This Won't Be A Great Summer Weather Weekend in Vermont. Some Flood/Storm Worries, Too

Cool air and gusty winds last evening felt autumnal
Thursday evening. That will lead to another 
stormy weekend in Vermont, with some local
flash flood risks in the area.

 Thursday evening around my house had an autumnal feel, sorry to say for you summer lovers.

It was so much like a September late afternoon or evening. Cool gusty west winds tossed the trees under a ceiling of broken clouds. The air felt crisp and dry. I almost felt like I should start buttoning up the garden to close the season.  

This morning felt like fall, too, with temperatures for  most of us in the 40s. Cold spots in the Northeast Kingdom were in the 30s, and perennial icebox Saranac Lake, New York had another summer frost, getting down to at least 32 degrees. 

The reality, of course, is autumn is a long way off.  The season has just started and we have tons of summer to get through. 

Many of you are probably itching to get out and enjoy summer this weekend, but buyer beware: This won't be the ultimate summer fun weather weekend. But at least we're having Chamber of Commerce weather across Vermont today, so that's good. 

This Saturday and Sunday are going to kind of mirror last weekend,  which definitely proved stormy. There will be some differences, of course. The timing of some cold fronts Sunday might save us from the worst of the severe weather that will hit the Northeast once again over the weekend. 

However, we do have some risks to talk about here in Vermont. That amid the generally bad weather we expect Saturday and Sunday. 

SATURDAY

Expect clouds and in some places wind and fairly cool temperatures for your Saturday. Even though temperatures won't get that warm, you'll find the humidity during the day rising amid some south winds.

Saturday will not be your day to take the boat out on Lake Champlain. There, winds should gust over 40 mph, especially before the bulk of the expected rains move in later in the afternoon. Waves at times could built to as much as three to five feet. 

On shore, winds could also gust over 40 mph in the central and  northern Champlain Valley, which could be enough to create some isolated power outages.

The rain could come down hard at times in some spots overnight Saturday into the early morning hours of Sunday. This could begin to unfortunately touch off some local flash floods. That's especially true in the northern Adirondacks, where the best chances of the heaviest rain are, and in central Vermont, where flash flooding and torrential rains last weekend have really soaked the ground. 

Although we're in for some areas of heavy rain, severe thunderstorms should stay to our west Saturday night. 

SUNDAY

When you wake up Sunday morning, you'll find it wet and quite humid again. The first of a couple cold fronts will be on our doorstep. Knock on wood it will come through early enough in the day so that severe thunderstorms will focus mostly just to our east. 

That is not set in stone yet, but that's the way it's beginning to look. Stay tuned for updates. 

With all that humidity around, however, we do risk some torrential downpours, so once again - sigh - we'll have to watch for the risk of flash flooding. It'll be localized as only a few places will get the heaviest rain.  Most of us should see at least some rain, though. 

Overall, the National Weather Service in South Burlington says most of us should see storm totals of about three quarters of an inch to 1.5 inches. But some unlucky places could get two or three inches or even a little bit more, so that's why meteorologists are keeping an eye of the flood risk. 

The area of north central Vermont, including Stowe, Worcester, Elmore  and that area will need to be watched again as they are still recovering from last Sunday's flash flooding. 

There's no guarantee we'll see any renewed flooding, it's just a possibility. Considering how often parts of Vermont have suffered flood damage in recent years, we don't need this again. 

After Sunday's weather, we'll have another spell of cool, dry conditions, though not as chilly as it was yesterday and last night. After that, signs point toward humidity creeping up again as we approach the Fourth of July.