Vermont Storms Behaved As Expected; Summer In Autumn Resumes

As we've seen several times this month, a generally stormy
Vermont day ends with a big sunset. View from St.
Albans, Vermont last evening.

 Well, it could have been worse.

Severe thunderstorms developed pretty much as expected across the southeastern half of Vermont Wednesday, doing the usual damage to trees and power lines in some towns throughout the region. 

The strongest cluster of storms at least in Vermont, started in western Rutland County and moved east-northeast and crossed the border into New Hampshire part way between White River Junction and St. Johnsbury. 

Trees and branches came down along this line in Middletown Springs, then heading over the Green Mountains to Bridgewater (near Killington), then up toward Ryegate and Newbury in the Connecticut River Valley.  

Though forecasts called for a low risk of tornadoes with Wednesday's storms, there's so far no evidence anything of the sort happened, at least in Vermont.   Preliminary indications are that it was all straight-line winds. There was briefly a tornado warning in southern Maine, but it's unknown if one actually touched down.

Northwestern Vermont, as expected, missed out on the "fun" on Wednesday.  Thunderstorms rolled through early in the morning, and a few brief downpours zipped on through in the early afternoon.  My rain gauge in St. Albans caught right around a half inch of rain Wednesday.

That's pretty much it for rain for at least a week, aside from some hit and miss stuff that might come along Saturday afternoon and evening.  

The front that caused the storms was producing heavy rain in southern New England this morning. There were even a few severe thunderstorms on and near Cape Cod. That bad weather is slow to move on  in part because a big, fat ridge of high pressure is building over the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.

Hibiscus plant still thriving out on my St. Albans, Vermont
deck as warm September weather continues. 

The front will wash out eventually as a tropical system moves by offshore, not bothering with  us at all.

This big, fat high pressure will ensure that summer in September continues on for at least a week, if not more.  

Aside from those pesky Saturday showers,  expect a fair amount of sunshine for quite awhile.  It'll be just sort of warm for this time of year at first. Highs each day through Sunday will be in the 70s, which is a little above normal. 

It'll get even toastier by the middle of next week.  Highs have a shot of reaching the mid-80s, at a time of year when barely 70 degrees just about does it for daytime highs. 

I'm not sure how all this warm weather will affect the fall foliage season.  The best colors come after sunny Septembers that have plenty of chilly nights. We are more or less getting the sun, but certainly not the chill. It STILL hasn't been below 50 yet this month in Burlington, and it doesn't look like it will get that chilly in the foreseeable future.

We'll get slapped in the face by cold weather eventually, but it isn't going to happen any time soon. Your garden is safe from frost.