Vermont Had Another Very Warm Month In August. Drought Expands, Too

Warmth and humidity create a chaotic sky in 
mid-August over Vermont. August, 2022 was among
the hottest on record. 

 If you felt particularly sweaty this August in Vermont, there was a reason. 

It was one of the hottest Augusts in records dating all the back to the 1880s. And it seems to be part of a trend. 

In Burlington, the mean temperature for August, 2022 was 73.2 degrees.  That was hot enough to make it the fourth warmest August on record.  

This all means that the top four hottest Augusts have been since 2016.  In other words, August, 2022 would have been the hottest on record if not for 2018, 2021 and 2016.

Bit of a trend, there, huh?

The hot August was a statewide trend, as all reporting stations had well above normal temperatures. Montpelier was a whopping 5.3 degrees warmer than average with a mean temperature of 70.2 degrees. Rutland, St. Johnsbury and Bennington were all more than three degrees hotter than average.

The heat was not extreme, but it was consistent. In most places, the warmest temperatures of the month were in the low 90s. Very toasty, yes, but not as hot as it can get in August. 

Nights helped boost the August warmth, too. Temperatures in Burlington dipped below 60 degrees on only eight days in August. It hasn't been below 50 degrees in Burlington since June 20, which is quite a long time.  Though it will probably get into the upper 40s in Burlington tonight. 

In Montpelier, only three days this August were cooler than average, and even so, not by much. 

Overall, meteorological summer - June 1 through August 31 is in a three way tie for the eighth warmest summer on record at Burlington. Three of the past four summers are in the top 10 list of warmest summers. The last time a summer was in the top 10 coolest list was in 1968. 

Climate change, anyone?

DRY TIMES, TOO

It was a dry month statewide as well. Burlington was closest to average with rainfall, coming in only 0.14 inches below normal. It was worse elsewhere in the state. Bennington and St. Johnsbury were nearly an inch on the dry side. Montpelier was a half inch below normal.

Southeastern Vermont was even worse.  I don't have a lot of data showing how far below normal rainfall was in the southeast. But Keene, New Hampshire is a relatively good stand-in for that area and they were nearly 2.5 inches drier than normal.

Not surprisingly, southeastern Vermont is suffering from a drought.  The U.S. Drought Monitor, updated just this morning, has now extended abnormally dry conditions statewide and indicated drought conditions have expanded to cover nearly half of Vermont.   Only about 25 percent of the state was in drought last week.   

This warm, dry trend from August looks like it could last well into September. Long range forecasts are always iffy, but for what it's worth, forecasts call for generally warmer and drier than normal weather in Vermont into mid-September.