Hot Again, Then Wetter Times Ahead For Vermont, Northeast?

Lots of blue sky on the Burlington, Vermont waterfront on Sunday.
The second half of July might, maybe turn wetter.

Another scorcher is coming today. If it hits 90 degrees or more in Burlington, Vermont which is very likely, half of the days so far in July would have reached 90 degrees, so yeah, it's been a hot month so far.

And as previously noted, dry. But an upcoming subtle shift in the weather pattern might - maybe - lead to a wetter second half of the month. That's not cast in stone, but there's a few promising signs that could happen.

First off, Tuesday's cold front looks to be a wet one. Like any summertime cold front, there will be winners and losers, with some places getting absolutely drenched and others barely dampened.

But at least this one has lots of moisture to work with, and the atmosphere is primed to dump some good downpours.  Most of us will probably get some decent rainfall out of this.

It will turn dry again for most of the rest of the week after tomorrow, but meanwhile, that change in the weather pattern will keep developing.

Strong high pressure - the Bermuda High, basically - will build northward and stay strong over the western Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, a slight dip in the jet stream seems like it wants to develop somewhere over or near the Great Lakes for much of the second half of the month.

This dip would encourage storms, weather disturbances and cold fronts to come through the Great Lakes region and start heading east toward us. But then, these cold fronts and such would run into that strong Bermuda High off the coast.

Until now this summer, either a heat dome over us would prevent cold fronts from coming in, or the fronts would zip through so quickly they generally wouldn't have time to pour much rain on us.

But with the possibility of the cold fronts bumping up against that offshore, strong high pressure, these disturbances might tend to slow down or stall over or near the Northeast. Also, southerly flow on the western flank of this high would bring moisture northward into New England to feed water to these sluggish cold fronts.

The first of these possible wet spells looks like it might come in next Sunday or Monday.

There's no guarantee the weather will play out exactly like I'm telling you, but it does look like rainy spells are somewhat more likely during the second half of July. That would ruin some days at the beach, but hey, we really, really need the rain.

Although it will probably often be humid, the clouds and showers might also serve to keep temperatures out of the 90s Again, that's uncertain, but that's what the tea leaves are reading now.