Good Saturday Rains In Vermont To Be Followed By Renewed Drought

The dam site along the Lamoille River near
Cambridge, Vermont after the rain Saturday. As you
can see in the background, the water level 
in the river was still really low. A dry 
forecast means despite the rain, the Vermont
drought will continue and probably worsen.

Most of Vermont got a slight break from the drought Saturday with decent rains in most, but not all areas. 

Unfortunately, the rainy Saturday wasn't the start of a trend. We are now beginning a long dry spell which will nullify any help we got from the rain over the past couple of days. 

This drought is stubborn and will probably ultimately get worse than it was before the weather fronts came through. 

RAINFALL REPORTS

At least it did rain. Northwest Vermont was the big winner over the past three days. Burlington had 1.76 inches of rain since Thursday night.

My unofficial rain gauge in St. Albans collected 0.92 inches between late Friday night and Saturday evening. Our three-day total here in St. Albans was right around 2.2 inches.

That will tide the northwest over for a few days, which is nice. 

Other sections of northern Vermont got a little more rain than forecast on Saturday, which is again good. It was decent little drink but won't resolve the drought.  St. Johnsbury picked up about an inch of rain and Montpelier came in with 0.84 inches. 

Southern Vermont, which really needed the rain, had spotty results. Bennington and Springfield each reported about a paltry quarter inch of rain, which won't help much. Rutland had a fairly lame 0.3 inches. Lebanon, New Hampshire, which is right near White River Junction, Vermont reported about a half inch. 

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS 

There were fears of damage from severe thunderstorms in southeast Vermont Saturday but I see no reports of any trouble in the Green Mountain State. But there were quite a few reports of tree damage and large hail in parts of New York's Hudson Valley south of Albany, much of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. 

A tornado touched down in Holden, Massachusetts, a little northwest of Worcester, causing damage but no injuries. 

DRY OUTLOOK

Now -  as expected  - the rain is shutting off. A small storm formed along the departing cold front and was dropping some decent rains across southern and eastern New England this morning. That rain was just barely clipping the southeast corner of Vermont down near Brattleboro with some sprinkles.

A few light showers might slightly dampen a few places in northern Vermont this afternoon, but that will amount to barely a trace, really. 

After today,  unless we get a pleasant surprise, it looks like we'll see no rain in Vermont until at least September 18 or 19.  Early indications are if it does rain then, it will be much less than impressive. 

Since we'd need more than an inch of rain a week for many weeks to get out of our drought, we're still pretty much screwed. The gains we made from the precipitation over the past few days will literally evaporate by the end of this week. From there, the already serious drought will keep deepening. 

I guess the only benefit of a drought is pleasant day to day weather. We'll have that for sure. Sunshine will brighten each day Monday through at least next Sunday. Temperatures over the next week or two at least will flip flop between a little cool for the season to slightly warm for the season. But there will be no extremes one way or the other. 

Highs today and tomorrow will only be in the 60s to maybe around 70 in the warm spots.  Lows for the next two or three nights will mostly be in the relatively chilly 40s.

The region may see its first autumn tangle with frost in the coldest hollows tomorrow night and early Tuesday. Temperatures in those cold spots could get well into the 30s, which actually isn't odd for this time of year. The National Weather Service in South Burlington is toying with the idea of issuing a frost advisory for the Adirondacks, but is waiting on more data before they decide to pull that trigger.

In any event, the vast majority of us are safe from any frost for now. 

Temperatures should warm well into the 70s and could even touch 80 in the hottest spots Wednesday before another big bubble of dry high pressure comes down from Canada. That cold front will not bring us any showers, unfortunately. 

It will cool us down into autumn mode for a few days at the end of the week (highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s, with 30s in the cold hollows).  

But as noted, the dry times will continue. I'm actually going so far as to actually pray for a wayward tropical storm to find its way to New England and northern New York, but there's nothing like that on the horizon.