Vermont Somewhat Cheated On Rain Again, Another Frost/Freeze Threat And Dry, Warm Days Ahead

Haze, largely from Canadian wildfires, obscured this view
of the Adirondacks from South Burlington, Vermont on
a warm afternoon yesterday. A sharp cold front today 
will clear the smoke, but introduce another
frost or freeze risk to parts of the state. 
Not nearly as bad as last week's freeze, though. 

 It looks to me like forecasters have backed off somewhat on the amount of badly needed rain we'll get today from a powerhouse cold front that was on our doorstep as I wrote this after 8 a.m. today. 

The front will move through fairly quickly, not lingering long enough for us to get much rain. Current forecasts are from about 0.15 inches to maybe locally as much as a third of an inch. In other words, not much.

After today, it probably won't rain again for another week. So the dry weather and incipient drought continue to develop in the Green Mountain State. 

As if the state's agriculture hasn't taken enough hits with the weather this spring. 

By this afternoon, it'll feel like March, not late May.  We had a mild start to the day, with temperatures in the 50s for the most part.  By mid to late afternoon, most of us, especially in central and northern Vermont, will be in the 40s. For comparison, it should be close to 70 degrees that time of day, this time of year. 

That leads us to tonight.  Another cold one is on the way, but thankfully, it doesn't look like it will be an intense or as widespread as the destructive freeze Vermont suffered last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. 

It appears the Champlain Valley is largely safe. And instead of low to mid 20s in much of the rest of Vermont like last week, we're talking less threatening low 30s. It will be dry and breezy late tonight after the showers clear, so the risk would be freezing temperatures in spots, but not frost, which forms on calm nights. 

Still, the type of mass rush of cold air we're getting later today can be surprising, so it's possible the freeze might be slightly more widespread than this morning's forecast indicates. So protect sensitive plants to be on the safe side. 

You'll need to do the same tomorrow night.  Thursday will be blustery and partly cloudy, with highs in the 50s to maybe near 60 in the banana belt towns.  That's a good 15 degrees colder than normal.

That sets up lows in the upper 20s to mid 30s in much of the state away from Lake Champlain tomorrow night. 

Fingers crossed, that will be the last frost threat of the season for all of us except those in the very coldest hollows (Which can see frosts almost any time of year).

The good news is it's going to warm up to the point it feels like summer. The bad new, it looks like no rain is coming for awhile.

For a time, some forecasts indicated an upper level low would meander near us over the Memorial Day weekend, which would give us a shot at some showers.  Now, warm high pressure looks like it will dominate. That means a stretch of weather with highs near  or even a little above 80 degrees starting Saturday and possibly continuing through at least next Tuesday. 

Summer weather looks to arrive just as the unofficial start to the season gets underway.