Vermont October Was Among The Warmest. It Was Also Wet With Halloween Super Soaker

November is supposed to be stick season in Vermont, but this
morning, November 1 in St. Albans, plenty of leaves still on
trees after one of the warmest Octobers on record

October, 2021 ended yesterday on a somewhat mild, but very, very wet note as a soaker of a storm brought the month's rainfall totals to above normal levels.  

And if you thought October was awfully warm, you're right. It was among the warmest on record.

Before we get into October's climate, I do have to note all that rain yesterday. 

It was the second wettest Halloween on record. Only the destructive Halloween flooding of 2019 was worse. This time, the flooding mostly happened just to our east in Maine.

There was some minor flooding here and there in Vermont.  I do see that Route 116 in Bristol was down to one lane for a time yesterday due to high water. That was typical of the drainage problem we had from the day's soaking. Several rivers are or were at bank full, but I haven't seen any reports of any real damage.

Rainfall totals in Vermont were impressive. Not all the numbers are in yet but it was a lot of rain. For instance, Fletcher reported 2.75 inches of rain over the weekend. Storm totals reached two inches in Burlington. 

Over in Maine, as much as 6.8 inches of rain fell there, resulting in some damaging floods.

OCTOBER SUMMARY

For October, 2021 as a whole, the average temperature in Burlington was 55.6 degrees, making it the fourth warmest on record.

For comparison, the warmest October on record was in 2017, with a mean temperature of 58.6 degrees. It seemed to me we were on track for the warmest October on record this year, but the final 10 days of the month were fairly close to average, blunting the warmth we had earlier in the month. 

I'm sure Montpelier and St. Johnsbury both had one of their top 10 warmest Octobers on record too, as Montpelier was a whopping 7.5 degrees warmer than normal and St. J was 5.5 degrees on the warm side.

It's been a warm year. Unless November and December are quite a bit colder than average, this year will probably be among the top 10 warmest on record at Burlington. 

This next bit is much more subjective than the above stats, but I've never seen a year in which leaves were on the trees for such a long period. I first started seeing some trees start to leaf out in mid-April, which was earlier than I can remember.

As of this morning, November 1, some sugar maples are hanging on to some colorful leaves, and some oak and poplar trees still have green leaves, which is very odd for the opening of November

All that rain yesterday was the main driver in bringing the month's precipitation to above average levels. Burlington's October rainfall amounted to 5.49 inches, which was 1.66 inches on the wet side. We did ot quite make it into the top 10 list of wettest Octobers.

It was a bit drier in central and eastern Vermont, but still fairly wet. Montpelier and St Johnsbury were both more than a half inch on the wet side. 

 As of last Thursday, a small portion of Vermont near the International Border was still in moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.  A larger area, roughly the northeastern half of Vermont, was still considered abnormally dry.

But soil moisture had been improving with rains last week, and that super soaker over this past weekend really helped with ground water, I imagine. 

The Woof River, the little stream that runs by my house in St. Albans, is running vigorously for the first time this year. It's even healthier looking than it was during the spring thaw.  Little rivulets are running through parts of my property that are normally dry.  So this rain surely helped erase at least some of the last vestiges of this year's drought.

Usually, low elevations get at least a trace of snow in October, but not this year. Only the tippy top of the mountains saw some whitening.

Looking at the opening days of November, the month will start off on the cooler than average side, but it won't be anywhere near as cold as it can get this time of year. We'll run about five degrees on the cool side for the next week or so, with highs in the 40s and lows in the upper 20s to mid 30s. Nothing odd for this time of year.

After all that rain we just had, it's looking like we'll have an extended dry spell, with only light rain and snow showers in the forecast for the next week or so.