Weird Bright Light To Appear Over Vermont Today (We Hope)

The way it used to be.  A deep blue sky, with a few
puffy clouds as decorations, in Georgia, Vermont on
July 28, 2021.  This used to happen quite frequently
in Vermont but lately we've seen none of this.
Thankfully, the sun will make a grand appearance,
at least for a little while, this week

We awoke in Vermont to another gloomy morning this Sunday, with overcast and patches of fog.

At least it stopped raining in most places. At least for now. 

Given the conditions over the past week or more you might be alarmed at what you will see today. I'm here to assure you there's nothing to be afraid of. 

Later this morning or this afternoon, many of us will see a blinding light in the sky.  Don't worry, as long as you don't look directly at it, you won't get hurt. 

The rare phenomenon you are about to see is called the sun.  It's very common in most other parts of the world, and we used to see it frequently here in Vermont.  You just might not remember since it's been since May 16 since many of us have seen even glimpses of it. 

You'll notice this bright light - the sun - has a warming effect. Instead of being in the 40s to near 50 all day, this sun will bring temperatures into the 50s to near 60.  That's still much cooler than normal for this time of year, but it's a little better than it's been.

The ever-present chance of showers in Vermont will remain.  Not everyone will get them. The best chances of showers are in northern and western Vermont this afternoon and early evening.

MONDAY AND BEYOND

That bright light in the sky sun will assert itself even more on Memorial Day.  Much of the day will be at least partly sunny.  Temperatures will rise further into the 60s, which is only slightly cooler than average for this time of year. 

There is a low, but not zero chance of a brief shower.  You can't escape 'em. Most places won't see them though. 

Tuesday and Wednesday look great! Temperatures should get well into the 70s both days, which is near or very slightly warmer than normal for a change. Both days should feature quite a bit of sun. At this point the chance of showers both days is nearly non-existent. 

SATURATED

We should thank our lucky stars that no big, long-lasting downpours are in the offing for the next few days. The ground is so soaked right now that it would only take roughly two inches of rain in six hours to set off flash flooding. 

That amount of rain in that time period happens fairly frequently during bouts of summer thunderstorms.

Relatively dry weather until at least Thursday means that - hopefully - by the end of the week, the ground will have dried sufficiently so it would take a little more rain than that to set off an flooding.

The forecast is uncertain for the end of the week but it looks unsettled. I don't know yet of the rain will start Thursday night, or postpone until Friday or even Friday night. The computer models are disagreeing.

At least for now, those computer models are mostly agreeing that the end of the week rain shouldn't be torrential enough to set of any flooding. 

But as always, stay tuned for updates.

Hoping This Nor'easter Is Vermont's Last Mention Of Snow Until Autumn

If you're bummed by the forecast of a little snow in the 
mountains the next couple days, it could be worse.
This is Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks
on May 26, 2013.

After a mediocre day of weather on Wednesday - I guess the best we can hope for lately - we're back to the deep chill and rain. And snow. 

The snow is still forecast to be limited to the highest elevations of Vermont and New Hampshire, but it's a little disconcerting to have this issue on the cusp of Memorial Day.

True, this kind of thing has happened before this time of year, but it doesn't make it any easier. 

THE FORECAST

For the vast majority of us in Vermont who will not see snow, we get to endure another three day spell of temperatures reminiscent of late March than late May.  

The dampness and mostly light rain and chilly easterly breezes will add to the misery. We are still forecast to have near record low high temperatures today. 

Burlington won't set the record today. It was in the low 50s before dawn and the record low high for the date is 49 back in 1917. Monpelier so far has tied its record low high for the date of 46, but it will probably get a little above that today, so no record.

If anything, though, Friday might be even a bit chillier. 

At least here in Vermont, forecasters have backed off a little on precipitation amounts. It'll be close to an inch in far southern parts of the state and maybe a third of an inch in the far northwest.

The nor'easter will be especially felt in eastern New England, where one to three inches of windswept rain is due, along with gusts along the shore to 55 mph, where minor coastal flooding is likely.  

Back here in Vermont, this will be a long lasting affair, starting today and going through Saturday. I think that makes this Saturday the ninth in a row with at least some rain. The stubborn storm will stall near eastern Maine and only grudgingly start to move away on Sunday. 

The snow, such as it is, will hit all the peaks of the Green Mountains but focus on central and southern Vermont where the precipitation will be heavier. I still think some of the summits down there will see up to three or four inches of snow. 

Worst case scenario, a few wet snowflakes will make it down to as low as 2,000 feet above sea level

COULD BE WORSE

If you think this is bad, harken back to May 2013.  On Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27, the mountains of Vermont, New Hampshire and New York got absolutely buried in snow. 

Mount Mansfield had 13.2 inches of snow. Jay Peak accumulated 18 inches. Mount Marcy over in the Adirondacks received three feet of snow 

The snow at times ventured down to valley floors. Snowflakes fell in elevations as low as 750 feet in Vermont, and accumulations were reported at elevations of 1,500 feet. 

Right before the the May, 2013 snow developed, in some cases serious floods hit parts of Vermont. Homes were damaged in some spots, and several roads closed. About 7.5 inches of rain poured down on Burlington between May 21 and 26,

And you thought this May was wet?

The 2013 late May storms set the stage for repeated flash floods in Vermont through June and the first half of July that year.

By the way, the latest in the season Burlington has ever seen snowflakes is on May 31, 1945.

So you see, this latest bout of cold rain and mountain snow won't be setting any records. Cold comfort, indeed.  

Constant Vermont Gloom Continues On; Freezing Drizzle To Return?

Those black specs in this photo are crows flying beneath
yet another day of thick overcast above St. Albans,
Vermont this afternoon.

As I write this at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, the sun - whatever that is - will set at 5 p.m., continuing Vermont's long stretch of exceptional sunshine-free drabness and gloom. 

Some of us optimists out there had pinned our hopes on bits of dry air Tuesday and today that would have created a few brief breaks in the clouds and thus glimpses of sun.

But nope! The low level moisture in the atmosphere stayed put, and so did the low, gray overcast. 

I don't have the stats to prove it but this has to be close to the cloudiest January, and possibly cloudiest winter so far in Vermont. 

The last time most of us saw any sun was on the morning of January 22. By my count, 22 days this January were either completely overcast or very nearly so. 

We're going to endure more dreary weather for a couple more days. 

But here's a tidbit I found in this afternoon's forecast discussion from the National Weather Service office in South Burlington: "Finally for the weekend, we promise, you'll see the sun!"

I'll get into that in a moment. 

First, the dreary outlook for Thursday. Forecasters have a worse outlook on tomorrow than they did. They had initially told us there's be some light mid and high elevation snow in Vermont with rain mixed in down in the valleys.

At least the higher spots would get their snow cover freshened up a bit right? 

Not so fast. 

Now, the updated forecast for Thursday afternoon has trended in the direction of drizzle and our, um, beloved freezing drizzle or, frizzle as I call it. 

The "frizzle" will be very light and spotty and confined pretty much from the Green Mountains east. It won't cause enormous problems, but those icy patches on untreated roads will return, much like we had to endure during most of last week. 

The freezing drizzle will start to trend toward snow showers on Friday but those snow showers will amount to almost nothing. A few mountain locations could get a whole inch of snow.

SUNSHINE?

Now, that promised sunshine. 

I'm skeptical, but there are signs the sun could break through Saturday and Sunday. A high pressure system is forecast to feed dry air from Canada toward us over the weekend. Also, high pressure areas create sinking air, which tends to erode cloud cover.

The National Weather Service isn't promising wall to wall sunshine over the weekend. Instead, they're saying skies should go partly cloudy. That means periods of sun and sizable gaps in the clouds revealing big patches of blue sky.

We shall see.

If we do see that weekend sunshine, chances are it won't last long. A cold front from northeastern Canada and a storm far off the East Coast will probably throw enough moisture back into northern New England to cloud over the skies next week. 

 

Quick Friday Evening Vermont Update: Just Damp/Foggy/Icky Overnight

Traffic makes its way along Interstate 89 in Colchester,
Vermont this morning amid a cold rain, fog and gloom.

 Luckily, today's storm wasn't too, too bad. It was just an ugly winter day. 

The areas of freezing rain weren't that big, and didn't accumulate much, at least in Vermont. 

As expected, the rain changed to snow in mostly the Northeast Kingdom, and it didn't amount to much.

Most of us ended up with a miserable, cold, soaking rain. Many of us ended up with close to a half inch of rain.

The precipitation is over for the night. Except perhaps patches of drizzle, freezing drizzle or a few wet snowflakes. 

All of those winter weather advisories we had earlier have been canceled. 

For tonight, the main problems will be that seemingly ever-present fog. And patches of ice on roads, especially east of the Greens.

The bigger of the two problem will be the fog. It was already pretty dense in several spots as of 5 p.m. With light winds and lots of moisture, that fog will linger, and reduce visibility on the roads. You'll need to slow it down tonight.  

Use your low beams, not the high beams.  The high beams will blind you mostly, but also people coming the other way through the fog. 

Temperatures will fall to near freezing, so we might have issues with ice on untreated surfaces again tonight through early tomorrow. 

Saturday is looking murky.  But almost precipitation free, with just possible a patch or two of drizzle or wet snowflakes. 

That potential storm Sunday or Sunday night is still trending too far south to bother us much, but there's still an opportunity for it to curve north.  Meteorologists are monitoring trends with that one. 

A Damp, Flaky Vermont Forecast; Incredibly Raw Start To Week

An interlude of sunshine Saturday lit up these lingering
golden leaves in St. Albans, Vermont, but the gloom is
back and so is the chill. 

 The cold front that ended our long of warm autumn weather came through as scheduled Saturday.

It gave us a brief window in which the persistent clouds over the past two or three weeks gave way to bright blue skies during the afternoon.  

Now, this Sunday morning, we're back to the gloom we've been under, and it's a lot cooler out there. 

The cold front temporarily stalled to our south, just as expected. A couple little storms are rippling along the front, or are about to. 

Last gasps of warm air are trying to ride up and over the front and the cold air behind it, created another round of dull overcast that will last through Monday.

To add to the chilly misery, occasional rain will be the rule today through most of Monday. Some of the rain will be white - as in snow. 

The first wave of precipitation was trying to move in by 8 or 9 a.m. this Sunday morning, but dry air near the surface was drying up the rain as it fell, so it was initially not making it to the ground. The rain will be spotty north, and some places have a shot of staying generally dry, if dark and gloomy. 

Actually, the rain is probably in the form of snow way up high, near summit levels around here. It's changing to rain on the way down. But that evaporation is cooling the air further, so when the a little rain finally does make it to the ground, some people might find a few wet snowflakes mixing in. 

It would just be a few snowflakes, and mostly confined to north-central Vermont away from Lake Champlain and the Northeast Kingdom.

This one isn't much, but this is the first of I'm sure many
National Weather Service/South Burlington snow
forecast maps you'll see this winter. As you can see
higher elevations, at least are in for a little snow
now through late night Monday. 

The precipitation might wane a bit this afternoon, but really pick up and become steady overnight. 

Rain and snow will never come down particularly heavy overnight and Monday, but it will make things sopping wet again. 

Rain or melted snow will probably amount to too much - about a half inch north to a little under an inch far south in Vermont. 

 This will vault Burlington into the top ten list of wettest Octobers. We've already established it will among the top ten warmest, so yeah, this month has indeed been weird, in case you haven't noticed. 

You also see I'm mentioning snow in this outlook.   Higher and even some mid elevations, mainly above 2,000 feet or so, might expect a slushy coating to an inch of snow from this late tonight and Monday morning. Some more wet flakes might  make it to valley floors. 

There's always a chance this could over-perform, too. The National Weather Service in South Burlington has a nifty winter weather page that, among many other things, gives percent chances of different snow totals. For instance, Island Pond has a 59 percent chance of seeing 0.1 inches of snow.

There's a low chance, it things turn out right, that even the Champlain Valley gets involved. St. Albans has a 22 percent chance of at least 0.1 inches of snow, and Burlington has an 18 percent chance. Bad odds if you're a gambler, but still, interesting. 

This snow isn't weird for the very end of October, but it's a reality check for those of us who were lulled into the never ending summer the past couple of months. 

I don't see any signs of a big warmup anytime soon. There might even be some snow showers around Wednesday. We're lucky that a nor'easter that could have brought accumulating snow to us midweek is going way too far out to sea to bother us. 

It might get vaguely warmer toward the weekend, but not nearly enough to throw open the windows again. 

This type of weather pattern - very typical of November, really - tends to keep the clouds locked into place. Yeah, you'll see glimpses of sun, and maybe even some bonafide partly sunny skies at times toward Thursday and Friday.  

But for those of you with solar patterns, you still won't be making tons of electricity for yourselves anytime soon. But that's typical for this time of year. 

Bulk Of Vermont Rain Over, But Gloom To Hang Tough, Relative Warmth Too

An unwelcome effect of the exceptionally warm 
weather in Vermont since after Christmas: Daffodil 
shoots poking up in my St. Albans, Vermont gardens.

UPDATE 2 PM

It looks like some sort of weak cold front has come into far northern Vermont from Quebec.

South of Route 2, it's still pretty mild and cloudy.

North of the front, temperatures have dropped and patchy fog has developed.

It also looks like a weak southerly flow is causing air to rise up and over that dense cold air in far northern Vermont. 

Rising air can mean precipitation, and patches of light rain and drizzle have broken out.  

It could get cold enough in a few spots for that patchy rain/drizzle to freeze.  I notice the temperature has fallen to 33 in Highgate, so it's close.  The temperature in Montreal has fallen all day and is now down to 23 degrees with freezing drizzle.

So, turns out I'm not doing hard work in my snow-free St. Albans yard this afternoon. I'm also glad I finished driving out doing errands before the temperature started dropping.  Watch out for patchy ice on untreated roads along and north of Route 2 for the rest of the day. Also, drive slowly and make sure your low beam headlights are on in the fog across the north if you are driving.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION 

It's as if the sun had disappeared from the cosmos.

Vermont remains solidly stuck under clouds.  It's been cloudy since New Year's Eve, with only a few breaks. The gloom thickened up later on Tuesday and has held firm since. And if the forecasts are right, we're going to deal with it for awhile yet.  

But the sun will come out. If not tomorrow, then over the weekend. 

There's even a glimmer of hope for this afternoon. We could see a glimpse or two of sun in that short window between noon and sunset.

The main storm with slogged through last night with its rain, sometimes on the heavy side. As updated forecasts indicated last night, we thankfully have very little if any ice to report. It was just a cold, drenching rain. 

Bad for the ski slopes, good for today's morning commute.

An exception to the no ice regime is the Northeast Kingdom, where enough cold air filtered in to drop temperatures down to freezing. I bet there's some slick spots on the roads near towns like Island Pond. 

It looks like the western Champlain Valley in New York had some freezing rain, too. Plattsburgh was down to 32 degrees during a good part of last night's rainfall.

One last slug of rain before dawn today marked the passage of a weak warm front of sorts.  That means, especially west of the Green Mountains, it's going to be a bit warmer than forecast this afternoon.

It was already 40 degrees in Burlington as of 8 a.m. so I wouldn't be surprised if it gets up to 45 or so this afternoon. Especially if there's any thin spots in the overcast.  Chiller air is trapped in eastern Vermont, so it might not get out of the 30s there.

I also have to say something about the weird temperatures in Burlington yesterday. Since the cloud cover was so thick and the air mass didn't change at all, there was only a two degree difference between the high and low temperature  - 37 and 35 degrees.

It's very, very rare to have such a slight range in temperature in one day. Normally, there's a 15 degree range between low and high temperatures this time of year.

Going forward, it looks like we'll be pestered by bits and pieces of light rain, light snow, perhaps a patch or two of freezing drizzle, and lots of clouds and murky weather into Saturday.  

The precipitation won't amount to all that much. There could be a slick spot or two on the roads. And the mountains could see a couple inches of snow.  That's not much, but anything will help up there at this point. 

Temperatures will trend cooler on Sunday, allowing ski areas to make some snow. Overall, though, it should stay warmer than normal at least through Wednesday. Not as warm as it's been, but still, most of us will have daytime temperatures above freezing - except on Sunday.

There are signs it could turn colder during the second half of next week. Not extremely cold, but perhaps something close to normal for January. 

Snow lovers are out of luck for now. The latest atmospheric river to slam California won't do anything for us. It will yield a weak storm that will pass by well to our south probably on Monday.  It won't affect us. 

Video: Sights And Sounds From Vermont's First Snowfall Of The Season

Vermont's first snowfall of the season ended in a gloomy note
as this still from the video I took shows. There's some 
subtle beauty in the darkness of November, though

After a truly bizarre, super warm start to November in Vermont, we finally had a bit of normalcy in the Green Mountain State on Wednesday.  

As we've been reporting on, the first real snowfall of the season came through Vermont.  

It was a completely normal storm for this time of year, with about the amount of snow you'd expect from a snowfall this time of year. This first snowfall came at about the average time of year.

This being November,  the weather was also super typical for Vermont as the bulk of the snow tapered off in the afternoon.

November is famous for being gloomy, dark, foggy and slushy, as temperatures during the day are often a little above freezing. We had all of those things Wednesday. It sounds awful, but there is a kind of quiet beauty to that half melted snow, the gray skies, the dark trees, the mist and the sprinkles. 

As I usually do, I made a quick video of our journey through the first snow of the season. Yes, there will be plenty more snowfalls, but the first one is a little special.

So, click on this link if you don't see the video image below. If you do see that video image below, click on that. 

Vermont's First Snowfall Of The Season Pretty Much Over; November Gloom Takes Over

The snow ended by afternoon, leaving us fog, sprinkles,
wet snow flakes, gloom, and soggy snow underfoot.

 Well, that worked out pretty much as expected.  

Most of Vermont received anywhere between one and five inches of snow today, with the vast majority of us in the two or three inch range. 

Actually, the highest total I saw so far today is 4.4 inches in Fletcher, but the latest list was compiled before it had stopped snowing everywhere. 

That's a pretty typical mid-November snowfall for Vermont.

Burlington came in with an even three inches of snow.  The record highest snowfall for the date in Burlington is 13 inches in 1906, so you see we missed that by a long shot. 

The snow was enough to cause the usual first storm of the season messes. Sections of some Vermont roads were shut down by crashes, including Route 15 in Cambridge and Route 78 in Alburgh. Motorist also dealt with a jack knifed tractor trailer on Interstate 89 northbound near Berlin.  

Also pretty typical of November is the gloom and slush and slop the rest of the day. Temperatures rose to a bit above freezing in most valley areas, turning the snow to slush.  A few rain drops and soggy snow flakes occasionally filtered down under a dark overcast. Dense fog developed in some areas.

November until now had been very oddly sunny, given that it's usually the cloudiest month of the year. Today's gloom was certainly a turn around from the bright, happy state of affairs from earlier in the month. 

Although you'll see glimpses of sun for the next week here and there, expect the clouds to continue. A cold regime in November picks up moisture from still unfrozen Great Lakes and waterways in Ontario and Quebec

As I noted this morning, a massive lake effect snowstorm is gearing up in western New York. Clouds, and some snow showers will make it all the way to Vermont, especially later Thursday through Friday night. We're still looking at some light snow accumulations from the remains of those snow showers late this week. 

By the way, I see no immediate signs of it warming up again. It's going to be cold for quite awhile. 

Three Days Of Murk Yield To Sunny Rest Of Week. Also Whopping Western Heat, Northeast Rain Update

Zinnias brighten a gloomy September afternoon in 
St. Albans, Vermont on Tuesday. Brighter weather
is on the way. 

After three days of murky weather in northern Vermont and a soaking rain in southern parts of the state, we'll gradually go back to sunny, late summer weather until early next week. 

Early this morning, it was already clearing up near the International Border. Here in St. Albans, there were only a few clouds, mostly to the south as of 8 a.m. 

The further south you go in Vermont, the longer it will take today for the clouds to scour out. It'll probably stay cloudy all day in Bennington and Windham counties. 

Despite three days of clouds, some areas of northern Vermont have little to show for it in terms of rain. Burlington collected just 0.12 inches since Sunday, so that doesn't do much for the too-dry conditions. 

Up in St. Albans, my place received a fairly paltry third of an inch.  Montpelier eventually did better, despite a dry Sunday, with 0.7 inches. 

Further south the rain was much better. Rutland had 1.3 inches of rain. Bennington managed to get about an inch of rain out of this episode. Springfield, which has been really dry,  rejoiced in a little over 1.5 inches. 

This was pretty much it for rain for awhile, aside from a possible very isolated light shower tomorrow. Temperatures will warm up to near summer levels late week and the weekend. Nights for some areas will stay above 60 degrees and the warmer valleys will feel toasty in the low 80s Friday through Sunday at least. 

A slow moving, evolving weather pattern might line up Vermont for much needed additional rain during the middle of next week, but that prospect is iffy at best. I guess we'll just have to stay tuned. 

TORRID WEST, SOGGY NORTHEAST

That heat wave in the West peaked in many areas, especially in California with unprecedented hot temperatures. Even hotter than I reported yesterday. 

Downtown Sacramento reached a terrible 116 degrees, its hottest day on record. Other California cities reporting new all-time high temperatures include Santa Rosa, 115 degrees;  Livermore, 116 degrees; Ukiah, 117 degrees and San Jose, 109 degrees

The extreme heat is forecast to continue in northern California through Friday.

Meanwhile, far southern California has a bit of weather whiplash coming. Hurricane Kay is expected to brush agains Mexico's Baja California as it heads north. From there, Kay will keep heading north but weaken as it approaches an area just off the coast on the Mexico/California border.

The storm is expected to throw a huge batch of moisture into areas near and east of San Diego and all the way to the southwest corner of Arizona, in and near Yuma. 

East winds ahead of the storm will probably cause downslope winds that will keep areas near San Diego at record high temperatures through Friday. Then the system's real moisture kicks in, with flooding rains possible Friday night and into the weekend. Rains could spread as far north as Los Angeles.

The rest of California will remain parched and dry.

Much further north, in the northern Rockies, dry lightning and strong winds are creating an incredibly hazardous fire situation today.  Dry lightning is from thunderstorms with little or no rain. Cloud to ground strikes can start many fires, which would then spread rapidly in the erratic and gusty thunderstorm winds. 

In parts of Montana today, winds of up to 60 mph, that dry lightning and super low humidity are making the situation extremely scary.  

Meanwhile, in the Northeast, rain is tapering off after some wild totals, south of Vermont of course. 

Rainfall totals included an incredible 11.3 inches in Cranston, Rhode Island and eight inches in Providence.

Another Messy Holiday Weekend In Vermont?

 Most of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Coast is incredibly murky this morning. Down where I am in temporarily in Bethany Beach, Delaware, it's damp but warm for this time of year, foggy, drizzly but still OK. 

Traffic cam of Interstate 89 in Milton this morning nicely
depicts just how gloomy it is in Vermont.  Not much
improvement is in the immediate forecast.

Back up in Vermont, people there know it's also murky but colder, with fog, freezing fog, a low overcast and general chilly but not frigid gloominess. Sun lovers want to hibernate.  

This state of affairs will continue through New Year's Eve, but at least it's not super cold, or super stormy.

However, my fellow Vermonters look like they will be subjected to freezing rain, ice and blech and schmutz for the second holiday weekend in a row.

At least New Year's Eve is looking fairly safe for travel at this point.

Details are still sketchy on exactly what will come down, but the broad brush is this: A storm system will pass over or very near Vermont Saturday and Sunday.  Depending on its track, we'll get rain, freezing rain, sleet and probably a little snow.

Who gets what and when is still a big open question. Current forecasts have rain on Saturday, but maybe freezing rain north.  It could be anything coming out of the sky on Saturday night and Sunday morning before a sharp cold front Sunday afternoon convincingly turns everything to light snow showers.

Current forecasts have the worst weather Saturday night.  This won't be an epic storm, but is shaping up to be a messy one.  Check back tomorrow for more details, as the National Weather Service and other meteorologists will have to refine and probably change the forecast. 

At this point, the long-advertised turn to typically Vermont style frigid weather is still on schedule, but probably won't last all that long.

After highs in the teens and lows near 0 Monday night, forecasts are trending toward near and above normal temperatures again by the middle of next week. 

Northern Vermont Gets A Welcome Soaking; Southern Vermont Next

By October, Vermont gardens tend to look shabby, but
the colors of lingering flowers and changing leaves
pop out in the gloom and drizzle of a rainy weekend
here in St. Albans, Vermont

 I actually don't mind autumn days like we had in northern Vermont on Saturday. 

It was dark. And overcast. It rained all day. There was fog. It was gloomy.  A great day to get stuff done indoors.  

Today won't be all that much better. Sorry sun lovers!

However, northern Vermont should welcome the rain in particular, as it's still on the dry side, with drought lingering near the International Border.

The rain, while drenching, surely helped ease the drought and dryness, but still wasn't enough to resolve all of the groundwater shortages.   

One unofficial measure of this is the Woof River, which is what we call a small stream that runs past my house in St. Albans.  There's been no water in it for months.  With this rain, there is now the tiniest of trickles in the Woof River, but it's not flowing like it should.   We still need even more rain, on top of the 1.25 inches we've received so far here this weekend. 

Still, it was the style of rain Saturday that definitely helps. Rather than short bursts of downpours that quickly run off, this was a slow, steady wetting that tends to soak in nicely.

The trees are starting to go dormant for the winter, too, so they won't be taking up as much moisture from the ground as they would in late spring and summer. So more of the water will be stored in the ground. We need a few more autumn days like Saturday up here by the Canadian border. 

Though it will stay gloomy, probably through Monday, northern Vermont probably won't get much more rain.  The National Weather Service in South Burlington is thinking maybe a quarter of an inch through tomorrow.

Southern Vermont, which got little or no rain Saturday, will have their turn for a soaking today and tomorrow.

A weather front had stalled over northern Vermont all day Saturday and little disturbances rode northwest to southeast along it, keeping the rain going from the pre-dawn hours Saturday to dawn today. 

That front is now slowly sinking southward, and those pesky little disturbances are still riding along this front. That will aim plenty of rain through the southern half of Vermont. 

That part of Vermont is certainly not suffering from drought after a sopping wet summer.  However, September was drier, so the upshot to all the southern Vermont rain will be.......pretty much nothing. 

The rain  - amounting to more than an inch in several areas - will water any lingering autumn garden plants, and that's about it. Precipitation amounts will fall short of being able to produce any real flooding, so that's good news.

The gloom at first glance might not seem wonderful for those of you who want to go out and view the rapidly developing fall foliage.  But give it a chance. Get out there!  The dark skies really make the colors pop. Those colors almost shimmer in the rain.  Patches of fog add contrast, as do grey clouds and shrouded mountains in the background behind bright red, yellow and orange leaves.

But if you insist on sunshine for your fall foliage, you're in luck. It'll start to clear, Tuesday, and skies will be mainly sunny for most of the rest of the week.  And it will be warm, with daytime highs mid to late week hitting 70 or better in many towns. 

The rain and upcoming sun to me is giving us a classic, gorgeous start to a Vermont October. 

 

January Gloom Rolls On

Thick overcast and a dense freezing fog Tuesday 
morning in St. Albans, Vermont.

January often brings blasts of frigid air to Vermont, as we all know.  

Those subzero cold waves are annoying, but also very dry, so at least you usually get a couple bright, sunny days out of them. A little sun brightens the mood, right?

When Arctic air is lacking, like it is this year, the price you pay is gloom. And we're certainly getting that! 

The last time we got any appreciable sun was back on December 19.  Since then, we've had glimpses of sun, but we've been stuck under a dull overcast. That state of affairs is going to continue, I'm afraid. 

With little change in the weather pattern coming, a temperature inversion is holding strong. That means there's a layer of somewhat warmer air above us.  That's trapping moisture below that air, so we're stuck in the low clouds, and occasional fog, flurries and even a little patchy freezing drizzle. 

There will be virtually no snow accumulation this week in most place. Though I did manage to pick up 0.8 inches of new snow up here in St. Albans, early Wednesday morning. 

The freezing fog we've had out there is starting to create some rime ice on some of the trees. The freezing fog consists of super cooled water droplets that freeze on contact with surfaces. (That's why it might be a little slick underfoot).

The rime ice is light and feathery, so it won't weigh down trees or power lines or anything like that. If the sun were to come out, the rime ice on trees glows gorgeously in the light.  It's beautiful. Get your cameras ready, just in case.

It might be a long wait for any real sun, however. There was a surprise break in the clouds that I could see to my west in the Champlain Valley just after dawn this morning, but now that's filling in with clouds. 

I suppose drier air will try to make a run at us occasionally from high pressure in Quebec between now and the weekend, but it seems that brighter air has odds stacked against it.  Some sun might break through, but it won't amount to much. 

It's not just us, Much of the eastern Great Lakes, northern New York and New England and southeastern Canada have been stuck under the grey skies for days or weeks now. 

If you want sun, try the tippy tops of mountains in the Adirondacks, or the summit of some taller Vermont mountain like Mount Mansfield. The overcast is so low that occasionally, the mountain peaks poke through the cloud deck, leaving those summits to bask in the sunshine. 

This constant gloom is keeping temperatures incredibly steady. Usually, Vermont is famous for wild temperature swings in January, sometimes from below zero to well above freezing and back below zero in just a few days.

A classic example is three years ago, when the temperature in Burlington went from minus 20 on January 7 to 61 above just five days later on January 12 an 81-degree switch!  

On one average day this time of year, the temperature will change by 17 degrees. In the entire first six days of this January, the temperature only shifted 13 degrees, bouncing between 23 and 36 degrees - that's it.

I'm sure we'll break out of this rut eventually. 

However, I remember saying back in early November, when we had a very strange, beautiful long spell of sunny skies and near record warm temperatures that "good weather in Vermont does not go unpunished."

For sun lovers, January, 2021 is payback for that November spell of weather.