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| Dark clouds this morning ended up producing showers here in St. Albans, Vermont but skies should clear this afternoon. Another spell of chilly, frosty May weather is coming in over the next couple of days. |
Clouds and light rain made it a little further north than expected yesterday, briefly getting as far north as Burlington.
You can see how the strong May sun affects temperatures. In Burlington, it was gorgeous and mild under the morning sun, then gusty and cold under the afternoon clouds. The far northwest corner of Vermont got lucky and stay relatively sunny and reasonably mild all day. Lucky them!
Further south it was rather nasty. Montpelier got into the low 50s under morning sunshine, but temperatures retreated into the 40s during the afternoon under the clouds. Rutland, like Montpelier, endured an early morning frost, then stayed in the 40s all day.
VERMONT FORECAST
Another cold front is coming through today. The front was spreading some rain showers into Vermont this morning. But the front is moving fast, so skies should clear up pretty abruptly this afternoon.
We can use the rain, even though most places won't get much if anything out of these showers. Rain did fall at a moderate pace for awhile here in St. Albans, so at least we got some needed wetting in this corner of the state.
The chilly air behind this front is lagging a bit, so we should manage to see highs in the 60s today. Not bad for Mother's Day, really.
For those of you bummed about this morning's showers, it could be a lot worse. The lousiest Mother's Day weather in recent history I could find was in 1996. That day featured a drenching, day long cold rain that mixed with or changed to snow in many areas of Vermont. Burlington got 0.3 inches that day, St. Albans had two inches.
No snow is in the forecast, at least not anything like we saw in May, 1996. But frost is yet again a threat. Like it's been so often this month.
Monday
As dawn breaks tomorrow morning, we'll be down in the 30s again. There could be frost or freezing temperatures anywhere in Vermont to start the day, especially away from the Champlain Valley.
Unlike frosty Saturday morning, the sun will more or less stay much of the day. Although the afternoon will tend to get cloudier as sun-warmed air interacts with frigid air aloft. The at least occasional sun will get high temperatures will get into the 50s instead of Saturday's 40s in central and southern Vermont.
Canadian high pressure is causing this chill. The air is cold and dry. Perfect air if you want the temperatures to crash at night. I think the National Weather Service might issue a frost advisory for the Champlain Valley tomorrow night and early Tuesday. Those tropical plants I put out on my deck unfortunately will either have to be covered or brought back in. Sigh.
Tuesday.
After the morning frost, we'll still be under that cool high pressure. So, high temperatures Tuesday will again only make it into the 50s. Maybe 60 in a few of the warmer valleys. Normal afternoon temperatures this time of year should be be between 65 and 70 degrees. There might be more frost late at night and Wednesday morning.
WARMING TREND?
Fingers crossed, we'll finally see a change in the weather pattern that would free us from this chilly May weather pattern. It won't exactly turn super warm, but the chill should relax. In fact, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons probably won't be any warmer than Monday and Tuesday due to expected clouds and light rain.
Morning lows starting Thursday will be much better though, bottoming out in the frost-free 40s.
Once those showers clear out, we'll warm up to - yay! - average temperatures by next weekend. That'll bring temperatures up to 70 degrees or so, fingers crossed. Beyond that, we might even have a shot at a day or two that get past 80 degrees more than a week from now.
As we scrape frost off our windshields in the early mornings in the coming days, we can hold onto the prospect of warmer days ahead.
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