 |
| Henry the weather dog, right, and his larger friend, Cooper, left, together enjoy a very pleasant day on September 14. The month was cooler than recent Septembers, and there were plenty of sunny, pleasantly cool days like this one. |
Even with that, this September in Burlington was the coolest since 2013. Climate change has altered what we considered "normal."
If this past month happened during the middle of the 20th century it would have been near average, maybe even a little warm side.
The average temperature in Burlington was 61.2 degrees, or 1.5 degrees cooler than what is now considered "average.'
To give you an idea how much has changed since climate change really started causing havoc with the weather I give you this: Thirty years ago, the normal September average temperature in Burlington was 59.4 degrees. Which would have made this past September a warmer than typical month.
Elsewhere in Vermont, September, 2026 temperatures were close to "normal." The modern, warmer "normal." Places like Montpelier, St. Johnsbury, Rutland and Woodstock were all came in within a degree of this new normal.
September was a dry month in most places. Burlington was 1.68 inches below normal. The 1.99 inches of rain that did fall on Burlington made it the 26th driest record out of the past 138 years.
Montpelier was almost as dry as Burlington, coming in at 1.25 inches on the light side. Parts of southeastern Vermont had near normal precipitation, thanks in large part to a late month nor'easter.
The dry weather is continuing to worsen drought or near-drought conditions across Vermont. The latest weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, released yesterday, shows abnormally dry conditions expanded to include almost all of the northern two-thirds of Vermont. Last week. western parts of the state had adequate moisture. Now, most of the Champlain Valley is dry, too.
At least actual drought hasn't really expanded. At least for now. Like last week, moderate drought encompasses about a quarter of the state, in the Northeast Kingdom.
On the bright side, the dry weather gave us plenty of absolutely gorgeous, comfortable September days featured blue skies and just the earliest hints of autumn in the air.
LOOKING AHEAD
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center is pretty non-committal with the outlook for October. They give New England equal chances of above or below normal temperatures, and equal chances of above or below normal rainfall.
Looking at NOAA's eight to 14 day outlook, taking us into mid-October gives us cool-ish to near normal temperatures, and near to perhaps edging toward below normal precipitation. Which is too bad, we need at least a couple really soggy months to make Vermont adequately wet again.
As always, we shall see!
