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| Wednesday's wind really changed the scenery around Vermont. This was my St. Albans, Vermont backyard on Tuesday......... |
After that, a little bit of welcome rain hit parts of the state, mostly north, and temperatures have plunged. Buckle up, because those temperatures are going to be all over the place in the coming days. More on that in a bit:
RECORD HIGHS
Those south winds really warmed us up to near summer levels for the third day in a row Thursday. Burlington managed to tie the record high for the date, matching 1979 for a high of 78 degrees.
That was the fourth latest in the season in which Burlington got to 78. The only other years such a warm temperature came a few days later in the month were on October 24, 2018, October 25, 1963 and October 26, 2022.
Montpelier got up to 77 degrees Wednesday, besting the old record for the date by one degree. Across the pond in Plattsburgh, it was 78 degrees, beating the old record of 74 set in 2020.
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| .....and here's the exact same view this morning. |
On October 23, 1969, the high temperature in Burlington was just 30 degrees and the low was 24. There was five inches of snow on the ground left over from a storm the day before.
So yeah, yesterday was more comfortable. Unless you were battling wildfires.
BRUSH FIRES
I'm aware of at least two wildfires in Vermont yesterday, as the strong winds, long dry spell and low humidity set up perfect conditions for those fires.
In Huntington, a brush fire broke out at around 11:15 a.m. and covered about five acres. No homes were damaged, but it took six fire departments four hours to get things under control. In Williston, fire departments from at least four towns extinguished a forest fire off of Greenwood Lane that consumed about an acre.
There were probably other fires in Vermont Wednesday that I'm not aware of.
A little rain fell in mostly northern Vermont last evening. There was even a rumble of thunder here in St. Albans. It didn't amount to much. Burlington had only 0.11 inches of rain and that was among the wetter spots. A few spots in northwestern Vermont probably got close to a quarter inch.
But Montpelier reported only 0.04 inches. St. Johnsbury had 0.06 inches. Much of southern Vermont either got a trace or nothing.
The bottom line is that the fire danger remains high in Vermont. Some very paltry showers might come through Saturday, but they won't make much of a different either. Bouts of dry, windy weather are in the forecast well into next week.
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| Dry windy weather in Vermont led to brush and forest fires like this one in Williston. Photo from the Williston Fire Department. |
Now is not the time to burn away your brush pile. Many towns are wisely not issuing burn permits anyway.
TEMPERATURE SWINGS
As WVNY/WFFF' meteorologist Haley Bouley put it, temperatures went from the 70s to the 50s like they saw a state trooper on the side of the road.
The high temperature today in Burlington will actually be around 60 degrees, because that's what the readings were right after midnight early this morning.
It was in the 40s by dawn, and we'll struggle to make the low 50s today. That's only a little cooler than average for this time of year.
Most of us will have some frost overnight, then temperatures should recover to the very normal 55 to 60 degree range by Friday afternoon under sunny skies.
Another sharp but mostly dry cold front comes through Saturday, briefly ushering in the coldest air of the season so far. Nothing like 1969, like I referenced above, but highs in the 40s Sunday will remind us winter isn't far off. Pretty much everybody gets a hard freeze Sunday night and early Monday.
Then, high pressure brings us another big late season heat wave brings us back up near 70 degrees next Tuesday and then lasting through Halloween.
Conditions should remain drier than normal into early November at least.
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