Vermont Rain Shuts Off For Now, And Heat Will Build. How Long Will Rain Stay Away?

Water beaded up on hosta leaves this
morning in St. Albans, Vermont.
Gardens and crops got a nice 
drink of water in the past week or so.

Saturday's anticipated heavy rainfall turned out to be more variable than I thought it would be across the state.  

Early reports indicate parts of eastern Vermont got swamped, while the Champlain Valley's rain totals were a little disappointing. 

Rainfall reports in the 24 hours ending 7 a.m. Sunday show plenty of towns mostly in eastern Vermont received more than an inch of rain. And that doesn't include the rain that fell late Friday night and before dawn Saturday. Western Vermont had more than a half inch of rain since 7 a.m. Saturday. 

We have a report of at least 2.9 inches of rain Saturday from Hartland, Vermont.  Across the river in New Hampshire, flash flood warnings were in effect for a time Saturday in and near Lebanon.  However, I haven't seen any reports of any real flooding from Vermont. 

The moisture stream came from the east, and I think the Green Mountains blocked some of the moisture from reaching the Champlain Valley. This is a common occurrence with snow during winter nor'easters, so I shouldn't be that surprised. 

Burlington received about 0.6 inches of rain from this episode, falling short of the inch or so that was in the forecast. Still, over the course of five days, Burlington got just a smidge under two inches of rain, so the wetting was still pretty good - and needed. 

Video of the nice, rainy Saturday is at the bottom of this post. Looks like the flowers and trees were really enjoying the drink from the skies. 

The rains put us in a good position to survive the upcoming week, because the rain is once again shutting off for awhile. 

Clouds, sprinkles and cool temperatures today will minimize evaporation, but the rest of the week looks quite dry, sunny and increasingly warm. The only rain in the forecast is for very isolated showers Monday and Tuesday, but I imagine 90 percent of us won't see any rain at all. 

Early guesses are this dry spell won't last as long as the one that caused some drought conditions to develop in parts of Vermont during May and early June. 

At this point, it's beginning to look like humid air will start to set off some showers and thunderstorms as soon as Saturday and probably continuing Sunday and probably beyond. You might have to irrigate gardens by the end of the week, but it probably won't be a long haul. 

The end of the week will probably be uncomfortable as well, as temperatures rise into the mid and upper 80s and humidity starts to creep up at little Thursday, then really take hold on Friday. 

Fingers crossed, we might, maybe have cut off what was an incipient drought.

Video: Gardens and trees around St. Albans, Vermont have a glorious drink of water on a rainy Saturday. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: