From Beach Weather To Snow: An Abrupt Change In Vermont Weather

After watching spring greens begin to emerge in my
St. Albans, Vermont perennial gardens yesterday amid
70 degree weather, this is the scene that 
greeted me this morning. 

At around 6 a.m. this morning, I heard the familiar rumble of a state snow plow truck scraping the highway and rumbling past my house. 

That's just 12 hours after I was comfortably standing in my back yard, in shorts and a t-shirt in 70 degree weather, surveying the nice spring green shoots of new growth beginning to emerge from my perennial gardens. 

This is springtime in Vermont, folks

By the way, the 72 degree reading in Burlington on Thursday meant it was the third time it was 70 degrees in Burlington this month. 

 In the 140 or so  years of records in Burlington, this is only the second time we've had three 70s by March 20. The only other time was in 2012.

Spoiler: It's going to be quite awhile before we see it reach 70 degrees around here again. 

Get ready for more rapid weather changes starting this morning and continuing over the next few days. Those abrupt weather changes won't be as extreme as we saw between yesterday and this morning. 

TODAY

As dawn broke, a cold front had passed through Vermont, and as expected,a storm was riding  northward along that front. 

It was still just warm enough for rain in eastern Vermont at dawn but that was poised to change to snow too.

It was snowing steadily west of the Green Mountains, and the roads were dicey for your morning commute. Those iffy roads are spreading eastward into the rest of Vermont.

But this won't last long at all.

Slow going once again amid snow and blowing
snow this morning on this traffic cam grab
from Interstate 89 in Georgia, Vermont.

As of 7 a.m;, the back edge of the snow was entering the New York side of the Champlain Valley, and that trend will continue eastward into and through Vermont during the morning

This afternoon will look far, far different from this morning. Skies will clear out really quickly, the air will get dry and temperatures should get into the low to mid 40s in many spots.

 It will remain blustery, but the strong early spring sun should melt most if not all the snow that fell this morning. 

After a chilly night, we are in for a changeable Saturday, too

SATURDAY

Temperatures will rise quickly after dawn and for awhile, it will be a nice early spring day. It looks like temperatures will rebound into the upper 40s in cooler towns to the mid-50s in the Champlain Valley.

But clouds will come in ahead of the next cold front during the afternoon. They should be light, but by evening, the temperature will be crashing again.  The light rain showers might change to snow showers, but they won't amount to much.

SUNDAY

Surprisingly, after this morning's rain and snow, and the little tiny bits of precipitation later Saturday,  we could well be facing a bit of another fire hazard day Sunday.

It'll be cold, with highs only in the 30s, and winds will make it feel colder. Strong March sun and humidity levels as low as they can possibly be this time of year will dry things out quickly. If that old old dead grass and brush gets a spark or a carelessly discarded cigarette, you can have a fast-spreading brush fire on your hands

MONDAY

At least at this point, it looks like it's back to snow for your morning commute, so plan another iffy Monday trip to work just like this morning is.  Chances are the snow will change to rain during the day as it warms up.

I don't expect a huge amount of snow and rain out of this,  so don't count on a mega-snowstorm or a flood. It won't happen. It'll just be an inclement late March day, typical of the season.  

NEXT WEEK

The rest of next week looks to be on on the chilly side with occasional risks for light rain and snow.  But at this point - unless there's a surprise - it looks like we'll have no big storms until at least March 31.  

Weeks Long Siege Of Miserable Humidity In Vermont Reaches Its Merciful End Today

Some glimpses of blue sky visible to the north of St,
Albans, Vermont this morning as a cold front is
starting to end a long siege of humidity in Vermont

UPDATE 1 PM

It looks like that slow cold front in Vermont, temporarily stalled out as of now across the middle of the state, is causing a few more problems than we thought it would

I guess you need a parting shot for the siege of awful summer weather we've had, right?

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center said it would likely issue a severe thunderstorm watch for much of southern and central New England and a large chunk of eastern New York.

This likely storm watch would likely cover Vermont from Rutland and White River Junction south.

Unfortunately, we're also going to have to watch central and southern Vermont for those dreaded locally heavy downpours, which could caused a couple instances of flash flooding. The threat of localized flash flooding in Vermont's southern four counties has, in my opinion increased some with the latest forecast.

A flood watch that had been in effect in Massachusetts in New Hampshire is still in effect, but has been expanded to cover Bennington and Windham counties in Vermont.

No guarantee any high water will actually hit, but it's once again something to watch.  Rain was also spreading into northern Vermont, but it shouldn't fall heavily enough there to worry about.

I think New Hampshire is really under the gun for severe storms and flash floods today, even more so than southern Vermont. 

A few days ago, it appeared that we'd have this kind of potential trouble. Then updated forecasts said nah, never mind. But this being the onerous Summer of 2023, we had to have one more annoying storm threat, huh?

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

 Yesterday, as expected was a torrid one, with highs in the 80s to near 90 with impressive humidity to boot.  

Burlington, Vermont managed a high of 91 degrees. That's the seventh 90 degree reading this year.  

It won't hit 90 degrees again for quite awhile, so I hope you enjoyed it. There's actually a chance that it was the last 90 of the year, given the upcoming weather pattern. 

The long siege of humidity that has engulfed Vermont since late June is over, as of later today. 

We thankfully missed out on some violent thunderstorms that hit not far over the border in extreme eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. 

The Ottawa area, which has been repeatedly battered by big storms this summer, had a massive hail and wind storm.  Multitudes of golf ball sized hailstones rained down and high winds tore down plenty of trees amid tornado warnings during the afternoon.

The storms fizzled as they approached the International border though, so no trouble for us. 

THE BIG CHANGE

Today is a transition day as the cold front that inspired those big Ottawa/Quebec storms sinks through Vermont.

Although there is a remote chance of a strong storm in southern Vermont today, we won't have anything like what blasted through Ottawa yesterday. 

Instead, a disturbance riding along that slow southbound cold front will make rain break out during the day. It'll be lightest north, and heavier south. Though there's an outside chance of a downpour torrential enough to cause a bit of a flash flood risk in far southern Vermont, this is falling well short of the most worrisome storm of the summer.

There are some flood watches up just to our south and east in New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. 

The cold front had already made it through far northern Vermont as of 7 a.m. and I'm beginning to feel a change in the air up her in St. Albans. Despite the likely rain, you'll notice a slow decline in the humidity today.  Though it should remain sticky pretty much until evening in the southern part of the state.

Tomorrow still looks gorgeous, with sunshine, low humidity and the coolest weather we've seen since  mid-June. The break from our long humid spell will be noticeably over, Most of the upcoming week looks to be on the cool side for our transition into August. 

In fact, the long term forecast well into the month is balanced toward cooler than normal weather. That doesn't mean we'll avoid warm, humid days. In fact, a brief rainy, humid spell seems like it's in the cars for next Friday or so before it cools off again. 

I don't entirely trust long range predictions - I tend to suspect anything looking ahead more than five days. But if the extend forecasts that are out now are in any way accurate, we might be facing the coolest August in years here in Vermont.

That's not saying much, since most Augusts in the past decade were quite a bit on the warm side. We won't come close to experiencing a historically chilly August.