Nights Are Most Impressive/Dangerous Part Of This Heat Wave

Today's heat wave cool off photo shows a 
snowstorm in Montpelier several years ago. 

If you don't have air conditioning and had a lot of trouble sleeping last night, there's a good reason why.

Temperatures look like they were at record warm levels overnight. 

Burlington's "low" temperature this morning was 80 degrees. That would a degree or two warmer than the normal high. 

And if that holds through midnight tonight, it will be only the second day in nearly 140 years of record that the temperature failed to drop below 80 degrees. The only other time was on July 2, 2018.

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington said the temperature was still 82 degrees there at midnight. That compares to temperatures at the exact same time at 83 in Miami and New Orleans and 80 in Houston. 

Also, on Tuesday, Burlington's low temperature was 74 degrees, the highest low temperature on record for the date.

Of course, it's been cooler away from Lake Champlain during this hot spell, but still pretty uncomfortable. Rutland had a low of 70. St. Johnsbury, 68. Our big cold spot, Saranac Lake, New York, where it was a frosty 30 degrees Sunday morning, managed to only get down to 61 degrees this morning

Clearly, the most impressive part of this heat wave are the nights, not the days. 

TODAY

The heat peaks today, and the storm threat ramps up some, too. I'll deal with the heat first.

Hot Day

As long expected, today will bring the peak of the heat.  Temperatures Tuesday were mostly in the low 90s, and we'll bump that up at least a couple degrees today. Especially considering the super warm start we got today. 

The only exceptions to the 90s will be places that get well-timed thunderstorms. More on that in a bit. 

On top of that, if you thought yesterday was humid, wait until this afternoon. The dew point, a rough measure of how uncomfortable if feels outside should rise even a little higher than yesterday. 

It starts to feel a little sticky when the dew point reaches 60. Yesterday, the dew point was mostly in the mid and upper 60s. Today, the dew point could get as high as the mid-70s. This is truly tropical air, so we're continuing to pretend it's Miami or Houston today. 

You really want to take it easy today. Obviously the heat advisory remains in effect as the air will feel like it's as hot as 100 or even a couple degrees more than that. 

By the way, an excessive heat warning extends all the way into northern Maine. That's the first time on record the National Weather Service office way up in Caribou, Maine has ever had to issue such a warning. An all time record for heat could fall today in northern Maine, we'll see.

Today's really the day to take it easy, don't exert yourself too much outdoors.  This is also the day to "kidnap" your elderly neighbors and take them somewhere cool to recover. And keep an eye on your pets. I know I'm making my elderly Weather Dog Jackson hang out in our one air conditioned room. 

Storms 

The coverage of thunderstorms might be a little more than yesterday, it turns out. A broken line of storms did form along and just east of the Green Mountains and headed into the Connecticut River Valley. 

Those produced local downpours and some gusty winds, but I haven't found any reports of severe storms. 

Radar images already showed a couple of thunderstorms in northern New York as of 8 a.m. today that were heading our way, so a few towns in Vermont could see something even before noon.

Other storms will fire up in hit or miss fashion this afternoon. As mentioned in other posts, an air mass this hot and humid is a powder keg, so if a thunderstorm gets going, it could become severe in a hurry, with damaging winds. 

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has Vermont and the rest of northern New York and northern New England in a marginal risk zone for isolated severe storms. 

In this type of regime that severe thunderstorm could blast into existence then fizzle even before the National Weather Service has a chance to issue a warning. So, if you're not already indoors hugging your air conditioner today, keep an eye to the sky and head indoors if it looks threatening. Boaters really need to keep on their toes today as well. 

THURSDAY

More high heat and humidity after another extremely stuffy night, but this will be the last day of it. In the 90s again statewide except right near the Canadian border where clouds and a cold front could hold temperatures down in the upper 80s.

It'll be another dangerous day in terms of heat. 

With that cold front lurking in southern Quebec, thunderstorms, some possibly severe will break out again. Coverage of storms will be greater than it was yesterday or today, but not everybody will see them. 

The cold front is the beginning of the end of this heat wave. It won't exactly be cold behind this front once we get into Friday. 

FRIDAY AND BEYOND

First of all, it should take its time wandering through and might not have made it all the way through southern Vermont. That means more storms are possible down there Friday. North of Route 2, it might end up feeling somewhat refreshing for a time later Friday and Friday night as some dry air briefly bleeds down from Canada.

But that front will come back at us as a warm front over the weekend, then stall somewhere in or near Vermont. That means it will turn pretty humid again, though it won't be nearly as hot as it's been. It's looking like we'll probably have a fair number of showers and storms around again this weekend,

Depending on where the front sets up, there could be additional severe storms Sunday, but it's a little soon to know for sure whether that might happen, and if so, where around the region they hit.

The overall weather pattern continues to look on balance warmer than average possibly well into the beginning of July. There probably will be a few brief cool breaks thrown in to give us a breather, but so far, the forecasts of a  hot summer we saw in the spring look like they're starting to come true.