Big Weather Changes In Store For Vermont, Eastern U.S. Next Week

A bit of snow on maple leaves in October, 2014 in St.
Albans, Vermont. It's possible we might see
a similar scene around or just prior to Halloween.

After a brief excursion into normal autumn weather Monday into Tuesday morning, it is back to sunshine and warmth around Vermont and the rest of the Northeast.

Temperatures around here flirted with 70 degrees yesterday, and warm southerly winds overnight in the Champlain Valley kept pre-dawn temperatures in the upper 50s this morning. Such temperatures at that time of day would not be unusual in July.

After a brief cool down to only slightly warmer than normal conditions Friday, it's back to the warmth and sunshine over the weekend.

We are in the running for the warmest October on record. If not that, at least the top 10.  This after one of the warmest Septembers on record.

There is a big potential drawback to all of this warm, dry, sunny, breezy weather. There's a rising risk of wildfires in Vermont and other parts of the Northeast. Leaves are falling, grasses, weeds and shrubs are brown and drying out.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington put out the alert today to avoid outdoor burning, since any sparks can get away from you and start a brush or forest fire.

But big changes are afoot, changes that will bring us a bunch of welcome rain, and then at least a brief cold blast later next week.

A deep trough of low pressure is likely to set up in the eastern half of the nation for awhile next week, bringing the storminess and eventually the cooler weather.

You'll see the first signs of this on Saturday, when the developing storm system will likely bring a bout of severe weather to parts of the Plains state.

From there, a very slow moving cold front will trudge eastward, making it to New England Tuesday and Wednesday. That's when I expect we'll get a good dousing of needed rain.  Especially since a rather wet storm might ride northward along the front, tracking from somewhere in the southeastern U.S. to over or near New England.

Eventually, after the rains midweek, I think it will cool down to at least seasonable levels in Vermont and the rest of New England. This certainly won't be the Great Cold Wave of '17, but it'll be a sign that winter is approaching

I expect by or before Halloween, the northern New England mountains will probably be snowcapped, and there might even be a few wet snowflakes in the valleys.

You knew "endless summer" 'had to end sometime, right?