Strange, Sharp Line Between Rain and Clear Skies In Vermont This Morning, Another Hot Spell Looms

A tale of two Vermonts on this morning's satellite
photos. Thicker clouds in central Vermont denote
a band of moderate to briefly heavy rain. 
Meanwhile, northern Vermont is in the clear. 

 Another late start for my morning report as I'm just back from my trip to Maryland. 

Not long after I finally got my hutt out of bed,   I found quite a difference in the weather across Vermont. If you were in Rutland or White River Junction, it was chilly with a soaking rain around 9 a.m. Temperatures were only around 60 at 9 a.m.  

Drive a short distance north to Middlebury and the sun was partly out. By the time you got to Burlington, it was clear blue skies (aside from a slight hint of wildfire smoke) and it was a nice 74 degrees. 

The rain got a little further north than we thought it might yesterday.  That band of moderately heavy rain in central Vermont surprised me a bit. But at least it wasn't the flash-flood producing downpours that hit parts of the Mid-Atlantic states. 

REST OF TODAY

Here in Vermont, things should even out a little today, but it will take its time doing so. The north will stay generally sunny, while the rain in southern Vermont will slowly sink south into Massachusetts. It might take a good part of the day for the rain to finally end near the Massachusetts border.  

Because of the clouds in the south, northern Vermont will end up being the warm spot. It'll get into the low 80s there, while southern Vermont stays in the 70s. 

WEDNESDAY

Another hot spell arrives, but this one will be short and sweet - not as hot as the last go around, and it will only be a couple days' worth. Tomorrow will be sunny and in the upper 80s, with a few spot 90 degree temperatures here and there. 

The humidity will be noticeable, but not nearly as bad as it was a few days ago. Dew points should be in the low to mid 60s, not 70s. So it should be pretty tolerable if you take it slow.

THURSDAY

Another hot one, and the chance of showers and thunderstorms comes into play. Many of us in Vermont should make it to 90 or so. The dew point should get up into the low 70s, so it will feel miserable.  A cold front approaching from Canada should spark some afternoon and evening showers and storms. It's a little early to figure out whether any storms will be strong or severe, but the possibility is there. Stay tuned!

FRIDAY

The cold front continues to stagger through Vermont. Early guesses suggest the morning could be rainy, but we could salvage a decent afternoon if it comes through quickly enough. Especially north. We are't expected all that much rain from this, except in local torrential downpours. 

NEXT WEEKEND:

Potentially very nice after the cold front. It will stay warm with highs in the 80s, but with lower humidity. There's a bunch of wildfires burning in central and northern Canada which means we could see some smoke. 

I'll have a fuller report on a potentially smoky rest of the summer, hopefully later today. 

Rutland County Hit By Big Storm Friday. All Of Vermont Faces Hot, Steamy Weather In Upcoming Days

The severe thunderstorm in Rutland County yesterday
with a wild shelf cloud. Note the blue tint in the clouds.
That suggests there's quite a bit of hail up there. Photo
was taken by Mary Jean Wasik Obtained via Facebook

 Well, we got through our latest severe weather threat pretty much unscathed. Most of us anyway. Quite a few people in Rutland County would beg to differ. 

As severe weather probabilities were updated midday Friday, the word, "tornado" somehow came back into the vernacular. They said there was a very low, but not zero chance of a tornado in eastern Vermont or New Hampshire in the very worst storms. 

Turns out there was only one thunderstorm of note, and it was a doozy. It developed near Ticonderoga, New York around 2:30 and headed southeast. through northern an eastern Rutland County. 

Dime sized hail fell in Hubbarton and Hortonia, Vermont. It then moved on to knock down numerous trees in Proctor and in the north and east sides of Rutland. 

I don't see any evidence the damage was caused by a tornado. Looks like straight line winds caused all the Rutland Couty trouble. 

The storm appeared to weaken somewhat crossing the Green Mountains because I don't have damage reports there. But the storm blossomed again as it crossed the Connecticut River into Cornish, New Hampshire, where hail was big enough to dent cars. 

The storm continue on through southern New Hampshire as a rotating supercell, spewing damaging wins and hail along its path.

Parts of Vermont that were not hit be severe storms still had generous rainfall. It was hit and miss, or course, bur Burlington had a storm total of 0.68 inches. My unofficial rain gauge in St. Albans collected right around an inch of rain from Thursday night through late Friday afternoon. 

The rain is mostly over, for now, and summer is really going to make a stand. The details: 

TODAY

There were areas of low clouds and fog around early this morning around Vermont,  but that should mostly clear out to reveal a nice, typical Vermont summer day. Highs will get into the 

You'll see some building, towering clouds here and there over the mountains, and some of those will develop into showers and garden variety thunderstorms. They'll pretty much stick to the mountains and do no harm. From the valleys especially it will be a great cloud watching day as showers and storm develop, then fade as new ones form. 

A few showers  could try to wander off into the valleys during the afternoon and evening, but they'll probably weaken as they do so. 

While you're watching the clouds, or doing anything else outside, it should get up to near 80 degrees for most of us. Humidity will be moderate. 

SUNDAY: 

A copy of today, except it will be a couple degrees warmer and there will probably be few storms and showers over the mountains. 

MONDAY: 

The heat and humidity really start to build. It should still be fairly reasonably with highs in the low to mid 80s. Maybe a spot 87 or 88 in the warmest valleys. 

TUESDAY AND BEYOND

The heat is on. Hot, humid, with highs in the upper 80s to mid 90s in the warmest valleys Tuesday through Friday. 

It's hard to say exactly how hot it will get, as clouds and storms might interfere with the hottest temperatures. For now, the National Weather Service is going with a high of 91 degrees in Burlington Tuesday, followed by 95 Wednesday and Thursday. 

Granted, Burlington is warmer than many other parts of Vermont. But regardless of what happens, with location and afternoon showers and storms,  it will be uncomfortable. 

 As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we will be on the northeast corner of a big heat dome that will be setting up over the eastern US. "Ridge runner" patches of thunderstorms could go over the top of the heat dome in southern Canada and then head southeastward over us at any time during this upcoming hot week. The first chance of this is Tuesday night. 

With all the heat and humidity in place, there's a chance that storms could become severe or lead to local flash flooding. It's way too early to determine for sure whether this will happen, and if so, where. But on top of taking care of yourself in the heat, you might have to keep an ear out for severe storm warnings, too.

 

In Vermont: More Snow, A Little Ice, Eventually The Thaw, Then A Wintry Surprise?

The next little storm is due tonight. Expect another
two or three inches north, with much less south due
to freezing rain and sleet mixing in, especially
near the Massachusetts border. 

 I've got an early appointment today, so I'll just do a quick morning weather situation report as we're in a pretty active weather pattern at the moment. 

I don't have a lot of totals from  yesterday's snow, but it appears some places in northern Vermont overachieved slightly. Burlington came in with 2.9 inches of new snow.

 Here in St. Albans, we had 2.0 inches, perfectly in line with National Weather Service forecasts ahead of the event. 

Those figures were near the upper range of what was expected. It was a really fluffy snow, so it'll be pretty easy to clean up.  Roads might still be a little iffy on the roads this morning, which is partly why I'm getting an early start. 

NEXT STORM

The next storm - still a modest one but enough to cause a little trouble - is hot on the heels of yesterday's light snow. 

Hot is sort of the operative word, even if it is an exaggeration. Temperatures were in the teens and low 20s early this morning, giving us the balmiest morning since December 29. OK, I get that it's not exactly warm, but we'll take what we can get.

After a day that gets us to near 30 degrees, again, the warmest since December 29.

The snow will arrive this evening. For most of us, I think we'll squeeze in the afternoon commute before it starts, as the National Weather Service office is projecting a start time of around 8 or 9 p.m for most of us. It should be over by mid-morning Wednesday.

In Vermont's southernmost two counties, a winter weather advisory is up because those areas are expecting a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. 

The further north you go in Vermont, the more likely it is that this will be just snow. Amounts will be only two or three inches up there. Because it will be a little warmer, tonight's snow won't be quite as feather-like as the stuff we're cleaning up this morning.

There's no weather alerts in Vermont other than in the far south. For those of us north of Bennington and Windham counties, the National Weather Service in South Burlington stated this morning: "If confidence in freezing rain or heavier snow over a large are increases, weather weather advisories may be issued." 

NEXT STORMS

The weather will quiet down and warm up Wednesday and Thursday  ahead of the next storms. Highs both days should get well into the 30s, so it will be the beginning of our thaw. Not much of a thaw, but whatever.

It still looks like we'll have two in quick succession. The first, on Friday, is the core of our brief January thaw. It'll rain and get up into the 40s, with a couple places maybe threatening 50 degrees. At this point, the rain looks like it will probably not be heavy enough, and the snow melt not extensive enough to set off any real flooding. 

There's new questions about the second, stronger system on Saturday. Earlier we thought the second storm would consist of more rain. Now, we're not so sure. Some computer models still keep the storm mostly rain, at least until the tail end of it.

Other models shift the storm a little further east, bringing in the chilly air earlier. That could set the stage for some freezing rain and snow 

As always, we'll know more as we get closer to the event.