Strange Vermont November Heat Wave Peaks Today; Rough Weather Elsewhere In Nation

Amid Friday's near record warmth in Vermont, clouds formed
interesting patterns in the sky over St. Albans. More
record highs are anticipated today. 

 The pre-dawn hours this morning brought parts of Vermont temperatures that were more typical of early morning lows in July.

 It's kind of nice not to have to hunt for a jacket and boots to take the dogs outside in the darkness of a November morning. 

This after a gorgeous Friday that saw temperatures within a degree or two either side of 70 for most of us. Montpelier reached 72 degrees Friday, breaking the previous record high of 71, set in 1982. Burlington "only" reached 69 degrees, which is a few degrees short of the record.

 At 6 a.m. this morning, it was 61 degrees in Burlington, which was already ten degrees warmer than the normal high for the date.  

 Today's low temperature of 60 degrees breaks the record for the highest low temperature for the date. 

It won't take all that much to reach the today's record high of 72 degrees in Burlington. The forecast high there is 73 degrees, but there's still the outside chance we could tie the all time record high for the month of November, which is 75 degrees.

That will depend upon how much cloudiness we get this afternoon, and whether there's a fetch of wind off the cooler waters of Lake Champlain. 

Montpelier also already set a new record for warmest minimum temperature for today's date, and has a decent chance of tying or breaking today's record high of 73.

If anything, tonight will be even warmer than last night, which is saying something. The warmer Champlain Valley will stay in the low to mid 60s.  Almost warm enough for air conditioning. In November! 

The first in a series of weakening cold fronts will arrive Sunday afternoon.  We'll eek out another day of near 70 degree temperatures before the scattered showers arrive.  Some more showers will continue behind the first front Sunday night, but we're not expecting anything huge. Most of us will receive a quarter inch of rain or less.

Monday stays on the mild side as more cold air is poised to rush in. 

Tuesday will feel shockingly cold, as high temperatures will only reach the 40s, and a stiff northwest wind will make it feel even chillier. But that kind of weather is basically normal for November.  The only odd thing about Tuesday is it will remain pretty sunny. 

This is normally an especially cloudy time of year, so the sunshine is something. Great for people with solar panels on their roofs, that's for sure! 

The overall weather pattern continues to want to give us warmer than average weather through mid-month. It'll warm up again during the second half of next week, but it won't be nearly as toasty as it is today.

Still, highs near 60 late in the week are pretty sweet for November. 

I noted the other day that record warm starts to November often end in wintry, even subzero chill.

But not always, so there's a glimmer of hope for people who aren't fans of deep winter. 

One example came just two years ago. A November heat wave in 2020 lasted a lot longer than the current one, bringing four consecutive days in the low 70s to Burlington and eight consecutive days at or above 60 degrees. 

The rest of the month, and the subsequent winter, wasn't all that intense. In fact, that Christmas brought record warmth to Vermont. 

In other words, the upcoming winter could go any which way.

ROUGH WEATHER ELSEWHERE

An off kilter jet stream is behind the record warmth here in the Northeast. But when the jet stream has big northward bulges and southward dips like the current set up, somebody is going to have some bad, even dangerous weather.

That's been the case with this weather pattern

For instance, a preliminary count of 19 tornadoes touched down in eastern Texas and Oklahoma and western Arkansas yesterday and last evening. At least one person was killed, and more than a dozen injured. Numerous homes and some businesses were destroyed. 

In Denver, the first snowstorm of season led to a 100-vehicle pileup and other crashes.  One main thoroughfare was closed for hours after the pileup. 

An atmospheric river storm caused a tremendous windstorm in Washington State, cutting power to more than 250,000 homes and businesses. Some roads were blocked by fallen trees early this morning. 

Winds gusting past 60 mph were also sweeping through much of Illinois this morning.