Vermont's Active June Weather: Strong, Winds, Strong Storms, Strong Heat

Thunderstorms over South Burlington, Vermont 
Thursday afternoon created this moody scene.
Things will remain active with oddly strong, 
gusty winds this morning, a possible weird
thunderstorm outbreak before dawn Sunday,
then a short, but intense heat wave. in Vermont

 After the severe thunderstorm watch was lifted last evening, a couple more strong, but not severe storms flared up around the region as our late solstice season dusk came Thursday evening. 

Most of that activity was in southern and eastern Chittenden County and in Rutland County. 

Though there was some gusty winds, lightning and torrential downpours with those storms, there's no reports of any real damage. 

The thunderstorms are long gone, but the risk of wind damage hasn't.

TODAY

In the winter, when a cold front comes through northern New England, there's often a period of strong west winds, often gusting to 45 to 50 mph. 

 This is usually not that big a deal, as leafless, frozen trees don't bend much in the wind. Also, if you're not crazy, you're not out in a little boat on Lake Champlain during these January or February wind storms. 

Summer cold fronts almost never have these mini-wind storms with them. 

This morning, though, the cold front that went through weirdly does have that batch of 40 to 50 mph gusts behind it. This kind of situation almost never happens in June, but it's 2025, so everything has to be weird.

The wind was rising at dawn today and it should be quite a gusty morning and maybe early afternoon across Vermont and surrounding areas. 

A wind advisory is in effect for most of Vermont, along much of the rest of New England and northeastern New York.  Gusts could reach to 40 or even 50 mph for a time today. 

Such winds have a greater impact than they would in the winter, Leaves on trees act like little sails, so the leaves and wind pull trees laterally. Enough sometime to knock them over or pull branches off. So we might be seeing  that and maybe some scattered power outages this morning and early afternoon. 

Stay off the lakes during this wind, especially on broad Lake Champlain. These types of gusts would really put boats, kayaks and canoes in real trouble. Although it's been warm lately, lake water temperatures aren't exactly like bathwater. Still chilly.. Hypothermia is a risk if you get dumped. Plus trying to swim through those big waves is a challenge to say the least.

Showers, especially widespread in northern Vermont this morning, will tend to diminish and disappear in favor of sunshine and lessening winds this afternoon.

SATURDAY: 

Still looking like a rare nice one for Vermont. After a blessedly comfortable sleeping night tonight, sunshine during the day would boost Saturday afternoon  temperatures to near 80 degrees. Winds will be light, so Saturday will be the day to take your boat or kayak out onto the lake.  Humidity levels will also be quite reasonable. 

SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING

There's still debate as to whether - well, whatever you want to call it -  a ridge runner, or mesoscale convective system if you're scientific - will give us just give us some light showers or a very stormy late Saturday night or Sunday morning.

In any event, a cluster of storms shouldbe heading east across the Great Lakes Saturday and then southeast into northern New York and maybe New England overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.  Though still uncertain, it sounds like this might come at us as a noisy group of thunderstorms with locally torrential rain.

Worst case scenario is a few of these could be severe with damaging winds and hail.  This would be yet another weird moment. Usually, when there is severe storms they are least likely in the predawn hours. Severe thunderstorms are normally  creatures of the afternoon and evening. 

For now, some rain is a good bet later Saturday night and early Sunday. But just to be safe, I'd secure outdoor furniture again  Saturday evening and keep a weather radio handy that would wake you up early Sunday in case dangerous storms are heading our way. 

I''ll update all this tomorrow as well,

THE HEAT

The showers and storms will be riding along a strong warm front that will lift north of us during the day Sunday. Which opens the door to our well-advertised big hot spell. Which will probably break some record highs by Monday.

How hot it gets Sunday depends upon how fast the showers and clouds clear out on Sunday. If they disappear early enough in the day,  some places could hit 90 degrees. But for now, it looks like most of us will see temperatures in the 80s with a lot of humidity. 

After a stuffy, uncomfortable night, Monday arrives and hoo-boy!

Pretty much everywhere except the very high elevations in Vermont should be above 90 degrees Monday and records will likely fall. 

The National Weather Service this morning was going with a possible high temperature of 98 degrees in Burlington Monday. That would be the second hottest June day on record. (The only hotter one would be the 100 degrees on June 19, 1995).

The record high of 90 degrees in Montpelier looks like it's going to be toast, since the predicted high Monday there is 95 degrees.

This will be accompanied by high humidity, so the heat index is going to be above 100 degree in much of Vermont.  This combination of heat and humidity will make this one of the most dangerous heat days we've seen in quite some time. 

Tuesday will be almost as hot, or just as hot in southern Vermont. A cold front will be coming in from the north, but likely too late to cool us off Tuesday. Things will start to get better Tuesday night. 

People who have pre-existing health problems, very young children and pregnant people are most susceptible to the dangers of heat. So are athletes and outdoor workers.  Monday and probably Tuesday are the wrong days to run for miles, or install that new roof or asphalt driveway. 

BEYOND TUESDAY

Many cold fronts that end big heat waves are often accompanied by lots of severe thunderstorms. That looks unlikely in this case. Other than the heat, atmospheric conditions don't look ripe for many storms. There could some thunderstorms, maybe even a severe one or two, But so far, the blessed cold front coming in later Tuesday looks pretty tame.  

And SO welcome. By Wednesday, temperatures will be back down to something pretty normal for mid June. Humidity levels will have crashed down to comfortable levels on Wednesday, too. 

We might even get a sunny day out of this, but the cold front might stall not too far to the south. If that happens, we might end up with a showery, possibly muggy regime later next week.