Montreal, Quebec City Endured Ugly Ice Storm While Warm Thaw Continued South Of The Border

While rather warm temperatures continued Wednesday
south of the border, Montreal and other areas of 
Quebec endured a day and evening long ice storm.

While places south of the border were basking in relative warmth Wednesday, Quebec was enduring an ice storm. 

Temperatures remained solidly below freezing in Montreal as freezing rain fell all day into the night. 

Even toward midnight, when temperatures in northwestern Vermont soared into the low 60s, Montreal remained stubbornly at 30 degrees, or minus 1 Celsius.

The result in Quebec was widespread travel trouble, closed schools and businesses and power outages.  Among the schools closes were Concordia and McGill universities. 

As of around 9:15 a.m. Thursday more than 212,000 homes and businesses were still without power in Quebec. The number of outages was down to about 65,000 by 4 p.m. today. 

Dozens of flights were canceled in Montreal and Quebec City. 

A similar but worse ice storm hit in April 2023. While trees collapsed under the weight of ice and power flickered out throughout Montreal and other areas of Quebec, areas just south of the Canadian border had thunderstorms and temperatures in the 40s on that occasion. 

So that's twice in three years northern Vermont just barely dodged very, very icy bullets  

Why Trying To Save Money During The Winter Can Be A Bad Idea

Here's what the top of a washing machine in Quebec 
looked like after they shut off the heat in the apartment
while away to "save  money" The pipes burst, and
this was some of the result

Heating a home in the winter is expensive, we all know that. 

We're all torn between keeping warm and affording to keep the furnace on. But somebody in Quebec took the desire to save money way too far. 

In Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, along the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, an apartment tenant recently left for an extended period, probably on vacation.  

That tenant apparently thought to themselves,  "Why pay for heat in my apartment when I'm not going to be there?"

It appears they said this. In January. In Quebec. 

You guessed it! The inevitable happens. Pipes froze and burst. The toilet cracked, sending water through the floor into the living space below.  The results are captured in a video at the bottom of this post. 

Pretty much everything ended up being covered in ice inside that building. The landlord said the ice on the kitchen floor was nearly a foot thick. The washing machine looked like an elaborate ice sculpture. Clothes folded atop the dryer were just one big frozen mass. 

Put it this way, the apartment "ice castle" in Trois-Rivieres is not nearly as grand as Elsa's castle in the movie "Frozen," as the CTV reporter dryly notes. 

The landlord seemed to be taking the mess in pretty good humor, if we can judge from his CTV interview. He said the whole apartment will need to be ripped apart and rebuilt. That is, after the ice eventually melts. He's got heaters in there to bring a spring thaw to the apartment, but as you'll see in the video, it'll take awhile.

The former tenant whose name is on the lease was formally evicted earlier this month after having moved out several months ago without paying rent. It's unclear who was living there and turned off the heat just prior to their departure. 

The "ice castle" apartment is part of a triplex, but the tenants living in the other two units within the building were not affected.

Here's the video. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Incredible October Heat Here In Vermont, And Much Of U.S. Southeast Canada; It's A Climate Change Trend

People strolling through downtown Montpelier, 
Vermont Sunday amid record October heat.
The city tied its record for hottest October
day on record. Burlington did the same.

As all of you felt it on Sunday, it was a day for the weather record books, big time here in Vermont.

And in a LOT of other places. 

The temperature reached 86 degrees in Burlington Sunday, tying the record for the hottest day for the entire month of October. 

The tie was with the record set just two years and one day day earlier, on October 4, 2023.

Montpelier also tied its all-time October record, reaching 84 degrees Sunday afternoon. Springfield and St. Johnsbury reached 85 degrees Sunday.  

Up in Quebec, all-time October records were set, too. Gatineau reached 87.4 degrees, setting the record for the hottest October temperature for the entire province of Quebec.  Montreal reached 85.8 degrees, setting a record high for the month of October, beating the 2023 record. 

Temperatures as high as 84 degrees were recorded as far north as the southern tip of Canada's James Bay. 

Further west, the heat hit the Great Lakes area on Saturday. Traverse City, Michigan hit 89 degrees, tying their record for the month of October. Other record highs included 89 in Alpena and Lansing, Michigan 88 in Ann Arbor, Michigan and 85 in Gaylord, Michigan.

Minneapolis reached 90 degrees, only the fourth time that city has reached 90 in October. As I mentioned Saturday, the hottest spot I've heard of, at least in the northern half of the U.S. is that 99 degrees Friday in Ellsworth, South Dakota. 

VERMONT OUTLOOK

The Northeast, much Quebec and other parts of southeast Canada has got another day of record warmth in store today. This, of course, includes Vermont. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington is going for a high today in Burlington of 85, which would exceed the day's record by 3 degrees. 

Montpelier's record high today is 79, and the NWS said the Capitol City could reach 85 degrees, which would break the record high for the entire month. St. Johnsbury is also forecasted to reach 85 degrees, two degrees above the previous record for the date. 

Today will be a little breezier than Sunday was, especially in the Champlain Valley. That makes the already high fire danger even worse. Today, of all days, avoid doing anything that can spark a blaze. 

Tuesday, big changes will start to happen, but it will take until afternoon to hit. 

If the clouds hold off long enough Tuesday, Burlington could reach 80 degrees again. That would make four days in a row of 80 degree temperatures, which would be the first time on record the city had that long a streak of 80 degree weather in October. 

Winds will be gusty, so the fire danger in Vermont should be sky high again. Until some glorious rain arrives. That rain should come in during the afternoon, spreading west to east across the state.

Fingers crossed, this could be a decent rainfall.  The forecast could and probably will change, but at this point southern Vermont is in for more than a half inch of rain. Northern Vermont could see an inch or maybe even a little more.

That won't by any means solve our drought problems. But we'll take any help we can get. It'll tamp down the forest fire risk for awhile. And it might be enough to slow or even temporarily stop the drought's worsening trend.

I'm getting mixed signals for rainfall beyond what we get Tuesday and Tuesday night. Some sets of forecasts keep us quite dry through around October 20 at least. Other forecasts gives us occasional bouts of light but helpful rain through that period. 

If we get lucky, a coastal storm poised to dump heavy rain along the Mid-Atlantic Coast this weekend might come close enough to give Vermont a little more light rain. Not sure yet, but it's worth hoping for.

Another thing: Tuesday's cold front means business. It will bring the chilliest air of the season so far. It won't be anything odd for October, not at all. But it will come as a shock to the system after this summer weather. Many places in Vermont that escaped frosts and freezes so far this autumn won't be so lucky this time. 

HEAT IN PERSPECTIVE

This heat wave is easily one of the most extreme North American off-season warm spells I can remember. It stretched through the entire northern half of the U.S. from the Rockies east, and encompassed much of southern Canada. 

The only hot spell I can think of that was even more wild came in March, 2012, when a huge area covering the central and northern Plains, the Great Lakes region, the Northeast, including Vermont and southern Canada saw several days of record highs in the 80s. Which is incredible for that time of year.

Yes, climate change is making record warm spells more frequent and more extreme. And it's making record cold spells less frequent. 

If the climate hadn't changed, the number of record highs and lows would be roughly equal. The climate change disparity in Burlington, Vermont is even more extreme than many other cities.

By my count,51 daily record highs have been tied or broken since January, 2020. In that time, there was only one record low. 

Records for hottest temperatures for the entire month should be pretty rare, maybe coming once a decade or so.  The data in Burlington goes all the way back to 1884. But just since 1995, we've had 11 monthly highs either tied or broken. The last time a monthly record low was tied was in 1986 and the last time one was broken was in 1979.

So, we have another weird hot spell under way. It's one of many we've had in recent years and one of many we're going to have. If you think Vermont beach weather in October is weird, you are going to see even more bizarre weather stuff in the years and decades ahead. 

Early Afternoon Vermont Storm Update: Severe Thunderstorm Watch Likely

Early this afternoon, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center
highlighted the area in purple as the most likely
zone for scattered severe thunderstorms, and possibly
even a brief tornado spinup. Although there's a low
but not zero chance of such a spin up in Vermont,
tornadoes are slightly more likely in northwestern 
Maine of all places, and southern Quebec. 

Scattered showers and thunderstorms were already starting to break out in and around Vermont as of 1 p.m. as the air destabilizes south of a warm front and east of a cold front. 

By the time you read this, much of Vermont and parts of New Hampshire and Maine, and maybe some other areas will be under a severe thunderstorm watch. 

Early this afternoon, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center issued a statement highlighting northern New England as a potential hot spot for severe storms this afternoon and early evening. 

Very moist air - gawd that humidity! - and an approaching little disturbance and a cold front, increasing winds aloft, combined with a low pressure system in southwestern Quebec are all doing their job to get those storms going, as we expected from earlier forecasts.

The timing of all this is perfect - afternoon and early evening. Those are the hours in which the strong July sun further destabilizes the air, ultimately making the storms more powerful.

There was some question as to whether we'd have enough late morning and early afternoon sun to prime the severe thunderstorm pump. but we've seen some big breaks in the clouds, especially early the afternoon.

This has all boosted temperatures well into the 80s. Even flirting with 90 in a couple spots. All that heat, combined with the already-mentioned humidity, is a recipe for big storms. 

Some of these storms will develop into at least brief supercells. Those are those rotating, powerful thunderstorms that can produce ferocious wind gusts, incredible rain rates and maybe tornadoes. 

The United States location with the greatest chance of seeing a couple tornadoes today is northwestern Maine. Go figure. Southern Quebec is also under the gu n for those twisters - especially those expansive flat areas outside of Montreal.

It's plausible northern Vermont could see a brief, weak tornado, but the chances are lower here than in southern Quebec or those parts of Maine. 

I'm pretty sure, though, that we will see scattered instances of straight line wind damage.

Not everyone will see a severe storm. Including in central and northern Vermont, where the risk is highest. There will only be scattered instances of damage. 

But be weather aware, and have a ready source to receive severe storm warnings quickly. If you get a warning you'll need to get into a sturdy building away from windows until it passes. 

As of 1:30 p.m., storms were rapidly developing, but most of them so far seemed to be in southern Quebec. Still, development is happening everywhere. And will increase as the afternoon wears on. The atmosphere is looking agitated, with storms seemingly forming pretty easily and quickly.  

Keep an eye to those skies this afternoon, folks!

All Signs Point Toward Severe Weather In Vermont/Eastern U.S/Quebec Today, Nasty Hot Spell Coming

Today's updated severe thunderstorm threat around the
nation. Yellow areas including Vermont, are in a level
two out of five risk zone for severe storms
meaning there will be scattered instances of damaging
winds. There's a level three of five in the
Mid-Atlantic states (orange shading). The risk
of damaging winds is somewhat higher there, 

Those who were looking for thunderstorms in Vermont yesterday ended up coming up empty. 

Most of the storms stayed in New York, with flash flooding out in central and western New York. 

Some showers and storms did venture into far northwest Vermont but petered out rather quickly last evening.

Today is when everybody in a wide swath from southern Quebec down to the Carolinas is under threat from severe storms.  This obviously includes Vermont. 

Not everybody in this vast patch of real estate will see severe storms, of course, but the threat is there. 

This risk in the entire region I outlined includes damaging straight line winds, large hail, downpours torrential enough to set off some flash floods and even a low but not zero risk of tornadoes.

The biggest threat for tornadoes appears to be in the mostly flatlands of southern Quebec, near and south of Montreal. The higher threat of wind damage at the moment seems to be around New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and part of Virginia.

That does not mean Vermont is off the hook of course. We still have all of the above threat in play.

On top of that, another round of storms is possible Saturday night here in the Green Mountain State, followed by a brief, dangerous, very torrid spell of weather.

So let's next get to work planning your stormy day today, at least as things stood this morning. Stay on your toes, because things can change rapidly though the day.

TODAY'S SETUP

A sort of "preview" storm late Wednesday afternoon
looking west from Georgia Vermont. You can see
a column of torrential rain in the distance. Very few
storms in Vermont Wednesday, but they'll be much
more numerous today. 

A batch of showers and brief downpours was moving into mostly, but not exclusively into northwest Vermont as of 8 a.m. It looks like most of those were brushing far northwest parts of the state from St. Albans, north. 

It's so humid with an already unstable atmosphere, that a pop up downpour or thunderstorm could happen randomly almost anywhere in Vermont this morning.

They will be relatively few and far between, but enough so that you'll need to keep your eyes on the skies and be ready to head indoors quickly. Even this morning. 

It'll be interesting to see whether these showers, and lingering clouds behind them that would last most of the morning, will stabilize the atmosphere some and reduce the chances of strong storms later. Or maybe this will form a sort of new temperature boundary across part of Vermont that would enhance the storms that due later. 

There will also be a stalled west to east front across southern Quebec most of today that I think will enhance changing wind directions with height in the atmosphere. That's why I think there could be a tornado or two in southern Quebec. 

Northern Vermont will be on the edge of that, so despite the cloud cover today, the chances of severe storms remains in effect north of Route 2. 

All of Vermont should have plenty of humidity today, and especially places south of Route 2 should get into the mid and upper 80s to near 90 in a few places in the lower Connecticut River Valley. That's one ingredient needed for big storms.

The other storm ingredient is a cold front heading due east across New York State towards us. That will act a bit like a snow plow, providing lift in the atmosphere as it shoves into the muggy air over us. That lift is the rising air currents that lead to towering clouds, i.e thunderstorms.

THE RESULTS

This will be a classic summer severe weather day in Vermont. By that, I mean a few towns - definitely a minority of places in Vermont - will see damaging wind gusts that would take down trees and power lines, and possibly cause a little structural damage.

Most but not all of us will see some sort of thunderstorm today. Some of us will get bullseyed by downpours and a lot of lightning and some wind gusts. A few of us will be on the edge of some of these storms and have only minor effects and not a whole lot of rain.

Another few of us will get nothing at all. People in those towns will wonder what the fuss was about, having endured a humid, but rain-free day. 

I doubt there will be one solid line of storms that comes through. Instead, we're in for short lines and clusters of storms that will keep passing through, mostly between around 2 p.m. this afternoon and 11 p.m tonight. 

I wouldn't expect the storms today to be severe after dark, so we'll say 2 to 8 p.m. is the most likely time for anything severe. 

The other threat from today's storms is flash flooding. The good news is each storm will be moving along at a good clip. That means those torrential downpours won't last long in any particular spot.  They won't have time to put down enough water to cause a flood.

The problems would come if a few unlucky spots get three or four or five rounds of storms instead of just one or two. Then you start running into issues. Flash floods today in Vermont if they happen should be pretty isolated and not cover large areas.

FRIDAY:

Kind of a weird day, but nothing dramatic. The morning will be cool and windy and kind of cloudy, making it almost feel like autumn was in the air. Temperatures before noon should hold in the 60s.  Then, the flow of cool  Canadian air will get most shut off pretty fast. By late afternoon, it should be back in the mid and upper 70s with sharply diminished winds. The sun will have come back out. 

SATURDAY/SATURDAY NIGHT

Saturday itself looks like it will be a nice day for a change. We should have quite a bit of sun, with highs peaking within a couple degrees either side of 80 degrees. The humidity should be moderate, so enjoy!

However, we're still looking at the risk of a cluster of storms blasting through overnight Saturday night and early Sunday. We're still not sure exactly where they'll focus, or even whether they will entirely hit Vermont. But there is the risk of a noisy night with thunder and locally torrential downpours if we get hit squarely.

Stay tuned!

THE HEAT

The hot weather will begin to flood in on Sunday. It still looks like a decent beach day, with highs in the 80s to near 90. You'll also notice the  humidity building.

Monday looks like it'll be the worst of it, It now looks like actual high temperatures should hit the mid-90s in many valley locations in Vermont. Combined with the humidity, the heat index will probably be over 100 degrees. 

It'll be a dangerous day for anybody with health issues or those who exert themselves outdoors. Monday's the day to really take it easy, and seek out air conditioning if you can.

Record highs might fall. The current record highs for Monday are 96 degrees in Burlington, 90 in Montpelier and 93 in St. Johnsbury. 

Monday night will be dreadfully hot and stuffy, with lows staying near or above 70 for most of us with stifling humidity. 

Tuesday is now a bit of a wild card, depending on the timing of a cold front. If it comes through early, the heat won't be too bad, especially north.  If it comes in the afternoon, that means it'll uncomfortably hot with a risk of strong storms. If it comes through in the evening, then Tuesday will be just as bad as Monday.

We'll keep an eye on that.

The front will have come through by Wednesday, but should linger close by, meaning we'll remain at risk for showers and maybe storms later into next week too. It should actually stay near to a little warmer than average even behind the cold front that will end the heat wave 

 

Weird Vermont Temperature Contrasts A Hallmark Of Early Vermont Spring

Traffic camera image from Route 7 in Bennington Monday
shows no snow on the ground, part of the reason why
temperatures were able to rise to 56 degrees there. 

 Whether or not you had a true springlike day in Vermont Monday really depending on where you were. 

Down in places like Bennington and Brattleboro and Springfield, temperatures under sunny skies reached the mid-50s so spring was definitely in the air. 

Up by the Canadian border, not so much. Highs barely struggle into the mid 30s in some towns, and the few inches of snow that fell Sunday night didn't entirely melt. 

In between the two extremes, the north and the south, Vermont had a pleasantly enough mild March day, but it wasn't hard core spring. 

These kinds of weird temperature extremes in the Green Mountain State happen frequently in the late winter and early spring. You're going to see a little more of that today, too.

MONDAY WEIRDNESS

Part of the reason there were such temperature contrasts in Vermont came up in a post I filed last week.  . This time of year, frigid air - lingering winter - often stays firmly in place over the vast frozen forests and lakes of central and northern Quebec. 

If winds are light northerly, a thin layer of that cold air can bleed southward into far northern Vermont, so places like Highgate and Alburgh and St. Albans and Newport can occasionally get that frigid Quebecois feeling in early spring. 

That's what happened Monday. Newport only managed a high of 36 degrees Monday. 

Meanwhile, daytime temperatures, especially on sunny March afternoons, depend greatly on what's on the ground. 

Still a good amount of snow on the ground around
my house in St. Albans, Vermont Monday, part of the
reason why high temperatures never got out of
the low 40s during the afternoon.

Bare ground absorbs the sun's heat, and thus warms the air in the lowest couple thousand feet of the atmosphere. Those places would be noticeably balmier than places that are snow-covered.

There's pretty much no snow left on the ground around Bennington. So, the sun was able to heat things up nicely, which is a big part of the reason why high temperatures there on Monday was 56 degrees.  . 

Southeastern Vermont, around Brattleboro and Springfield, does still have some snow on the ground, but that snow is thin with plenty of bare spots  A northwest wind Monday also helped the air warm up. 

When the air flows down the slopes of mountains, in this case the southern Green Mountains, it compresses. Compressing air tends to warm up. Which meant the valleys of southeast Vermont also enjoyed some mid-50s  in the afternoon

Central Vermont was in a sort of unaffected middle. There's still plenty of snow on the ground in most of the area between Route 4 and Route 2. So the sun's heat reflected off the white snow cover. Which means it couldn't get quite as warm as it would have with bare ground. Also, some of the sun's energy went into trying to melt some of the snow rather than heat the atmosphere. 

However, that cold air from Quebec wasn't able to bleed southward all that much, so none of that Canadian chill could make it as far south as Route 2.  

The end result was a happy medium with highs well into the 40s. Montpelier had a high temperature of 46 degrees Monday. It probably resulted in a decent sap run in the sugar bushes, so we can't complain about that. 

TODAY

Strong south to southwest winds will briefly bring temperatures well up into the 50s to near 60 statewide.

An exception to the warmth will be right along the shores of Lake Champlain. Those southwest winds will pick up the chill from the icy waters of the lake and blow it ashore Places like Burlington's Waterfront Park will be stuck in the 40s at best for most of the day. Meanwhile, communities a few miles inland from Lake Champlain will be flirting with 60 degrees this afternoon.  

These lake breezes will often keep the immediate shore of Lake Champlain cooler than other areas well into early summer at least. 

Large scale storm systems are still strong this time of year too, so those bring sharp changes in temperature. 

A cold front will turn our balmy Tuesday of near 60 degree weather to a subfreezing shiver fest for Wednesday afternoon. Then, we're still expecting that massive storm in the Midwest to pump us right back up into the 60s again this weekend.

Those are the typical wild temperature gyrations we expect out of a March and April in Vermont.   As always, expect a wild ride and some surprises as we move through the first part of spring. 

Think It's Snowy In Vermont? Let's Take A Quick Trip To Montreal

Montreal is a mess after two storms within four days
dumped 30 inches of snow on the city. Snow removal
has been slow because of the volume of the snowfall
and people are getting frustrated.

 We spent a lot of time over the past several days talking about all the snow here in Vermont, but if you really want snow, we should talk about Montreal. 

And other large sections of Quebec and Ontario. 

Two storms between Thursday and Sunday dumped nearly 30 inches of snow on Montreal. 

It was the largest amount of snow on record for such a short period of time.  The city had 40 percent of its normal annual snowfall within five days. 

Montrea[ had full blizzard conditions, which are common further north in Quebec but rare in southern parts of the province. Winds around Montreal Sunday and Monday gusted from 35 to as high as 55 mph, whipping the snow into tremendous drifts. 

Sunday's storm was slightly larger than Thursdays, depositing about 16 inches of snow on Montreal and 21 inches in Mirabel. 

Sunday's storm was the fourth largest snowfall on record in Montreal. Thursday's storm was tenth largest.  (Montreal's biggest snowstorm dropped 18 inches of snow on the city on December 27, 2012.

At least one death was reported due to the storm.  A 57-year old ma was found dead inside a snow-covered car with its engine running, Global News reports.

 It's likely the snow blocked the car's exhaust, backing deadly carbon monoxide back into the car where the man was sitting.

In Chateauguay, Quebec, just south of Montreal, a 13-year old girl was in critical condition after she was found unresponsive beneath a collapsed snowbank.  A snow tunnel must have collapsed. 

Montreal has a reputation as being at least somewhat  efficient at snow removal, but this threw the city for a loop. Schools were canceled Monday and the city told anyone who was able to work from home to do so. 

Quiet weather starting Tuesday has allowed Montreal to get the cleanup going in earnest, but officials said it could take to early next week to get all the sidewalks plowed. On Tuesday, only six percent of rte snow had been cleared from Montreal streets. So yeah, this will take awhile.

As of midweek, city streets were still treacherous. Snowbanks made street parking virtually impossible.  Adding to the chaos, pedestrians were walking in the streets because sidewalks were still blocked by snow. 

If you're contemplating a quick trip up to Montreal, I'd wait more than a week before doing it. 

The huge volume of snow is making it hard to get rid of it all. Montreal has these big snow blowers that filled one large 45-foot truck every minute to be hauled to a snow dump. The city either dumps snow into sewer chutes, where it mixes with warmer wastewater, melts, and is then treated by the city's wastewater system. Or it's deposited at dumps, including an old quarry, where the snow gradually melts in the summer. 

 Far away from Montreal, and well northeast of Quebec City, an avalanche swept across a highway and trapping cars. However, everyone escape unscathed. 

Toronto was also reeling from the dual snowstorms.  Main roads there are clear, but like Montreal, Toronto has to load snow on trucks and haul it away, which is taking forever given the 21 inches of snow that fell on Toronto in the dual storms. 

The slow pace of snow clearing in Toronto is frustration residents, much like in Montreal. 

It's unclear if the weather had anything to do with the plane crash in Toronto Monday in which a plane with 80 people on board crashed and flipped over when trying to land.  Twenty-one people were hurt, but miraculously no deaths were reported. 

The plane landed amid blowing snow and strong winds, but pilots are trained to take off and land in such conditions, so it could well have been a mechanical problem. 

Much like here in Vermont, the snow machine as shut off for now in most of southern Quebec and Ontario. Only very light snows are expected in Toronto and Montreal over the next week. In both cities, high temperatures next Monday through Wednesday could rise to levels slightly above freezing. 

Videos:

 Scenes from the Montreal blizzard. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that. 

News report shows how chaotic things looked in Montreal. Again, click on the link or if you see image below click on that:

Judging from this video, it looks like Ottawa, Canada is very efficient at removing near 30 inches of snow from city streets. Click on this link to view or if you see image below, click on that. 

 

A walk through a Montreal neighborhood Wednesday morning shows how chaotic things still are in the city. Click on this link or if you see the image below click on that. 

 

 

Those Record Highs In The Northeast Kept Coming, And I'm Gobsmacked

My surroundings on Thursday said stick season, but the
air said midsummer as record highs were smashed in
Vermont and across the Northeast and southeastern
Canada. Overnight lows were hot, too.

 Updated lists of record highs in the Northeast and southeastern Canada kept coming in, and locally around Vermont and New York, the figures are astounding. 

Plattsburgh, New York takes the cake for breaking record highs in the most dramatic fashion to say the least. 

It did get to 83 in Plattsburgh Thursday, smashing the record for the date of 72.  It was also the latest 80 degree reading on record there. (The old record was October 28). Their low temperature in Plattsburgh was 62 degrees, breaking the record for warmest minimum for the date by a full ten degrees, which is insane.

Then it gets even more whacko in Plattsburgh.  It was still 77 degrees there at 12:01 this morning. That means Plattsburgh broke the record for the warmest reading for the entire month of November.  Also, it's rare to break a previous high temperature by more than five degrees, so breaking it by 10 or 11 degrees is also ridiculous.

Burlington, Vermont was definitely in on the record breaking party, too.  We have confirmation this morning that yesterday's high in Burlington was 77 degrees, breaking the old record by six degrees and becoming the warmest for so late in the season.

Thursday's low temperature in Burlington was 64 degrees which broke the record for warmest minimum temperature for the date by five degrees. 

Then, at 12:01 a.m. in Burlington, it was still 72 degrees, enough to break the record high for the date today, November 1. 

Just a few of of the dozens of other records set Thursday include:

Montpelier, Vermont, 75, old record 70.

Caribou, in northern Maine, 77,  old record 69

Massena, New York, 77, old record 73

Hartford, Connecticut 84, old record 82 

Syracuse, New York 81, old record 75.

Canadian cities smashed record highs as well. Here's a partial list:

Montreal reached 76 degrees, old record 71.

Quebec City, 71, old record 64.

Sherbrooke, Quebec 75, old record 68. 

Ottawa, 75, old record 70.

As I noted yesterday, climate change is helping to turn what might have been fairly impressive warm spells to off the charts gonzo heat waves. This is the latest example.

UP NEXT

A cold front was sweeping through this morning, and temperatures were gradually falling. More record highs might occur today in eastern New England and the Mid-Atlantic States ahead of the cold front. 

Wildfires worries will continue into November, especially in southern New England and the Mid-Atlatic States. The cold front is carrying very few showers if any showers. Gusty winds and dry air today have prompted red flag warnings for fire danger across southern New England, southern New York and parts of New Jersey.

Little or no rain is forecast in southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic states for at least a week, continuing an increasingly dangerous drought there. 

Up here in northern Vermont, a little rain fell, but nothing impressive. Burlington reported 0.04 inches. Montpelier came in with 0.03 inches early this morning. With those gusty winds, the forest fire risk today in Vermont is high across northern areas and very high in the southern half of the state, according to the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. 

A statewide burn ban remains in effect. 

Temperatures in Vermont will slowly fall all day and be in the 50s for the most part by late afternoon. 

The weekend will be generally sunny and just a little cool for the season, but certainly not the least bit unusual for early November.  We'll have highs in the 40s, lows in the 20s. It'll just seem cold compared to the weather we just had.

A warm front will prompt some chilly rain Monday in northern New England. We should see another brief squirt of very warm air Tuesday and part of Wednesday, but it won't be as intensely balmy as the air we just experienced on Halloween.

If you have not already voted, you should have no trouble going to the polls with the weather Tuesday given the expected toasty weather for the season.

I'll have my monthly summary of how Vermont's weather fared in October in a separate post later today. 

   

Debby Was A Vermont Windbag, But We Dodged A Huge Flood Bullet

Vermont mostly avoided flood damage from former
Tropical Storm Debby. Further west in New York,
some of the damage was extreme, such as in this
photo of Canisteo, New York. Photo by Bob
Lonsberry via Facebook.

 I was playing pick up sticks in my yard Saturday evening. 

There are so many small and medium sized branches down from those strong winds we had Friday evening from former Tropical Storm Debby. It's a project that probably will continue for days. 

Count myself very lucky, though. I have no damage.  And bonus: The gales knocked down a pretty good sized dead tree that I was planning on cutting down. Saved me work, and the dead tree didn't land on anything I care about. 

Meanwhile, more than 8,000 homes and businesses, almost all of them in northwestern Vermont, were still without power as of 7 a.m. this morning. That's 36 hours after the winds arrived. With all the trees and wires down, it's going to take awhile to fix everything. 

People are also dealing with homes with roof and other damage either from high winds or falling trees. Cars have been damaged or destroyed, too. Large trees are a real mess to clean up.

But notice I haven't mentioned flooding so far. 

Vermont really dodged a bullet on that one, given there were only a handful of reports of minor water damage here and there. No big deal at all.

That's awesome for us, as early forecast had us getting battered by inches and inches of rain. We braced for another flood disaster.

But, as forecasts became clear on Thursday, former Debby's path was taking a jog to the west. That meant the torrential rain would become somebody else's disaster.

Sadly, there were many thousands of somebody elses who dealt with flooding - in many cases catastrophic - from Sarasota, Florida to Montreal and the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada. 

There were some impressive rainfall totals in Vermont, so I imagine there is some flood problems that haven't been reported in the media.  But nothing catastrophic. 

The rain in Vermont apparently stopped just in time, right before anything really bad happened. Elmore and Corinth, Vermont reported just under four inches of rain from former Debby. There were many, many Vermont reports of between two and three inches of rain. 

Head a little west into New York State, though, and things got seriously worse. In northwestern New York, North Lawrence reported 7.35 inches of rain. North Emeryville and Fort Covington, New York also saw more than seven inches of rain. There were many reports of four to six inches. Flooding got pretty bad in and near New York's St. Lawrence Valley. 

That flooding crossed the border in Quebec. Montreal has 6.18 inches of rain Friday, the wettest day in that city's history. The flooding in Quebec closed at least 100 roads, forced hundreds to evacuate and set off landslides in the Laurentians northeast of Montreal. 

The epicenter of the worst flooding was in southwestern New York and northern Pennsylvania. Video showed water roaring through a neighborhood in Canisteo, New York, uprooting trees and sheds. Other towns were devastated as well.  Small communities across northern Pennsylvania were inundated, reminiscent of the floods Vermont endured back in July.

Downtown Annapolis, Maryland was under as much as three feet of water from Debby's storm surge Friday. Down in Sarasota, Florida, close to a foot of rain swamped numerous neighborhoods. 

Vermonters dodged another bullet, too. Former Debby prompted tornado watches up and down the East Coast from Florida to Vermont. 

There ended up being close to three dozen tornadoes associated with Debby from Florida to the lower Hudson Valley in New York. Despite the tornado watch in the southern half of Vermont Friday, there were no twisters in the Green Mountain State. 

Now that Debby's gone, much quieter, though at times unsettled weather is moving into the Northeast for several days at least. No extreme are in the forecast for now. But give it time. I'm sure more trouble will brew soon enough.  

Another Tornado Fairly Close To, But Not IN Vermont

Power lines arc in this screen
grab of last evening's tornado
in Brossard, Quebec.

On July 18, I told you how this summer, tornadoes have had a habit of spinning in unusual numbers in the Northeast, close to Vermont, but not IN the Green Mountain State.  

We just had another example Wednesday. 

This time, a tornado touched down in Brossard, Quebec, which is immediately across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.  Brossard is roughly 50 miles from the border crossing in Highgate, Vermont. 

The tornado last evening in Brossard damaged the roofs of at least two commercial buildings, overturned a tractor trailer truck. The driver suffered minor injuries. The twister also uprooted trees. Video of the tornado showed debris flying in the air and power flashes as the storm snapped electrical lines. 

Other possible tornadoes on Wednesday touched down about 35 miles southwest of Quebec City and roughly 40 miles northwest of Montreal, says Environment Canada. 

In our general area, a few severe thunderstorms popped up in northwestern New York during the day Wednesday and caused a bit of tree and power line damage.

 A severe thunderstorm warning was briefly issued for parts of far northwestern Vermont last evening as a strong storm developed near Chazy, New York. But that storm quickly weakened as it crossed Lake Champlain into Grand Isle and Franklin counties in Vermont. 

One to two dozen  tornadoes occur virtually every year across the southern half of Quebec.  Most are pretty minor. 

Much like in the United States, Canada's "tornado alley" of sorts has been shifting east. Both the northeastern United States, and Ontario and Quebec have in recent year seen an uptick in twisters.

Last year was an exception, with only ten Quebec tornadoes, but there seems to be a fair number so far this year. Examples include a fairly destructive one west of Montreal on May 27, and three others in the province on June 13. 

Meanwhile, a remarkable 21 tornadoes have been confirmed in New York State this July, bringing the total for the year to 23. The most tornadoes in a single year across New York is 25 in 1992. The latest confirmed tornado was a brief EF-0 Wednesday in Broadalbin, New York. 

For those of us who don't like tornadoes, thunderstorms, much less tornadoes are unlikely in most of New England and Quebec through Monday.  Certainly no tornadoes are in the forecast for that period. 

Super Cold Front Legacy: Lots Of Power Outages

Looks nice outside in St. Albans, Vermont this morning
but a stiff, frigid north wind was still tossing the
pine branches around. 

 Boy, the wind surged big time along and behind that big cold front last night. 

High winds were expected with this thing and they certainly delivered. Lots of power outages were reported throughout New York, New England and Quebec. 

About 180,000 outages were reported in Quebec and another 30,000 at least in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

Here in Vermont, the outages peaked at about 13,600 homes and businesses at around midnight last night. As of 8:45 a.m. there were still a good 6,000 in the dark. 

Some roads overnight in Vermont were blocked by fallen trees, wires and branches, and that has pretty much been cleaned up. 

We had several reports of wind gusts exceeding 50 mph in Vermont. Since you can't have a wind gauge everywhere, I'm sure there were a few spots that got to 60 mph. Especially in favored downslope areas in far northern Vermont and the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains. 

I did notice a gust to 72 mph in Ticonderoga, New York, just over the Vermont border.  Wind damage was worse in eastern New York than in Vermont because of downslope winds off the Adirondacks. 

Vermont has had a rough go of it over the past few months with storms and the electrical grid. This is the fifth time since late November in which a storm caused 10,000 or more power outages in the Green Mountain State. 

As you noticed, it's cold out there, also as expected. Just a 24-hour return to winter.  Most of the main roads are cleared up and fine as of 9 a.m. today. A lot of sidewalks, back roads and such are still icy after water quickly froze overnight. 

Nobody got much snow to speak of. Looks like about a quarter inch outside my door in St. Albans, Vermont. A trace was reported in Burlington. 

Also, I bet a lot of dirt and gravel roads are a mess today.  They were mud bogs yesterday. The big ruts left behind by cars and trucks trying to get through that mud are now frozen hard. So that will be a challenge for anybody trying to navigate a back road. 

Today will remain gusty and cold, but bright, with sun and some clouds. Temperatures in the teens this morning will barely rise to near 20. Gusts to 25 mph will make it feel like zero. 

Thawing returns tomorrow afternoon.  Forecasts continue to call for a long stretch of much warmer than normal weather starting Saturday and lasting at least through Wednesday. 

QAnon Quebec Man Started Some Of Those Awful Wildfires Last Summer For Bizarre Reasons

Conspiracy theorist Brian Parè pleaded guilty to arson
charges. He set some of last June's wildfires in Quebec
to "prove" some sort of nefarious government plan
that he made up. 

 I'm sure you remember choking on wildfire smoke blowing down from Canada last spring and summer. 

I can now blame one particular nut job person for a little bit of that pollution that hazed out Vermont skies last June.

Meet Brian Parè, 38, who prosecutors said on May 31 and June 1  started 14 fires near Chapais, Quebec. about 260 miles northwest of Quebec City.

On those two days, hundreds of fires broke out across much of Quebec. An intense drought was ongoing. 

Most of the fires were sparked by lightning, and those strikes ignited the dry, vast forests of the region. The result was choking smoke blowing southward into New England. 

For reasons only Parè fully understands, he decided to augment the lightning and start his own fires. Two of the fires Parè set force the evacuation of about 500 homes around the town of Chapais.

As seems to be always the case, Parè is a QAnon nutcase. These are the people who were convinced Hillary Clinton and probably Tom Hanks were running a child sex trafficking ring out of the non-existent basement of a Washington DC pizza shop.

Anyway, Parè claimed on Facebook that the fires were deliberately set by the government to trick people into believing in climate change, CBC reported.

It's unclear why Parè started the fires when he believed the government was already doing so. 

Antihate.ca delved into Parè's social media posts and hoo-boy! 

Here's some examples, notes Antihate.ca: 

"'Our government and elite want it to burn," Parè wrote in a June 26 Facebook post, translated from French by Google. 'Not complicated. Since 2020, we are in a conspiracy of the new world order of 2030.'"

I'm not sure what Parè thinks is the new world order, but oh, wll.

Apparently, according to Perè, the Quebec drought that helped create the wildfires was not the work of climate change or random weather patterns. He explained: "It's NASA who controls the weather and our famous elites."

Parè also thinks that chemtrails are a thing, and he's also into a newer wacko idea called the 15-minute city.

To review, high-flying jets often create a narrow band of cirrus clouds behind them. Hot exhaust condenses into the cold air these aircraft fly through, forming the clouds. The wackos think these are "chemtrails," in which the government is seeding us with stuff to control our minds, or sterilize us for some reason or make us afraid, or........something like that, I guess.  

Haze from Quebec wildfires as seen at St. Albans Bay,
Vermont on June 5, 2023. A Quebec conspiracy
theorist set some of the fires, it turns out. 

The 15-minute city is a real concept, but not in the way that conspiracy nuts would have you believe. Fifteen minute city is an idea in which all urban amenities should be available within a 15 minute walk or bike ride. 

The weirdos like Parè think it's somehow a global plot to allow governments to control their population. 

I'm not sure how the convenience of reaching a subway or a bus stop within 15 minutes controls people like me, but I guess I think differently than these special people.   

 Pare has pleaded guilty to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life, according to CBC.  He also tried to claim he set the fires to test whether the forests were dry or not. I guess he didn't think to dig into the soil a bit to see whether he came up with dust or mud, I don't know.

You know, I'm annoyed at Parè for setting those fires. And I've been bullying him pretty brutally here. But in a sense I feel for the guy.  I'm far more enraged at the proponents of these conspiracy theories who prey on the gullible, like Parè. 

Because those proponents aren't trying to help people like Parè. They're just trying to enrich themselves, leaving people like Parè as collateral damage that they don't care a whit about.  

I'm not convinced most of the people who promote all this QAnon conspiracy nonsense actually believe any of it. But there's money to be made by this, so they spread this garbage. 

Which becomes dangerous. What if one of the fires Perè set killed someone? But they don't care. Grifters gotta grift, right? 

Cold, Dreary Storm (Temporarily) Rescues Vermont From Canadian Smoke

The "view" looking southwest from South Burlington
toward the Adirondacks Tuesday morning amid
the haze and smoke from Quebec wildfires. 

 The good news is the air quality is much better here in Vermont today than it was yesterday and Monday. 

The bad news the price we're paying for the cleaner skies is cold, dreary weather, but not that much rain.  Plus, many other areas of the United States and Canada are still suffering from dangerous, smoky air. And the bad air will eventually return to Vermont as well. 

(NOTE: Scenes from a smoky Vermont are in a video at the bottom of this post).

The worst of the smoke is rotating around the edges of a cold upper level low spinning over extreme southeastern Canada and northern New England.  The upper level low is at least partly preventing a lot of the smoke from penetrating those lucky people under that atmospheric swirl.

Lucky us, that includes us here in Vermont. 

RAIN/CHILL

Under this upper level low, which is unusually strong and cold for this time of year, we get to experience some April-like clouds, dampness, chill and showers. 

This same upper low was responsible on Tuesday for some light rain in parts of Vermont.  The Champlain Valley had about a quarter inch of rain, the first raindrops we've seen since another paltry quarter inch of rain fell way back on May 24. Most of the rest of Vermont only managed a tenth of an inch of rain or so. 

This is roughly the same view as the photo above, 
except it was taken on a clear, smoke-free day. 

Some areas of eastern Vermont got zilch.  I do think speculation was right that the smoke would suppress some of the showers that wanted to form yesterday. They did form, and there was even a little thunder in northwestern Vermont, but the showers were not as vigorous as they might otherwise could have.

I think showers today will be a little more numerous than they were yesterday, but they'll be quite light. Most places should anticipate a trifling tenth of an inch of rain or so. 

We'll take anything, but this isn't exactly the soaking we need. There's just not enough moisture available in the atmosphere to wring out some nice downpours. 

We need a good inch or more of rain per week. We're still just getting those little drizzles.

Today is  also cold for June.  Highs today will only range from 55 to 60 most places, though there might be some mid 60s in southern Vermont. Normal highs this time of year are in the mid-70s.  The coldest high temperature on record for this date is 52 degrees in 1912, so we won't break that record, anyway. 

Normally this time of year, we get surges of warm, humid air.  Cold fronts or other disturbances clash with this humid air, and we get the usual summer downpours. We are not getting those pushes of humid air, so we're not getting much rain. This state of affairs will continue well into next week, even though stalled weather disturbances will continue to provide mostly light showers. 

SMOKE

The smoke really got the attention of the national media on Tuesday when it billowed into network hubs like New York City and Washington DC.

As especially thick plume of smoke from an especially violent cluster of fires in western Quebec rode the edges of that upper level low, drifting southward through central New York and Pennsylvania, then rolling east into New York City. 

The Big Apple thus became the one with the worst air pollution of any in the world. It also recorded the highest levels of pollution on record for the region. 

Judging from satellite photos this morning, those western Quebec fires belched another big plume of smoke yesterday. That plume as of 10 a.m. today was over central New York and northeastern Pennsylvania, headed toward New York City again. 

City officials were urging people with heart or respiratory problems to wear high quality N95 masks if they venture outdoors. 

In central New York, the air quality index was at a whopping 350 at mid-morning. .  It's double the level considered unhealthy for people.  Air quality indexes throughout much of the Northeast are over 150, which is considered unhealthy. 

Up here in Vermont, there's still smoke lingering, but it's in the "moderate" category as of mid-morning. Forecasts continue to bring smoke down from Quebec into the Northeast over the next several days. 

It doesn't appear as if the smoke will be as thick as it was Monday night and Tuesday morning, but it will still be a factor. 

Video: Scenes from a smoky Vermont on Monday and Tuesday. Click on this link to view if you don't see the image below, or otherwise click on the image to watch the video:

:Air Quality Alert! Chilly And Probably Smoky Week In Vermont, But Sadly, Precious Little Rain Coming

UPDATE 1 PM MONDAY

Maybe a little hard to see but the darker orange splotch
in the middle of this image is a forecast of smoke
making its way southward into 
Vermont this afternoon and evening. 

An air quality alert has been issued for western Vermont and most of New York,

Wildfire smoke from Canada is spreading southward, and will probably be thickest west of the Green Mountains.  

People with pre-existing lung conditions are particularly at risk. People with lung disease, asthma etc should at least be careful, and try to stay inside if possible. 

As of 1:15 p.m. I notice haze increasing in St. Albans, Vermont, where I'm located.  I'm also starting to smell smoke, and I know there are no fires burning near my house. 

Satellite photos show a plume of smoke heading south,  having just crossed the Canadian border in northwestern Vermont.

Smoke will also make an appearance probably everywhere else in Vermont this afternoon, too, but will likely be not quite as thick as in the Champlain Valley. 

The air quality alert remains in effect until 9 a.m tomorrow. Do note that more air quality issues could easily come back during the course of this week. 

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

There's some pretty chilly air in and around for this time of year, and that's not going to go away anytime soon. We've also in for what could well be by far the worst smoke attack from Canada so far this year.  

But rain? You know, the stuff we really need? Ha!  

We'll get some of that longed for wetting, but not all that much, I'm afraid. 

We're chilly here in Vermont, starting off the day mostly in the 40s, but some of the usual suspect nearby cold spots are pretty impressive. 

Saranac Lake, New York, can't seem to shake winter, judging from the frigid 27 degree low temperature on Sunday.  It had been 90 degrees there just four days earlier. It was back below freezing in Saranac Lake this morning

The summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire has been experiencing snow and freezing rain since yesterday.  Snow showers and bouts of mixed precipitation should continue up there at least into Thursday. 

Down here in Vermont, we stayed cool and breezy Sunday on the far western edge of a  stalled storm off the New England coast. A few sprinkles popped up in eastern and central Vermont, but those didn't amount to much.  Pretty much anybody who did see raindrops received less than a tenth of an inch of rain.  

The northeast winds steered wildfire smoke southwestward toward the Great Lakes, so we didn't have any trouble with that. Hope you had a chance to breathe that clean air Sunday, because.....

SMOKE TODAY? RAIN LATER?

There's going to be a reshuffling of this state of affairs today as a reinforcing shot of chilly air sinks down from Quebec.  As it does so, it'll bring with it a dose of wildfire smoke. Unfortunately, the smoke this time will be both aloft, and at least to an extent, down here where we live and breathe, too.

It's kind of hard to know exactly how smoky it will get.  The air quality was great early this morning. Later this afternoon and this evening, not so much. There's no air quality alerts in effect in our area, at least for now.  But expect at least haze, and perhaps the smell of smoke later on today, especially west of the Green Mountains. 

This reinforcing shot of cold air will create lots of showers Tuesday through Thursday, which is great news. The bad news is these showers will not be soakers. Over the next five days, many places north of Route 2 could get a half inch of rain, with maybe a third of an inch or so over most of the rest of Vermont. Southeastern Vermont might even get less than that. 

As a rule of thumb, we need about an inch of rain per week to keep things on an even keel. This won't be enough.

At least we won't have any dry heat to really desiccate things, like we had during the heat wave late last week. 

It'll be downright chilly for June, especially Tuesday through Thursday.  Highs will only make it into the 50s in most places, at a time of year when it should get up into the 70s.  I wouldn't be surprised if a few spots in the Northeast Kingdom stay below 50 all day on Wednesday. 

It'll slowly turn a little warmer and a little sunnier toward next weekend. But this week and beyond, we could see easily see more smoke attacks from Quebec. The fires up there won't be going out anytime soon. 

 

Parts Of Quebec Reeling From Deadly Flooding

A capture from a video by David Cloudier shows an 
RV swept away by flood waters on Monday crashing
into a bridge northeast of Quebec City. 

The same storm that caused some pretty bad flooding in New Jersey, the New York City area and in New Hampshire and Maine also slammed parts of Quebec especially bad. 

The Charlevoix region, a little northeast of Quebec City, was especially hard hit. Two firefighters died during rescue attempts. Numerous homes and buildings were damaged. Video from the region shows RVs being swept away by a raging river and then being crushed into a bridge.  

Several hundred people have been evacuated from homes and dozens of roads are closed by high water or washouts. Video shows some gaps in flood damaged roads to be as much as ten feet deep. 

Two day care centers were abruptly evacuated Monday, and children were rushed to an arena on higher ground. Parents were later able to retrieve their kids there. None of them were injured. 

Rivers were already running near flood stage in the area from spring snow melt. Then the heavy rain hit. 

The heavy rain is over, but lighter showers are slowing the pace of receding water along some Quebec rivers. The same region was hit by severe spring flooding in 2017 and 2019.  Quebec officials said three so-called 100 year floods within seven years is a sign of climate change. 

On entirely the opposite side of Canada, on the west coast, a number of homes have been evacuated and more might be A warm spell abruptly melted a lot of snow in the mountains, and flood waters have rushed down the slopes. 

Officials there hope a spell of somewhat cooler weather moving in will calm things down. 

Back To (Relatively) Normal In Vermont After Weird Weather Day

Plants just emerging in my St. Albans, Vermont gardens
look drowned in yesterday's downpours. But they'll be
fine, given the forecast of a long dry spell, with 
temperatures turning dramatically warmer next week. 

Well, no ice is in the forecast today and we almost certainly won't see any thunderstorms, which is a big change from yesterday, at least in northern Vermont. 

The payoff, eventually, will be a long stretch of gorgeous spring weather. If you want things to really start greening up, next week will be your time to celebrate.

We're actually starting off pretty warm today after the cold, raw, rainy, thundery weather we had. Yes, I know it wasn't that bad in southern Vermont, but still.

Parts of the Northeast Kingdom did have some ice accumulations yesterday. But unlike far northwestern New York, and southern Quebec, including Ottawa and Montreal, the ice didn't really cause much harm in Vermont. 

The Green Mountain State really dodged a bullet with that ice storm.  More than 1 million customers in Quebec were without power yesterday. Plenty of trees and branches came down with the weight of the ice, in some cases smashing cars in the process. Schools are closed across much of southwestern Quebec today. 

Back here in Vermont, the wind picked up last evening, too, but it wasn't quite strong enough to cause too much damage. At one point, about 1,000 customers were without electricity last evening, but that number is pretty small compared to some recent storms. 

The sprawling storm's cold front will come through later this morning and early afternoon without much fanfare. Some spots will see some showers, but it won't be anything heavy.

Temperatures will stay mild, with readings poking up into the low 60s for many of us. That comfortable air will begin to feel less so later this afternoon as colder air comes in.

COLD, DRY SHOT

Friday and Saturday won't feel particularly springlike, as temperatures stay in the mid  30s to mid 40s by day and dip into the 20s at night. If you hate static electricity, you won't be fans of this. The air will be very dry. 

This kind of weather is a bit chilly for early April, but it's not nearly as cold as it can get this time of year.  Cool spells like this or nippier happen every April in Vermont. 

THEN SPRING, BUT TOO DRY?

Temperatures will start to recover nicely on Sunday, and keep going up day by day during next week. The first half of the week will  feature pleasant highs in the 60s, then there's an excellent shot of 70s later in the week. 

Extended national temperature outlook for next Tuesday through
Saturday. That's about as strong a signal as you can get 
for warmer than normal temperatures in Vermont and
a broad stretch of the Midwest and eastern U.S.

In a way, this might be too much of a good thing, if you're a bit of a pessimist. The air during this spell will continue to be very dry, with humidity about as low as it can get. 

Despite all the rain we just had in northern Vermont, things will dry out pretty quickly in the arid, mild air. 

It'll be maybe even worse in southern Vermont, which did not get much rain yesterday. 

There's all that dead stuff from last year still out there. The leaves aren't on the trees yet. All that sunshine will dry things out, and brush fires will become a risk. This is the time of year they're most likely in Vermont, so there you go.

After the nice moisture we had over the winter and early spring, we don't want a drought to start. A couple weeks of dry weather, like what's coming, shouldn't be much of a problem. It will turn into one if it stays dry. 

However, it seems like in many Aprils in Vermont, there's often a long period of dry, warm (sometimes hot!) and tranquil weather during the middle of the month. For example, the Aprils of 1976, 1977, 1998, 2002, 2020 and 2021 were like this, among many others. 

In almost all these cases, decent rains returned by the end of the month. 

So we should relax and enjoy the great weather coming next week. Just don't burn your brush pile during this interlude. 

Quebec Groundhog Found Dead. What Does THAT Mean For The Rest Of Winter?

Fred la marmotte, seen here in 2018 was Quebec's 
answer to the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil. Fred
was found dead Thursday morning before he could
make his prediction, so what does that mean?

 Yes, yes, I know, the silly traditional Groundhog Day we had today is not scientific.

Supposedly, if the groundhog sees his shadow, we'll need to endure six more weeks of winter. The most famous one, Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania, saw his shadow on Thursday, supposedly meaning spring is a far away dream. 

Never mind the output from meteorologists lately that suggest a possible early end to winter. I see NOAA's latest 8 to 14 day forecast, for what it's worth, predicts warmer than normal weather through mid-February.

Longer range forecasts also call for a warm February overall. NOAA also slightly favors a warmer than normal spring in the Northeast, too.

I don't entire trust these long range forecasts. A lot can go wrong. However, I'm quite sure the scientists at NOAA are much better at weather forecasting than some random rodent. Sorry Phil!

Which leads me to some tragic news from Quebec.  

The Canadian province's answer to Punxsutawney Phil, named Fred la marmotte, in Val-d'Espoir, Quebec, was found dead just before he was scheduled to come out of his burrow to predict how late winter would go. 

Perhaps Fred had heard that the Polar Vortex was about to settle into Quebec,  leading to an intense, but brief Arctic cold snap. 

But Yikes! What kind of prediction to you get when a groundhog is found dead? Sounds like the apocalypse. 

Death seems drastic, after all. Will the next six weeks be worse than just cold, or hazy, hot and humid, like summer?  Does this mean unprecedented storms?  Thirty feet of snow in a week? Something like the Great Quebec ice storm of 1998? Locusts? Noah's flood?

We don't know the cause of Fred's death, but it appears to be from natural causes. Maybe Fred was just depressed because his meteorological knowledge was not as great as, you know, real meteorologists.

Event organizers in Quebec figured Fred would have wanted a child to take his place if he had died  So a child was selected from the crowd on Thursday. For the record, that child, wearing a groundhog hat, predicted six more weeks of winter.

The kid was probably just hoping for more snow days that would close schools. So he could go to the sledding hill behind the school instead of hitting the books. 

For next year, we're told that Fred's son will take over the Groundhog Day leading role. It's a family business. Fred took over for his father several years ago when his dad died.