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| Some pretty clouds early Tuesday morning over St. Albans, Vermont were the first sign of some welcome rain that hit Vermont overnight. Many places had well over an inch of rain, but that won't be nearly enough to mitigate our serious drought. |
The heat did hang on for one more day on Tuesday before the rain moved in.
I'm not aware of any more record highs in Vermont Tuesday, but several places got above 80 degrees. Burlington had its fourth consecutive 80+ reading before the clouds and rain arrived.
I had been reporting that four 80 degree days in a row would be a record long streak for such warmth in Burlington, but I was mistaken.
There was also a four consecutive day stretch of 80 degree weather from October 16-20, 1947. So I stand corrected. We did tie that record though.
Rainfall was gloriously generous in at least some parts of Vermont overnight. Burlington had 1.63 inches, and my unofficial rain gauge in St. Albans filled up to 1.77 inches.
As of 8 a.m., it was still raining at a pretty good clip in central and southern Vermont, but through that hour, Montpelier had so far accumulated 1.42 inches, St. Johnsbury 1.3 inches and Rutland 1.85 inches. A few lucky spots near and west of the Green Mountains might have rainfall totals near two inches.
Bennington and Springfield had an inch or less of rain through 8 a.m., but one more patch of fairly heavy rain was about to go through both communities as of this writing.
This marvelous rain will probably prevent the drought from continuing to get worse for a few days, but will by no means end it. We need inches and inches of rain over a few months to really soak through and recharge the ground water, and once again make our forests too wet to burn.
Before the rains came, there were some new reports Tuesday of brush fires in Vermont. A pretty good sized one was reported in Bakersfield Tuesday. Some outbuildings were reported damaged.
To demonstrate how one rain storm cannot erase a drought, there were reports of some minor rekindles of Bakersfield fire early this morning, despite the drenching overnight rains.
Unfortunately, it looks like there's very little rain in our immediate future. More on that in a bit
FROST/FREEZE
The rain was exiting Vermont as of mid-morning. There could be a few light showers in the mountains this afternoon and evening, but that won't amount to anything. As cold air rushes in, there could even be a few snowflakes on some of the summits tonight. It's that time of year, folks!
It will be cool today, but since we started the day still on the warm-ish side, we will manage to reach the 50s to around 60 this afternoon.
Tonight will not actually be the coldest night of this seasonable October cool snap, but if you have plants out there, you probably should try to protect them.
Thursday will be bright and chilly. Sunshine and crisp air in the 50s, with some upper 40s in northern hilly areas. This should make it feel like autumn has finally, belatedly arrived.
Thursday night and Friday will bring the end of the growing season to all of us except maybe some places right along the shore of Lake Champlain.
I think almost everybody will be at or below freezing by dawn Friday. As for your gardens, I guess it's time to stick a fork in it. Most places away from the Champlain Valley will get into the 20s, with maybe something close to 20 degrees in the coldest hollows.
The average date of the first autumn freeze in Burlington is around October 8, so it looks like this year will be pretty close to average.
After Friday morning, temperatures will rise to seasonable levels and stay that way into next week. That means daily lows near 40 and highs in the low 60s, give or take.
MISSED RAIN OPPORTUNITY
A very wet, kind of strong nor'easter looks like it wants to get going along the Mid-Atlantic Coast this weekend, giving areas along the coast from the Carolinas to Long Island some heavy rain.
Usually, such a setup would mean rain for us in Vermont, too. But the latest in a series of big, dry, honking high pressure systems looks like it wants to stall nearby or just north of us, as so many similar systems have done since August.
That high will probably prevent the nor'easter from bringing much if any rain our way. Some but definitely not all runs of the American computer model do manage to bring rain from this system our way. The other computer models keep us dry, because they predict the Big Honking High will block the storm from moving north and then deflect it southeastward out to sea.
Most experienced meteorologists are going with the drier forecast in this case.
That would leave us with another long dry spell, and an opportunity for the drought to start worsening again.
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