A Big Burst Of Spring, With Hints Of Summer In Vermont And Elsewhere

Daffodils on the cusp of blooming in St. Albans,
Vermont on Tuesday.  Warm weather the rest of this
week should coax the flowers out pretty quickly. 

Spring is in the air this week for sure, and hints of summer, too. 

That's true here in Vermont, and even more so in some other parts of the U.S. of A. 

Burlington reached 70 degrees on Tuesday, the first 70 degree reading of 2023. There's more coming.  Soon. 

It'll be a little cooler today, thanks to a weak, pesky "back door" cold front.  This type of front is called back door because they come in from the northeast, instead of the west or northwest like most cold fronts do.

Back door cold fronts are most common in the spring, so I'm not surprised by this one. Or the next one coming Thursday night or early Friday. 

Before we get to that second cold front, a squirt of really warm air comes blowing in on southwest winds on Thursday. The warmer valleys could even get to or even pass 80 degrees.

That threatens some record highs.  Montpelier's record high tomorrow is 79 degrees, so that's perhaps in jeopardy.  Burlington's record high on Thursday is 84 degrees.  It's a leap to think we'll get that warm tomorrow, but I suppose there's a slight chance. You never know! 

By the way, highs in the low 80s are pretty normal for July, so a real taste of summer is coming. 

The next vaguely annoying but dry back door cold front will keep temperatures lower Friday.  I'm not sure by how much, but current guesses are near 60 north to low 70s south. So not bad!

Another squirt of warm air Saturday will boost us back into the 70s .

This will green up your lawn and garden a bit, and get trees budding

All warm spells must end, and so will this one. With fire danger remaining high with this warm spell, we'll need the rain anyway.  A stronger cold front, this one coming from the correct direction, west to east, will dump some rain on us Sunday night.  

The first half of next week looks cool and showery. It's only April. We will just go back to reality, that's all

ELSEWHERE

Summer-like weather put on a show in the central and northern Plains yesterday, and a few places in the Desert Southwest. 

Phoenix, Arizona hit a record high of 99 on Tuesday. Denver also hit a record with 85. 

The heat was impressive for this time of year. It got as high as 94 degrees in southwestern South Dakota and 90 degrees in southwestern North Dakota.

North Dakota also proved how snow cover can really keep things refrigerated. In parts of that state where all the snow had melted, temperatures went into the 70s and 80s. In the northeastern part of North Dakota, there's still deep snow on the ground. Largely as a result, Grand Forks missed out on the warm spell, only making it to 43 degrees on Tuesday. 

The snow-free and snow covered areas face two very different risks with this warm spell.

Red flag warnings for a high risk of fires cover a huge zone from New Mexico, eastern Colorado, the central Plains and on into the southern Great Lakes. Southern New England is also covered by a red flag warning.

Meanwhile, melting snow in the central and northern Rockies, and in areas of North Dakota, northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan means they are on guard for flooding. 

Springtime brings just about everything, doesn't it?