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| The sun shines Sunday morning on this St. Albans lilac blossom for the first time in days. The leaves and flowers were still wet from week of rainy weather A welcome break in the weather starts in earnest today. |
The sun will be out pretty much all day. Sure, a few clouds will hide the sun from time to time, but those clouds will be mostly sky decoration, not a menace.
Given that it is May, 2025, there's still a remote chance of an isolated shower. But anyone unlucky enough to receive them will only get a very short, light dousing of rain.
Even better, Tuesday and Wednesday look great, too! Enjoy it, because it's back to the showery grind on Thursday.
More on that in a bit
MEMORIAL DAY CLIMATOLOGY/HISTORY
After a morning low this morning of 45 degrees, the high temperature today in Burlington is forecast to be 70. That's a little cooler than the average of a low of 50 and a high of 71, but it's pretty close.
As always, every year brings different weather to the Memorial Day table. Some of the past Memorial Day extremes, as follows, come from the National Weather Service office in South Burlington.
Hottest: 92 degrees, May 30, 1929.
Coldest: 28 degrees, May 30, 1961
Coldest high temperature 47 degrees, May 26, 1930
Rainiest: 1.60 inches on May 30, 1916.
According to David Ludlum's Vermont Weather Book, the worst Memorial Day weather came on May 30, 1884. Snow fell on the state, accumulating to two inches in Lunenburg. In Randolph, snow covered the flowers that had been placed on veterans' gravestones.
Last year's Memorial Day brought us a warm, windy day. It was so windy - gusts exceeded 40 mph - that there were about 2,800 power outages in northwest Vermont. A wind-driven brush fire broke out along Route 2 in Colchester and South Hero, but it was quickly contained by firefighters, along with a well-timed shower that arrived as firefighters were getting a handle on the blaze.
Those rain showers turned heavy in the evening, dumping 0.82 inches of rain on Burlington, So last Memorial Day's weather was active. This year, not so much, which is a huge blessing.
Given the finally sunny weather and the fact that it's the unofficial start of the summer season, the temptation is there to go to the beach or take your boat onto the water.
Be aware the water is still extremely cold this early in the season. Hypothermia can quickly set in if you flip out of your kayak or canoe in the lake. At the very least, wear a life jacket.
Also note that Vermont river and streams are running high with swift, unpredictable currents from all the rain we've gotten, so it's easy for kayaks to flip over on those rivers, and then the kayak and the person in the water can quickly get swept downstream.
The National Weather Service office in South Burlington has gone so far as to issue a special weather statement warning of the cold water dangers
Maybe wait until later in the summer when the water is warmer and hopefully calmer?
RETURN TO SHOWERS
Pesky upper level lows this month kept stalling in or near New England. Those provided the seemingly endless days of damp, showery cold.
Guess what? Another such upper low will set up later this week. That means showery weather again starting Thursday and lasting through the weekend,
It won't rain all the time, but there will always be a good chance that it will. It's hard to time out precisely when it will rain each day, but the showers and possibly garden variety thundershowers will be most likely in the afternoons and evenings.
This upper low will bring temperatures back below normal, but it won't be nearly as cold as the last episode, which kept daytime readings in the 40s across parts of Vermont for five out of the six days between May 19-24.
This time around, daytime highs will be mostly in the 60s to near 70 Thursday through Sunday, instead of the normal mid-70s for early June.
The upcoming rain should be light, and not nearly enough to set off any flooding.
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