Vermont Likely To See Longest Dry Spell In Six Years. Few Complaints Noted

Blue, slightly hazy skies and wisps of clouds over
Richmond, Vermont Tuesday. It was a continuation
of what will become an oddly lengthy dry spell
in Vermont after way too soggy summer. 

 Yesterday, WPTZ-TV Chief Meteorologist Tyler Jankoski tweeted, (or I guess X'd?) that northern Vermont, at least, might be about to have the longest rain-free period in six years.  

Through yesterday, Burlington had gone through seven consecutive days without a drop of rain. 

Jankoski's forecast, and the predictions from pretty much every other meteorologist in Vermont, indicate no rain for at least seven days, possibly more. Jankoski is guessing Burlington will go 16 days with  no rain.

The last time we had a rain-free spell longer than that was from September 10-29, 2017 when 20 days passed without any rain. (September 2017 as also notable for a four-day period on the 24-27th with temperatures in the low 90s, by far the latest in the season heat wave on record for Burlington).

 True, points from a little south of Burlington all the way down to and past the Massachusetts border had at least a few drops of rain Sunday. 

But almost everyone from Route 2 north has been rain free, and will continue to stay that way. Strong high pressure has stalled, as expected, in Quebec and New England, and doesn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. This high pressure is steering any potential storms away from us.  Any rain storms that come along either pass way to our northwest in Ontario, or south of the United States Mason-Dixon line.

This dry spell looks like it's going to warm up, too.  Temperatures have been pretty close to normal the past few days, but they'll trend warmer into the weekend. It's possible we could touch 80 degrees Sunday   as October opens. 

In fact, long range forecasts call for below normal rainfall and above normal temperatures possibly lasting into mid-October. 

There's a strong El Nino going on now, which affects global weather patterns.  In general, El Ninos tend to create warm, dry autumns here in New England. Not always, but at least more often than not. So I'm guessing El Nino is contributing to this gorgeous weather. 

El Nino could extend the above normal temperatures through much of the winter, too. 

Normally, I'd be a little concerned about going this long without rain. But the summer was so wet soils are still pretty damp.  There's plenty of ground water, so we won't have a drought unless this goes on for months. Which I seriously doubt. 

After the rains and floods we endured this summer, I'm sure a long dry spell will be most welcome for most Vermonters. Including me, I can attest! 

This stalled weather pattern also has had us dealing with wildfire smoke in the air for the past several days. Most of it has been aloft, so air quality hasn't been awful. This state of affairs should continue the next several days, with a relative peak in wildfire smoke today.  But it will probably linger at some level into the weekend.