More Quiet Vermont Weather, "Popcorn" Showers Are Over, Sunshine To Win

Changeable skies over St. Albans, Vermont on Saturday. 
It rained a little five minutes before and 10 minutes 
after this photo was taken. It was about as
changeable a day as you can get. It should
turn much sunnier by this afternoon. 

 We got through a very changeable Saturday, didn't we?  

Sun, light rain, sun, clouds, wind, light rain, every minute was different. Life in Vermont, I guess. The rain didn't amount to anything. If you got the showers, you received a trace to a few hundredths of an inch of rain. So the light showers didn't exactly wet things down. 

All that Saturday keep-on-your-toes weather came from an old storm in the Maritime Provinces of Canada is departing. Good for them, as the system caused severe flooding around Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

TODAY

It was still cloudy, with areas of fog early this morning, a typical state of affairs for an early morning in September. The fog should lift by mid-morning, as usual. The clouds might take a little longer, especially in southern Vermont.

One last disturbance spawned by that Maritime Provinces moving south through New England produced a few early showers, especially in southern Vermont. That's heading south. Clouds and perhaps a very light showers might linger for a time south. 

But eventually, the sun will come out, and forecasters are insisting it will be a sunny, pleasant afternoon. Still a little on the cool side, with highs within a few degrees either side of 70 degrees.

Tonight will be among the coolest nights of the season so far, as we continue to sink into the autumn. Lows will be in the 40s in most places, with low 50s again in the Champlain Valley. 

LABOR DAY

A very nice day to unofficially end summer. After that cool start we should get well  into the 70s under sunny skies. Enjoy the outside

TUESDAY

Back to school, back to work. Under generally sunny skies once again, we should get right back in the 70s for highs. An incredibly lame weather disturbance from Quebec could spread a few clouds in during the day. but that won't disturb our stretch of good weather. 

WEDNESDAY

Our best shot at some needed rain. Yet another cold front will come at us. It will be able to grab just a bit of moisture from that horrible hot, humid air far to our south and bring it our way. As south winds pick up, you'll feel the day starting to turn a little more sticky. Showers should arrive  in the afternoon and last through the night, as it looks now. 

It's a little early to know how much rain we'll get, but early guesses are we could get a half inch or so, Maybe. We'll take anything we can get. It's still dry out there

It's also still early enough to expect some changes in the forecast for the timing and the amount of rain. 

THURSDAY/FRIDAY

It'll cool down again, as it almost always does after a cold front goes by. Originally, it looked like this next shot would have been our first chance of frost of the season. Even then that frost would have been only in the very coldest hollows.

Lately, computer models have been backing off on the how cool the air might get.  So, our early guesses will be highs back down near 70 and lows in the 40s. Typical September weather. 

Wild Storms, Tornadoes Hit Mid-Atlantic States While We In Vermont Keep Enjoying Quiet Weather. We Need Rain, Though.

A waterspout turned tornado
seen here damaging a 
beach resort on Long Island, NY.
Severe weather and tornadoes
hit the Mid-Atlantic states,
but we in Vermont stayed
on the quiet sidelines.

We in Vermont should be very thankful the weather system that just threw clouds across Vermont on Thursday didn't hit us head on.

The storm unleashed tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash flooding across the Mid-Atlantic states. 

A tornado ripped through Dover, Delaware of all places. A Kraft Foods plant was also damaged. Two hotels were badly damaged, and the city was strewn with broken trees, debris an downed power lines. Streets were flooded.  Miraculously, no injuries were reported. 

On Long Island, in Nassau County a waterspout came off of Reynolds Channel from Far Rockaway, Queens, and came ashore at a beach club. About 30 cabanas at the Sun and Surf Beach Club were damaged or destroyed by the likely tornado.  Luckily, there was only one minor injury, to a worker at the beach club. A state of emergency was declared in Nassau County because of the likely tornado.

Another possible tornado hit the city of Columbia, in central Pennsylvania, partially collapsing several buildings. 

Up here in Vermont, of course we were bystanders to all that, thank goodness. The clouds were a bit thicker than forecast, but not by much. Some rain actually worked its way into far southern Vermont, with Bennington reporting 0.2 inches. So a bit of needed water down there.

It seems like it's getting kind of dry here in Vermont, despite the scattered, sometimes even violent thunderstorms we've seen this month. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, released yesterday, has expanded the area of abnormally dry conditions in the Northeast Kingdom. That dry area now encompasses nearly a third of the state.

"Abnormally dry" is a condition that is just shy of a drought. 

Not much rain is in the forecast, either. As usual, let's get into the daily forecast

TODAY

It still looks like today will be the pick of the week in terms of weather conditions. We started the day quite cool, with dawn temperatures within a few degrees either side of 50 amid the usual patches of fog.  Autumn is creeping up on us. 

The day will turn out gorgeous, with mostly sunny skies, low humidity and highs well into the 70s, possibly near 80 in the warmest valley floors. Then, we enjoy Another clear, cool nigh.

SATURDAY 

Increasing clouds but still nice, highs in the 70s to near 80. A couple light showers could work their way into southern and eastern sections of the state during the afternoon and evening. 

SUNDAY

A risk of showers, but unfortunately, it looks like soaking rains will go by to our west and to our east. One low pressure system will move northward west of here, going through the eastern Great Lakes into western Quebec. Another, small but potentially wetter system will move northward near coastal New England and then head toward Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 

Vermont will be caught in the middle. Which mean we'll have clouds and a shower risk, but light amounts of rain since most of the energy to produce downpours will be to our west and east. 

That said, a few showers could have locally moderate to briefly heavy rain, but that will only hit a small percentage of us. As it stands now, it looks like most of us will have a quarter inch of rain or less. There might be little more than that in far southern parts of the state.

MONDAY

The two storms I mentioned above will consolidate in northern Quebec. That will send cool, sort of moist air down in our direction. That means partly to at times mostly cloudy skies both days. Light showers should be scattered about, especially in the north and in the mountains. 

The cool north flow won't grab as much cold air as it could this time of year. Sometimes this weather set up keeps daytime temperatures in the 60s. Instead, we should be mostly in the 70s, with some 60s in the Northeast Kingdom