Vermont August Mostly Warm, Dry, Main Measuring Station Burlington Decided To Be An Exception.

A severe, rotating storm over St. Albans, Vermont on
August 10. Despite  frequent, sometimes severe
thunderstorms, August rainfall in 
Vermont was mostly below average. 

Vermont overall had a pleasantly warm, dry August, though that was interrupted by several bouts of severe weather.

Burlington, which is arguably the main weather reporting station for Vermont decided to buck the statewide trend a little. 

In Burlington, the average temperature for August was 70.4 degrees, or just 0.3 degrees below the modern average. 

Remember, the current normal August temperature is the average from the years 1990 to 2020, when climate change had already begun to change our world. 

By 20th century standards, Burlington's average temperature was on the warm side. It was the 29th warmest out of the past 136 years.  The average high and low temperature for the month were both   within a few tenths of a degree of the "new" normal, 

Elsewhere in Vermont, August turned out to be on the warm side, but not extremely so. Montpelier, St. Johnsbury and Woodstock were between 1.4 and 1.8 degrees on the warm side. Rutland was 0.6 degrees on the warm side. Like Burlington, Bennington was just a tiny bit on the cool side, averaging just 0.2 degrees on the cool side. 

Burlington was also the exception to a generally dry Vermont August. Burlington had 3.99 inches of rain during the month, which was just under a half inch above normal. It was near the middle of the pack as it was the 51st wettest month out of the past 144 years in Burlington. 

Much of Burlington's rain came in a little over an hour on August 8 when a strong thunderstorm dumped 1.2 inches of rain. Much of Vermont had little or no rain that day. A few other areas had light to moderate amounts, except for a narrow section of the Champlain that got nailed. 

That storm was on of several in Vermont that caused some damage. The August 8 storm caused damaging wind and hail in a small area around South Hero, Milton and Colchester.  

Another storm on August 10 mainly affected Franklin County. Rotation in the storm prompted a tornado warning, but no twisters are known to have touched down. However, strong straight line winds caused extensive damage, especially on Maquam Shore in Swanton and in St. Albans. 

On August 12, a severe storm hit southern Chittenden County, knocking down four large trees in St. George. Another large tree fell and blocked Route 116 near the South Burlington/St. George line. 

The next day, a severe storm dumped ping-pong sized hailstones in Fair Haven, and knocked down several trees along Route 30 in Castleton.  Another storm in North Troy, in northeastern Vermont.  

METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER

Meteorological summer runs from June 1 through August 31. That time period is what climatologists consider as summer. It makes the bookkeeping easy. 

As measured in Burlington, meteorological summer was the 11th hottest summer out of the past 128 years. 

All but three of Burlington's hottest summers have happened since 2005. (The other three were in 1901, 1949 and 1995).

Burlington had the 12.73 inches of rain during meteorological summer. That's a little less than an inch above normal. 

Since summers have in generally been getting warmer amid climate change, this turned out to be the 30th wettest summer out of the past 128 years. 

LOOKING AHEAD

No matter what happens, you'll know very soon that summer is over. The average temperature falls rapidly in September. In Burlington, we normally have a high of 78 degrees and a low of 58 degrees. By September 30, the normal high and low is 66/47.

I guarantee somewhere in Vermont during September, there will be frost. It's even possible in the banana belt Champlain Valley. September freezes were once fairly common in Burlington. But, it hasn't been 32 degrees there in September since 2014.

For what it's worth, NOAA says it's a tossup as to whether we'll see a warm or cool September. NOAA is leaning toward a wet September in Vermont. We shall see!