Climate Change Likely Contributing to Incredible 100 Degree Heat In Northern Plains, Southern Canada.

Temperatures today will be near 100 degrees along
the Canadian border in North Dakota and Minnesota
as unprecedented early season heat lingers.
Another record heat wave is set to start in Texas.
Weird heat waves are becoming common 
in the age of climate change. 

 Here in Vermont, after a cool Sunday, we're expecting a relatively warm week. 

We won't be breaking any record highs, but it will still feel like summer. 

If you want extremes, though, go to the northern Plains and southern Canada.  They are experiencing an unprecedented early season heat wave in which temperatures are mind-blowing. 

Hallock, in northwestern Minnesota, reached 100 degrees. Grand Forks and Minot, North Dakota reached 99 on Sunday. Minot is forecasting a high of 100 today.  

Grand Forks will endure three consecutive days in the upper 90s.  Normal highs this time of year in Grand Forks are in the mid-60s

International Falls, the "icebox of the nation" in the northern tip of Minnesota, reached 96 degrees Sunday, breaking the record high for the date by a whopping 13 degrees. 

All the cities I've mentioned above so far are often the coldest in the nation, sometimes reaching the 40s below in the winter. 

The heat is extending into Canada. 

Emerson, Manitoba, Canada, just over the border from northwest Minnesota, also reported 100 degrees. Yes, 100 degrees in Canada. In May. Winnipeg is forecasting highs today in the mid-90s. 

The northern Plains heat is also like a blast furnace, featuring strong winds and desert dryness to rival Death Valley.  While it was 99 in Grand Forks Sunday, the wind was gusting to 46 mph and the relative humidity was just 14 percent. 

As you can imagine in those conditions, the risk of wildfires in the northern Plains and southern Canada are very high, at least until rains and much colder temperatures hit at the end of the week.

The northern Plains heat will move south into Texas later this week, where they're also expecting record heat. Dallas is expecting a high of 100 degrees Wednesday, which would break the record high for the date by five degrees.

Waco, Texas on Wednesday is forecasting a high of 102 degrees, which would break the record high for the date by an incredible eight degrees. Usually, when a city breaks a record high for the date, it's usually by one, two or at most three degrees.

Austin, San Antonio and other Texas cities are expected at least six consecutive days above 100 degrees, starting Tuesday. This will likely be San Antonio's earliest in the season triple digit heat wave on record. Normal highs this time of year in these cities are in the mid-80s. 

These early season heat waves don't bode well for the summer. If parts of the nation are getting July-style heat now, what will mid-summer bring?

True, long range forecasts call for a cool northern tier of the United States in the third week in May. But who knows how long that will last?

It's hard to 100 percent blame climate change on whacko heat waves like the one going on the northern Plains now and the one about to hit Texas.

But these incredible, unprecedented hot spells are completely consistent with climate change. A warming world makes previously "impossible" heat waves occasionally, even frequently happen. 

We've already had other examples of record, summer-like heat waves around the world this spring. In late April, unprecedented early season heat hit a wide swath of Africa, the Middle East and southwest Asia. 

Here in Vermont, I do think we're overdue for the type of heat wave we've never seen before. It's only a matter of time.  In recent years, we've seen unprecedented high temperatures in the winter, spring and autumn. For instance, just last Halloween, we had hottest for so late in the season summer-like temperatures. 

There have been record Vermont heat waves over the course of the past several years, but we've fallen just short of all time record highs. The hottest reading in Vermont still stands at 105 degrees in Vernon, July, 1911,  Burlington's all-time high of 101 degrees is from August, 1944.  

I'm taking bets on how many years we have left before those records are broken.  My guess is not many. 

Nation's Icebox In Balmy Spring Weather While We Stay Mired In Winter

The shed on my property, full of spring garden tools, seems
awfully distant behind walls of snow - winter is hanging on
tough in St. Albans - and the rest of Vermont

 It hasn't been above freezing for most of us here in Vermont since Monday, and we won't get back to the melting point until Monday or Tuesday, depending upon where you are in the state. 

The constant cold, dry northwest winds will continue through Sunday, and only begin to ease up Monday afternoon. 

There won't be much new snow, maybe an inch or two on some lucky mountains and just flurries in the valleys. But still. Winter. 

If it's this chilly here, you'd think it must ridiculously frigid in the northern and central Plains. After all, they get the brunt of the cold waves, right?

Not this time. Bismarck, North Dakota can expect highs in the 60s for the next three days. It's already been that warm there three times this month. Normal highs this time of year in that neck of the woods are in the mid 30s, pretty much like here in northern Vermont. 

In a good chunk of South Dakota, they're expecting highs for the next three days in the lower 70s, as opposed to the usual 40 degree readings they should expect this time of year.  

All these toasty readings will break high temperature records in the Dakotas. What next? Palm trees in Yankton?

Probably not. It's actually a little dry for palm trees in the Plains right now.  They had a dry winter. Despite the warmth, it's definitely too early for things to be greening up.  The dry, brown landscape is ripe for fast-moving rangeland fires.

Red flag warnings for the fire risk are up from northeastern Colorado and northwest Kansas all the way up to parts of North Dakota and Montana.  Already, one fire burned through 1,000 acres or so northwest of Topeka, Kansas, and other fires were reported in Nebraska. 

At least we don't have to worry about brush fires here in Vermont yet. Hard to burn forest and brushland with nearly a foot of snow on the ground, huh?

Forecasters are still calling for at least a little squirt of warmer air to infiltrate our frozen landscape this coming week.  Highs should reach the upper 30s and low 40s Tuesday, and soar to near 50 degrees Wednesday and Thursday. 

Yeah, that's not 70 degrees, but still, the upcoming mild spell will get rid of a little snow, at least for awhile. 

March is fickle, so we'll either see a continued slow melt of snow through the rest of the month, or we'll just get replacement snow in subsequent storms. Time will tell. 

Meanwhile, if you're outside this weekend, sucks to be you. But at least there's still plenty of winter sports left to enjoy while we wait for a warm up.