Sunday Morning: A Cold Start, But Remarkably Steady, Calm Weather This Week. Maybe Beyond, Too?

Henry the weather dog on Saturday
found an area of relatively warm sunshine
and a sort of camouflage amid fallen
leaves a pine needles at his St. 
Albans home Saturday afternoon. 

And that's a wrap. 

Already. our brief cold snap was fading away as of dawn today. Especially in western Vermont, the coldest readings were at around 2 in the morning, rather than dawn, which is customary for a cold night. 

The core of the cold air had already departed and temperature began to rise in the early morning hours. Overnight lows were pretty uniform, in the low to mid 20s. 

The Champlain Valley was a tad warmer, with upper 20s a little after midnight before getting above freezing as the first light in the eastern sky began to emerge. 

In terms of snow, several towns, mostly in the Northeast Kingdom reported a trace of snow. Video from Stratton Mountain in southern Vermont showed a solid dusting of wet snow near the summit. As the sun came out during the day the summits shown white under the cold skies. 

Yesterday looked warmer than it was. Bright sunshine developed, especially away from the mountains. But a stiff northwest wind and temperatures holding in the low and mid 40s had a whiff of winter to it, though it was nothing compared to what is eventually coming. 

COMING UP

As previously advertised, we're in for a long spell of tranquil, mainly sunny and seasonable weather for this time of year. 

Such unwavering weather is rare in Vermont (If you don't like the weather in Vermont.....)  It's especially rare in the second half of October, when the weather pattern normally gets more active, with stronger storms and more aggressive pushes of warm and cold air as we rapidly descend toward winter. 

A stalled storm or subtropical storm will spin well off the Mid-Atlantic coast through at least Thursday. To the north, where we live, a corresponding high pressure system will stall just to our north, providing generally sunny weather. 

There might be a minor readjustment to this regime late week, when that storm will finally slip away into the Atlantic. Up here, a cold front will replace our high pressure system with an almost identical one which might then hang out for a few more days. 

The only major change in our weather - and it's uncertain - is that the new high pressure will temporarily cool us off more. 

The details

Today:   

Some cloudiness along and north or Route 2 will yield to sunshine. The rest of the state will enjoy war to wall sunshine. Highs in the mid 50s, so pretty nice

Monday-Thursday. 

Generally sunny. Highs in the 50s, with low 60s in the warmer valleys. Lows in 30s to low 40s. Some clouds might arrive Thursday, we're unsure of that yet. 

Friday-Saturday

The American computer  model really chills us off to readings not that far off from yesterday, which would mean highs in the 40s, with upper 30s Northeast Kingdom. The American model usually overemphasizes cold air in the long term, so I don't think it will be that bad. An early guess would put highs within a few degrees either side of 50s and lows within a few degrees either side of 30. 

I think the next chance of noticeable rain won't come until October 25 and the earliest and possibly as late as October 30.