Canadian High Pressure Helping Create "Goldilocks Weather" In Vermont

 The weather here in Vermont lately has been OK for this time of year. 

Jackson the Weather dog this week monitoring 
plant and flower growth in his St. Albans, Vermont
yard, measuring how this week's mild temperatures
influenced changes in the gardens. 

In the past week, we've been in  Goldilocks weather. Not too warm, not too cold, rainfall is frequent and adequate, but it's not nearly enough to flood us out again.  The pattern will continue this week.  

It might not always be gloriously sunny out there. Over the next seven days it will be cloudy and showery much of the time. But it will be perfect for May, and all that stuff that's blossoming and bursting with green at the moment. 

 Over the past few days a very distance high pressure way up in northern Canada west of Greenland has occasionally extended its influence southward all the way to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, at least to some extent. 

The weather pattern, actually kind of common this time of year, tends to drive cool, overcast, foggy weather into the New England coast.

That clammy air has trouble making it into Vermont, especially the northwestern corner. 

The result is that on average, May is the cloudiest month of the year on the coast, while it is fifth  sunniest of the year in northwest corner of Vermont and sixth cloudiest across much of the state

In this pattern, we in Vermont more or less stay warmer than the immediate New England coast, but we're also not experiencing any real hints of summer, aside from the thunderstorms we've been occasionally seeing as weather disturbances zip by. 

This whole set-up is why much of the eastern United States has had at times record high temperatures this week while Vermont has only managed average temperatures. The high pressure way up in Canada is helping to cut the really hot air off at the pass.

Meanwhile, the Midwest and parts of the South have been enduring repeated bouts of severe weather and tornadoes. But this weather pattern forces these systems to weaken big time before they head our way. The result is frequent batches of showers and some thunderstorms, but nothing especially scary.  

Those little batches of showers and thunderstorms  in the past week have been coming across southern Ontario then bending southeastward across Vermont. That's a symptom of that blocking high far to the north keeps pushing everything southward. The hot air never really gets here. 

And that's OK.  We really don't need summer weather yet. Comfortably mild is good enough for me.  Some forecasts have called for a hot summer in these parts, so I'm good with waiting for it. 

Over the next several days, the rather oppressive weather from the south will try to make a couple of runs at us. But chances are, it won't succeed. 

Instead, we'll be unsettled, and seasonable. We have lots of chances of showers, especially Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

The weather pattern will have changed a bit by Wednesday, creating more of a dip in the jet stream near the Great Lakes that would steer wet air our way.  That's why the end of the week looks wet as showers will be coming at us from the west and southwest. 

 Given the extreme storms and strange heat waves we so often see in this era of climate change, it's so nice to have this longish spell of Goldilocks Vermont weather.