Pretty Much Everybody Had A Freeze In Vermont This Morning; Gorgeous Weather Ensues

My first frosted over windshield of the season this
morning in St. Albans, Vermont. I'm getting a late start
today, so it will have melted by the time I leave the
house, so I won't have to find my ice scraper. 

 Unless you were right along the shores of Lake Champlain this morning, you had a frost and or freeze this morning in Vermont. 

Temperatures were amazingly uniform at dawn, with almost everyone somewhere between 25 and 31 degrees. 

Usually on calm, clear mornings, there's a wide range of temperatures, ranging from frigid in the cold hollows to fairly balmy in warmer banana belt towns.

But at 7 a.m. today, it was 26 degrees in perennial icebox Saranac Lake, New York, and only five degrees warmer at the "tropical" National Weather Service office in South Burlington. 

The Burlington morning freeze today was right around nine days later than the average date of the first autumn freeze. Last year, the first freeze of season waited until October 31, which was the latest on record since weather records began at the South Burlington airport in 1941  

The prior record for latest freeze at the airport was on October 28, 2022, so we had a trend going there until this morning. (Asterisk: When weather records were kept at the warmer downtown Burlington location, the latest freeze was on November 1, 1920).

SUNSHINE, DAILY TEMPERATURE SWINGS

We're in for some fantastic weather for the next several days. I'm sure the freeze this morning knocked quite a few leaves off trees in parts of Vermont where they were on the cusp of going past peak foliage. But there is plenty of color to be found.

Low elevations are at or are approaching peak color so the sunny weather is well-timed.

You're going to notice wide daily swings in temperature from chilly mornings to mild afternoons for the next few days. 

Today will still be on the cool side despite the sun, rising only into the 50s, with some upper 40s in the coldest spots. 

If you managed to cover up and rescue your garden plants this morning, you'll need to do it all again tonight as temperatures are forecast to once again drop to near freezing in the majority of spots across the Green Mountain State.

But Friday afternoon, temperatures will rocket into the 60s, only to fall back into the 30s at night. Saturday gets way back up in the 60s again.

After that, it'll stay warm for the season until about Wednesday, and nights will turn a little warmer as well during the first part of next week. Temperatures will probably cool back off toward the second half of next week, but won't be unusually chilly for late October.