First Real Autumn Cold Front Came Through Sunday To Help Us Flip The Calendar

A last blast of summer sun as an autumn-like cold front
approached St. Albans Bay, Vermont late Sunday afternoon.

 Sure, I've already unofficially declared summer over, but if you want to really mark the change of seasons, look for what I consider the first autumn cold front of the season.  

It's the one above all cold fronts that mark the real shift of seasons. It's the one that convinces you that summer is really over. 

This year's First Cold Front Of Autumn came through Sunday evening, at least in my opinion.  These autumn fronts are sort of an annual rite of passage, if you will. 

Oh, sure, we'll have a few more days in which temperatures will feel like summer. But the consistent heat of summer now feels like a thing of the past. 

The result of yesterday's cold front  is a crisp Labor Day today, with highs only in the 60s, perfect to hunt apples at your friendly area orchard. Tonight, the first frost advisories of the season go into effect in the Adirondacks and far corners of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, way up by Island Pond, Canaan and Bloomfield. Those are traditional Vermont cold spots anyway. 

The timing of this year's autumn cold front was exquisite. Right during the Labor Day weekend, which most people consider the unofficial end of summer anyway.  Most of Sunday was hard core summer, with temperatures going right up there into the 80s with moderately high humidity. A lovely beach day. 

Until the cold front arrived in northern Vermont very late in the afternoon and evening. 

Up at St. Albans Bay, the first cool breezes arrived well before the darkest clouds and showers came through. The wind abruptly shifted from southwest to northwest, creating some confused looking waves on the lake. 

As the temperature dropped through the 80s and 70s, the line at the creemee stand across the street got shorter and shorter. A few brief final bursts of sun caused the trees and the algae-filled bay to briefly glow tropical green, as if summer was trying in vain to hang on. 

Clouds, dropping temperatures and showers put an end
to a possibly last summer weather day of the year in
St. Albans Bay, Vermont Sunday. 

The clouds coming in were a summer/autumn hybrid too. Some towered up into those puffy thunderheads, typical of summer. But those were quickly replaced by the bland overcast of the colder seasons as the rain approached. 

After fairly brief, sort of heavy rain showers,  the front passed, and a last burst of now cool evening sun burst through, setting off dramatic rainbows. The rainbows almost like a fireworks display of sorts, saying goodbye to Summer, 2024. 

There's a decent chance that the 86 degree temperature we saw in Burlington Sunday could be the warmest we'll see until May or even June if next spring proves chilly. 

More cold fronts will come in now through winter, bringing ever colder blasts of air as we go through the season. 

For this week, those of us outside the cold hollows will awaken to an autumn like Tuesday morning in which most of us will see dawn temperatures between 38 and 48 degrees.

Tuesday will be another bright, cool-ish day.  Later in the week, it'll try to warm up again almost toward summer levels. But another front and or storm system should cut that balmy air off at the pass.  Next weekend's weather still looks uncertain, but early hints suggest more cool, showery weather by then.  

Still, September is usually a pretty pleasant weather month. The heat of summer is mostly over, but there's still plenty of time to enjoy the outdoors before nasty winter weather hits in a few months. 

Video: Footage of a change of seasons, mostly taken at St. Albans Bay on Sunday. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Another Frost Risk In Vermont Tonight, As If We Need It

Water beads cling to a plant in St. Albans, Vermont 
Wednesday evening after a little rain. A frost risk
tonight and very dry weather will continue to
challenge Vermont gardeners and farmers. 

 Frost advisories are flying for all of Vermont except the Champlain Valley for tonight as another blast of late season Canadian air is now entrenched in the Northeast for another day. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington is awaiting more data today to decide whether or not to expand the advisory into the Champlain Valley, so most of us are at risk. 

This is not what we need, given the apparent extensive damage from last week's frost. 

I'll have much more on that issue in a separate post later this morning. That upcoming post will explain why I suspect at least parts of Vermont will be declared a disaster area because of the freeze damage.

The cold tonight won't be as bad as last week's record setting chill. But with many fruit crops already damaged, this isn't great news. I don't think additional damage will be that severe, at least I hope, as most places should stay above about 30 degrees. 

But remember: It doesn't have to officially get down to 32 degrees for frost to damage sensitive plants. Temperatures are typically measured five feet or so off the ground. On clear, calm nights like we anticipate tonight, it can be much colder around our toes than it is around our head and chest. It could be 35 degrees where your arms are checking the thermometer and 32 degrees down where your tomato starts are freezing. 

The sun re-appears Wednesday evening in St. Albans, 
Vermont after a cold front dropped about a quarter
inch of rain, which isn't much. Next up: A frost
risk in Vermont tonight and more dry weather. 

For most of us, this will very likely be the last frost and freeze of the season, except in the normally coldest hollows. Which will probably have a frost tomorrow night, too. But the rest of us will be safe.

If you get through tonight's frost risk, everything will be fine in your garden or on your farm, except for more looming dry weather. 

The rain that came with yesterday's cold front wasn't all that impressive. Most of us got a quarter inch or less. It amounted to a small sip, but not the drenching we need. I even noticed last evening the soil was still dry under the thickest foliage in my garden. 

Things will continue to dry out rather ominously.  Absolutely no rain is in the forecast through next Tuesday, and probably beyond. 

We are also set to start a strong warming trend.  By Sunday, temperatures should top 80 degrees, and by Tuesday or Wednesday, we could see some upper 80s. 

The sun will stay out through this time (except at night, of course) and humidity will stay pretty low, which maximizes drying. It's going to be pretty dusty around here by the early and middle parts of next week. 

I still think we might be headed for a drought. We're not there yet, but we'd better have some nice soakers as we get into June. 

Frost Advisory In Vermont As We Get Clipped A Bit By Large Cold Spell

My lilacs in St. Albans, Vermont starting to make an 
attempt at blooming, despite some damage from a 
hard freeze in late April. A frost advisory is up
for much of Vermont tonight, but won't be intense
enough to cause further damage to lilacs.
However, sensitive plants should be covered up
or brought indoors this evening

 A heads up for gardeners and such in Vermont and surrounding areas:

There's a frost advisory up for most of the state tonight. 

This won't be a hard, killing freeze by any stretch of the imagination, though the usual cold spots will probably get below freezing.  

Areas near Lake Champlain are not covered by tonight's frost advisory, because current forecasts have temperatures staying warm enough to avoid frosts there. We hope. 

Temperatures elsewhere in Vermont will be marginal, and frost could easily form as skies clear overnight and winds slacken off. If you already planted tomatoes or other really sensitive stuff in your garden, a dope slap to you!

It's too early. You should have waited. Cover them up if you have them out there. For those who are hardening off their sensitive plants, bring them indoors this evening, just in case. Large scale crops, like apples, should be fine as the cold will not be intense enough to cause problems with blooms or anything like that. 

After tonight, you should be fine for awhile as it looks like a bit of a warming trend will set in.

The risk of frost in mid-May around Vermont as you might well know, is pretty common. It's rare not to have a night or two with a frost risk this time of year .

It's been as low as 25 degrees in "tropical" Burlington as late as May 31 and frosts away from Lake Champlain sometimes happen in early June. 

This cool weather is part of a large cold snap that affected much of the northern tier of the nation.  It snowed in northern Pennsylvania Sunday, and Colorado got a late season snowfall yesterday. 

Frost advisories and local freeze warnings covered areas extending from Nebraska to Maine.  Just like in Vermont, all these areas are expected to warm up over the next few days, minimizing the risk of frosts heading into the weekend. 

Freezing levels were low enough in the atmosphere yesterday so that some of the showers that developed in Vermont Tuesday contained pea sized hail. I got pelted briefly by such hail while working in a South Burlington garden, and there were at least a dozen reports of the hail elsewhere in Vermont. 

All the hail was brief and the hailstones were all much too small to cause any damage.