Chances are of course very low that anything that develops will come near Vermont. But given how wet southern Vermont has been, if any tropical storm or hurricane did manage to come up this way, it would be an Irene-level disaster.