Weeks Long Siege Of Miserable Humidity In Vermont Reaches Its Merciful End Today

Some glimpses of blue sky visible to the north of St,
Albans, Vermont this morning as a cold front is
starting to end a long siege of humidity in Vermont

UPDATE 1 PM

It looks like that slow cold front in Vermont, temporarily stalled out as of now across the middle of the state, is causing a few more problems than we thought it would

I guess you need a parting shot for the siege of awful summer weather we've had, right?

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center said it would likely issue a severe thunderstorm watch for much of southern and central New England and a large chunk of eastern New York.

This likely storm watch would likely cover Vermont from Rutland and White River Junction south.

Unfortunately, we're also going to have to watch central and southern Vermont for those dreaded locally heavy downpours, which could caused a couple instances of flash flooding. The threat of localized flash flooding in Vermont's southern four counties has, in my opinion increased some with the latest forecast.

A flood watch that had been in effect in Massachusetts in New Hampshire is still in effect, but has been expanded to cover Bennington and Windham counties in Vermont.

No guarantee any high water will actually hit, but it's once again something to watch.  Rain was also spreading into northern Vermont, but it shouldn't fall heavily enough there to worry about.

I think New Hampshire is really under the gun for severe storms and flash floods today, even more so than southern Vermont. 

A few days ago, it appeared that we'd have this kind of potential trouble. Then updated forecasts said nah, never mind. But this being the onerous Summer of 2023, we had to have one more annoying storm threat, huh?

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

 Yesterday, as expected was a torrid one, with highs in the 80s to near 90 with impressive humidity to boot.  

Burlington, Vermont managed a high of 91 degrees. That's the seventh 90 degree reading this year.  

It won't hit 90 degrees again for quite awhile, so I hope you enjoyed it. There's actually a chance that it was the last 90 of the year, given the upcoming weather pattern. 

The long siege of humidity that has engulfed Vermont since late June is over, as of later today. 

We thankfully missed out on some violent thunderstorms that hit not far over the border in extreme eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. 

The Ottawa area, which has been repeatedly battered by big storms this summer, had a massive hail and wind storm.  Multitudes of golf ball sized hailstones rained down and high winds tore down plenty of trees amid tornado warnings during the afternoon.

The storms fizzled as they approached the International border though, so no trouble for us. 

THE BIG CHANGE

Today is a transition day as the cold front that inspired those big Ottawa/Quebec storms sinks through Vermont.

Although there is a remote chance of a strong storm in southern Vermont today, we won't have anything like what blasted through Ottawa yesterday. 

Instead, a disturbance riding along that slow southbound cold front will make rain break out during the day. It'll be lightest north, and heavier south. Though there's an outside chance of a downpour torrential enough to cause a bit of a flash flood risk in far southern Vermont, this is falling well short of the most worrisome storm of the summer.

There are some flood watches up just to our south and east in New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. 

The cold front had already made it through far northern Vermont as of 7 a.m. and I'm beginning to feel a change in the air up her in St. Albans. Despite the likely rain, you'll notice a slow decline in the humidity today.  Though it should remain sticky pretty much until evening in the southern part of the state.

Tomorrow still looks gorgeous, with sunshine, low humidity and the coolest weather we've seen since  mid-June. The break from our long humid spell will be noticeably over, Most of the upcoming week looks to be on the cool side for our transition into August. 

In fact, the long term forecast well into the month is balanced toward cooler than normal weather. That doesn't mean we'll avoid warm, humid days. In fact, a brief rainy, humid spell seems like it's in the cars for next Friday or so before it cools off again. 

I don't entirely trust long range predictions - I tend to suspect anything looking ahead more than five days. But if the extend forecasts that are out now are in any way accurate, we might be facing the coolest August in years here in Vermont.

That's not saying much, since most Augusts in the past decade were quite a bit on the warm side. We won't come close to experiencing a historically chilly August.