More On Those Photogenic Thursday Skies

The first good thunderstorm of the day blossoms
over Lake Champlain, west of South Burlington
Vermont late Thursday morning.  

Thursday was arguably the best day of the summer for sky watching in New England, especially for weather geeks.

We had the perfect combination of a lack of haze for good visibility, and lots of rapidly developing, and rapidly disappearing showers and thunderstorms, which made for a sky you could watch and see change from one minute to the next all day.

You might have seen my post from last night that showed a small cloud turning into a thunderstorm within 20 minutes.

Some of the storms were briefly strong, producing some hail and gusty winds, but this wasn't a widespread severe outbreak.  Still, there were several reports of quarter sized hail in southern New Hampshire and coastal Maine, and Saratoga County, New York got hit with damaging winds.

Smaller clouds being drawn
up at an angle into the top
of a larger storm around noon Thursday
in western Vermont.  

There was a pool of cold air high overhead in New York and New England. The contrast between the upper level cold, and the heated ground from the warm August sunshine between the clouds, kept the storms churning all day.

There wasn't much humidity in the air, so the downpours weren't super intense, though a couple places got a fair amount of rain because they were hit repeatedly by storms.

Still, you could watch the storms blossom, then, given their lack of moisture supply, you could watch them rain themselves out and dissipate just as fast as they could form.

It was so hit and miss. While working outside in South Burlington, Vermont yesterday, I saw a storm blossom and start heading toward me. I could see the downpour gushing from the base of the cloud.

But as the storm got near, it rained itself out. There were just sprinkles where I was.

When I drove two miles down the road a bit later, you could see lots of puddles and mini-brooks running along the curb, a testament to the heavy downpour the brief storm created.

A late day thunderstorm greets commuters along
Interstate 89 in St. Albans, Vermont Thursday.  

The cold air pool high above us is moving away now.

We'll get some great weather the next few days in New England: Sunshine, warmth and humidity that's reasonable. Great for the beach or whatever else you want to do outside this weekend.

If you're looking for one of those "wait a minute and the weather will change" days, like yesterday, it ain't happening.