September Heat Grinds On, Will Eventually End With - Sigh - Heavy Downpours

 Oh, I'm such a naive boy.

My quick fire hydrangeas glowing in the hot 
evening sun Tuesday.  They've turned a russet color
which should be a sign that it's autumn. Sure doesn't feel 
like autumn this week! 

In the closing days of August I said to myself: "Thank goodness this disastrous, stormy, ridiculously humid, cloudy, smoky summer is about to end! September is coming. The month of blue, dry skies, air that's apple munching crisp, it'll give me so much new energy to get things done outdoors! " 

So much for that, huh?

Tuesday was about as miserable summer day as you can get. Oh, sure the sun was out almost all day, which would be nice if temperatures were reasonable. 

The sun was part of the problem. It helped the temperature soar to 90 degrees again. The humidity was completely ridiculous, there was absolutely no breeze to bring relief. And we have a couple more days of this crap to go through. 

Needless to say, the September outdoor projects I wanted to get a roaring start on in my St. Albans property have fallen by the wayside. Tuesday evening, I lasted a grand total of 42 minutes out there getting things supposedly done. Yeah, I haven't made much progress. 

I won't today, either. It will be a carbon copy of yesterday, with highs near 90, almost no wind and ridiculous humidity again.  

Burlington has this arbitrary rule that if you get three days or more of 90 degree temperatures, it's an official heat wave. Since we'll probably get to 90 today, this will become only the fifth September heat wave on record. (Reliable records go back to the 1880s).

Needless to say, the heat advisory remains in effect today for Vermont. 

We have a better shot today of reaching record highs, because the existing record highs for today are a little lower than in the past few days. To tie the record high for today, Burlington needs to reach 90 degrees and Montpelier has to get to 85 degrees. 

Tomorrow, we'll begin a weather transition that will potentially bring back another nightmare from this summer: Strong thunderstorms and torrential downpours. And yes, a low, but not zero possibility of flash floods. 

It'll probably get close to 90 degrees again on Thursday, but during the afternoon, scattered thunderstorms will develop in the humid air.  Some of those storms could have strong, gusty winds and those wicked downpours. 

The threat of flash flooding in Vermont has diminished some, since it hasn't really rained in a week. That's given the soils a chance to dry out somewhat. 

However, those potential torrential downpours Thursday could be gullywashers in a few spots, with the risk of urban flooding and isolated instances of more damage to roads, driveways, that sort off thing. 

This transition away from the heat wave will be painfully slow. And wet. Temperatures will be down to around 80 on Friday, but it still be wicked humid. More downpours are likely. We could have more of the same on Saturday, with a continued low but not zero risk of flash floods.

It really depends how much rain falls Thursday and Friday to determine how much flood risk there is on Saturday. Stay tuned. 

Even Sunday looks showery at this point, but blessedly cooler. 

Forecasters are still insisting we'll have much less humid air by the time next week starts, with temperatures down around normal.  Normal highs this time of year are in the upper 60s to mid 70s. If that pans out, it will be nice!