Sunday Evening Update: Now 29 Consecutive Vermont Weekends With Precipitation. Record Could Be Tied Next Weekend

Radar image from 1p.m. Sunday shows some small
showers in the Champlain Valley, including one that
deposited just 0.01 inches of rain at the National
Weather Service office in South Burlington. 
That makes this the 29th weekend in a row
with at least some precipitation, The record
for the most consecutive such weekends is 30.

 Shortly after 1 p.m. today, a  dying shower passed over the National Weather Service office in South Burlington. 

The shower deposited just 0.01 inches of rain, so little you'd hardly notice it.  No biggie.

Except in one respect it was, 

Contrary to many weather forecasts ahead of the weekend, the streak of consecutive Vermont weekends with rain has not ended. 

As measured in Burlington, we now have had 29 consecutive weekends with at least a trace of precipitation. 

The record for most consecutive weekends with rain or snow is 30,  from September 1 1934 to March 23, 1935.

On Friday, it looked like it this weekend would be a lock for no rain.  High pressure that brought us our generally sunny, comfortable Fourth of July would slowly slide off to the east, ensuring it would warm up but also keep any frontal systems with their showers at bay. 

That high pressure delivered on the predictions that Sunday would turn out partly sunny, hot and humid.  However, the high pressure was far enough south so that the subtlest disturbances in the atmosphere could work with the humidity to pop up some widely scattered shower and thunderstorms. 

Breezes off of Lake Champlain can sometimes trigger scattered showers and storms in humid weather. They create a sort of mini "cold front" at the boundary between the cool lake breeze and hotter inland air.

That appears to be what happened on the western shore of Lake Champlain before 1 p.m. Sunday. A few small downpours formed on the New York side of the pond, along the boundary between lake breezes and the hot and humid land. Prevailing winds then took these showers eastward across the lake. 

The showers weakened as the crossed the lake, having lost that boundary between cool and hot. But the one of them held together long enough to deposit that bit of rain at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington.  

After the shower departed, the sun came back out and temperatures rose above 90 degrees for the fifth time so far this summer. 

Before climate change, Burlington used to average about four or five 90s per summer, but in the past two or three decades, days of 90 degree heat have become more frequent.  

It's too soon to know whether it will rain next weekend to tie the record, and then rain again the following weekend to break it. Early indications suggest there might be some weather disturbances around next weekend that could create some more hit and miss showers. 

As always we shall see!