Remarkable Vermont Temperature Crash On Friday, But It Won't Last

Some interesting patterns in an otherwise dull gray
overcast in St. Albans, Vermont late Friday afternoon,
Friday was much cooler than the most of the rest of
our sticky, steamy July was. 

Well, Friday was a change, that's for sure.  

Unlike most of Vermont's July, which featured a lot of warmth and humidity, it got downright chilly.  Especially under the rain clouds in southern Vermont. Not that I'm complaining. 

Looking at the receipts, the change in the weather was striking. Especially for summer, when there's usually not a lot of variability in temperatures. 

Springfield, Vermont really has had a southern flavored summer so far, enduring 15 days so far this year of 90 degrees or more,. 

On Thursday. it was 90 degrees at 4 p.m. in Springfield.  Exactly 24 hours hours later, at 4 p.m. Friday, it was 62 degrees. That 28-degree drop must have been a shock to the system.

Over in Bennington, it was only 61 degrees at 4 p.m. In Vermont this time of year, it should be at least 80 degrees at that hour. 

As expected, the heavier rain Friday was confined to far southern Vermont. Bennington picked up 1.19 inches, and Woodford State Park had an inch.

Once you got about 20 miles north of Route 9, precipitation was much lighter. Townsend and Springfield only had a quarter inch of rain. Rutland had only 0.02 inches. North of that, just sprinkles. 

Away from Vermont, also as expected, there was flash flooding in the Mid-Atlantic states. Like there's been a zillion times this summer, it seems. 

Back here in the Green Mountain state, skies cleared even faster than expected Friday evening, so temperatures were able to get pretty cool by this morning, especially along and north of Route 4, where it was clear the longest. Most of northern and central Vermont was down in the 40s. 

The perennial cold spot Saranac Lake, New York was down to 37 degrees. Burlington was at 51 degrees at 6 a.m. today, the coldest temperature there since June 3.

COOL AT FIRST  

The peak of summer is over, and temperatures Friday and this morning seem to prove it. But summer is not done with us, at all.  We have a lot of warm air to get to. Eventually. 

The dreariness we saw Friday is gone. It's back to bright sunshine, which will boost afternoon readings back up into the 70s.  That's still a little cool for this time of year, but not be that much. A few puffy clouds will grace our  blue skies. today, so it's be pretty out there.  We'll only have a  faint hint of that persistent wildfire smoke from Canada.

Dawn Saturday will be just as chilly as this morning. Clear skies, light winds and dry air will ensure that. But another sunny day Saturday will bring temperatures well into the 70s to near 80. The wildfire smoke might be a little more noticeable than today, but not so thick as to be a major health hazard. 

Saturday night will be another cool, comfortable night.

THE WARMUP

This cool spell will be short-lived, much shorter than forecasts from about a week ago indicated. This is one persistent summer.

By Sunday, we'll be back in the 80s as that cool, big high pressure moves off to our east a little. Every day next week will be in the 80s for most of us. There could even be a 90 degree reading in hot spots like Springfield. 

Usually, in the summer, once big high pressure passes to the east, both temperatures and humidity surges

This time the temperature will definitely go up, but the humidity will stay pretty reasonable. Dew points near 50 today and tomorrow will rise to near 60 or starting Sunday and stay that way going through at least Wednesday. That's vaguely humid if you're sensitive to it, but it's nowhere near oppressive and awful.

The humidity won't go up much because the strong high pressure that's causing this long period of sunshine and dry weather will stay near Quebec and New England. It won't have a good connection to the tropical Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico. 

Forest Fires

The long stretch of mostly sunny, dry weather, with minimal chances of showers, means we'll have to watch for forest fire hazards. We already had a forest fire in Fair Haven last week that covered at least 12 acres. The was a small brush fire in Alburgh a couple days ago. 

I have a feeling that some errant camp fires or backyard burns or flicked cigarettes could touch off a few more fires in and around Vermont this week. It won't be anything cataclysmic like what's going on in Canada, but we still don't need to add to the problem. 

There are signs we could see a period of hot, and notably more humid air toward the end of next week. That's a long way off and things could still change. 

But it'll be awhile before we see the cool, brisk and crisp breezes of autumn. 

It won't be  until later next week that the humidity will be able to surge in.

Vermont Mountains Blasted With Snow, Western Valleys Meh. Power Outages, Valley Snow To Increase

My sister in Shrewsbury, Vermont sent out
this photo early this afternoon, when there
was "only" a foot of snow on the ground.
They've gotten quite a bit more since then.

 This has been by any measure a weird weather day in Vermont.  

Some spots, especially east facing slopes of the southern and central Green Mountains, experienced a day long humdinger of a snowstorm. Valleys of western Vermont, meanwhile, had a mild day with just a little wet snow that didn't really amount to much. 

Things should get more interesting in the western valleys overnight. More on that in a minute. 

The contrast in weather in Vermont is stunning. Here's an example: Rutland, Vermont spend the day hovering just above freezing with a few wet snowflakes flying all day. They had 1.5 inches of new snow in Rutland, at an elevation of about 780 feet.k

 Just eight miles to the southeast of Rutland, in the mountains of Shrewsbury, 16.5 inches of snow had piled up by late afternoon, and it was still snowing to beat the band up there. Shrewsbury is only about 1,000 feet higher than Rutland, with an elevation of about 1,800. 

Also, Shrewsbury is exposed to the very wet air coming  in off the Atlantic Ocean to produce all that snow. The Green Mountains were blocking the moisture from Rutland. 

Here in St. Albans, at my 650 foot elevation, we got about 1.2 inches of snow this morning, then it started melting. Then we had a dusting, which melted, another dusting, which melted, etc. etc.   In total, I'm about up to 1.8 inches. My driveway is almost bare, but grassy surfaces have three inches of new snow. Up the hill from my place at 800 feet, the snow is noticeably deeper.

As a harbinger of what is to come tonight, it does look like the snow in St. Albans is starting to stick a little more as of 5:45 p.m. 

It was like this all up and down the state of Vermont, though northern Vermont hasn't gotten as much snow as Shrewsbury, at least not yet. 

POWER OUTAGES

The big, big issue tonight in Vermont and surrounding areas will be power failures from the wet, heavy snow. As of 5:25 p.m., about 5,400 Vermont homes and businesses were without power, and that number was rising. As snow continues to fall overnight, and spreads north and into western Vermont valleys, those power outages could really get out of hand. 

Power failures are starting with as little as four inches of snow accumulation, which gives you an idea how wet and soggy this stuff is. 

If your power is still on this evening, it would be a terrific idea to charge your devices. Even though there's not much snow at my place in St. Albans yet, I just plugged in my phone to be on the safe side.

EXPANDING SNOW

Meanwhile, this is a Vermont Agency of Transportation
web cam image of Route 7 in Bennington, Vermont at 
mid-afternoon. Quite a contrast in weather across
the Green Mountain State today!

Bands of snow were lifting south to north across Vermont late this afternoon, as they have been all day, especially east

The computer models continue to insist that bands of snow on the northwest flank of the storm will set up shop over Vermont tonight with heavier snow in places that missed out. 

The heaviest snow is forecast to come to northwestern Vermont a little after midnight. Since the temperature won't drop much tonight, the snow will be wet. That's why I brought up those power outages.  

ROAD CONDITIONS

As of 5:30, main roads were fine and dandy in the low elevations of western Vermont. Just wet. But it will keep getting worse overnight in western Vermont, especially north of Rutland. 

Areas in the snow reported lots and lots of crashes, slide offs, skids and accidents. Too many to keep track of, really. 

Other areas, they were almost impassable with wet, heavy snow. In some cases on more rural roads, branches and trees have started falling onto roads, which makes things more challenging, to say the least.

Anyone that's been getting heavy snow ought not venture out. Not only are the roads bad, do you really want to risk a tree falling on you?  Didn't think so.

ACCUMULATIONS

As you might expect with such a warm, wimpy day, expected snow totals have been trimmed back to four to eight inches in the Champlain Valley and on the valley floor along and near Route 7 from Brandon to Bennington. 

Not surprisingly, the big winners of this storm look to be the summits and east slopes of the Green Mountains from roughly Killington south. Many of these places will receive two feet of snow, with a few spot reports of 30 inches not out of the question by Saturday afternoon. 

Northern Vermont has lagged southern areas somewhat, but we do have reports of a decent slap of six to 10 inches of snow at mid and high elevations in central and northern Vermont by late this afternoon.

Official forecasts call for nearly a foot of snow in many high elevations of northern Vermont. But I wouldn't be surprised to see a few spot locations ski country making it to two feet by Saturday afternoon. 

AFTER TONIGHT

The snow is still expected to taper off Saturday, especially in the valleys. It'll keep going in the mountains at least into Sunday night, but at a much lighter rate than it did during the day today. This really is a bonanza for the ski areas. 

I'm not even going to get into what goes on beyond tomorrow, but it does look like a relatively cold, active pattern with more chances of snow between now and Christmas. 

Oh, I have another contrast to highlight. We had a lot of differences between low and high elevations today. We also have a big contrast between Vermont's weather today and exactly one year ago. On this date in 2021, Burlington reached a record high of 61 degrees.  I was doing yard work in a t-shirt in St. Albans just a year ago.