Cold Vermont Morning As Anticipated, Next Up, A Very Normal Couple Of Days

A cool, breezy October day on Metcalf Pond near
East Fairfield, Vermont Thursday ahead of last night's
growing season-ending freeze.

As expected, pretty much everyone in Vermont had a frost and freeze this morning. 

Almost everybody in Vermont was in the upper 20s as dawn broke this morning. Burlington, in the Banana Belt Champlain Valley hit 32 degrees for the first time this autumn. 

That's just two days later than the average date of the first freeze of the fall. We've had warm autumns lately, so this morning's freeze in Burlington was the earliest since 2019.

Given the last spring freeze in Burlington was on April 21, that leaves us with a 2025 growing season lasting 172 days. That's a little longer than the average of 158 days. 

Usually, on calm, cold clear mornings in and around Vermont, temperatures are all over the place.  One town could be near 20 while another a dozen miles up the road could be in the mid-30s.

This time, the readings were quite uniform. Almost all major reporting stations were at 27 or 28 degrees at 7 a.m. An exception was Bennington, at 24 degrees.

Due to the warming influence of Lake Champlain, I'm sure much of Grand Isle County missed out on a frost and freeze. Especially since the lake is warmer than normal for this time of year. At 7 a.m. Burton Island, off of St. Albans Point, was at 41 degrees.

If you managed to save your garden plants or brought some inside like we did, you have a little time left to enjoy. Aside from some frost in the normal cold hollows tonight, the next chance of a frost or freeze is next Wednesday night, and even that is super iffy. 

Today will warm up sharply, with highs within a few degrees either side of 60, which is close to average for this time of year. The sun will make it feel even nicer. 

Saturday looks like terrific as well, with sunshine and highs in the 60s for most of us. The record heat we had earlier this week is long gone, and it's not coming back anytime soon. 

You'll see clouds coming in Sunday, which would be in advance of a strong nor'easter along the East Coast.

I'm doing a separate post on that storm later this morning, because it's such a biggie. That separate post will include how it will affect us here in Vermont. But a spoiler: For the Green Mountain State, unlike other places, that nor'easter could do more good than harm.