Heat Ends, Drought Grinds On In Most Of Vermont. Some Light Rain Chances During Week

These garden plants were damaged by unusual heat and
super dry conditions in my St. Albans, Vermont gardens.
They actually looked worse yesterday, when I noticed
how bad off they were. I soaked them and they seem to 
be reviving, but we need rain! 

 Cheated out of rain again!

Though many towns in Vermont managed to get brief thunderstorms and downpours during the tail end of our record heat wave on Friday, a lot of places didn't receive appreciable rain - or any at all - so the drying continues. 

We did see the first reports of the season of damage from strong to marginally severe thunderstorms. It's been a slow start to severe thunderstorm season in Vermont, but it was inevitable we'd get a couple reports. 

I saw that a tree was down and power was out in North Williston from a downburst as an isolated strong thunderstorm moved southward.  

Photos posted to Facebook also showed a trees down on some roads near the Essex and Williston town lines.  

I also saw social media reports of hail here and there, with hail stones almost to the size of dimes during a mountain bike race at Killington. 

However, I didn't get a drop of rain here in St. Albans. The folks at National Weather Service office in South Burlington heard thunder, but also got no rain.  That means that Burlington has gotten just 0.64 inches of rain since May 4 - a month long period which should have seen more than three inches of rain. 

Montpelier on Friday was a big winner, I suppose, with a little under a third of an inch of rain. Yawn. 

Also, to make it official, we had some more record highs on Friday as well. Burlington reached 91 degrees, besting the old record of 89 back in 1970.  Yesterday's record high erases the only sub-90 daily record high in Burlington for the month of June. 

Meanwhile, Montpelier had a record high 86 on Friday and St. Johnsbury hit 89 for a new record high for the date.

BIG COOLDOWN 

That heat is now history, as if you step outside this morning, it's relatively cool.

We've just started a long spell of colder than normal weather for June.  There's no worries about frost, except perhaps in the very coldest hollows in the next few days. However, you might need a sweater or jacket at times.

A storm off the New England coast could throw clouds back as far west as the Green Mountains tomorrow, keeping eastern Vermont especially chilly. Some spots there might not break past 60 degrees for highs. 

We'll have reinforcing shots of chilly air to deal with coming in by Monday.  That'll keep daytime temperatures in the 50s to low 60s Tuesday and Wednesday.  That's very far below normal highs this time of year, which should be getting toward the mid-70s.  

The good news is this chilly air will bring numerous showers to Vermont. The bad news is most of the showers will be light, and won't give us a grand soaking. Sure, any rain helps, but unless there's a big change to the forecast, I'm underwhelmed by these rain prospects.