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| Small, brief pop up thunderstorms formed last evening across New York and Vermont, which were the first signs the heat wave was about to end. This storm was over northern New York, as viewed from St. Albans, Vermont at around 6 p.m. Thursday. |
If anything, the heat and humidity made this the worst night yet.
It was still 83 degrees at midnight in Burlington, with a heat index of 88 degrees, so it was terrible.
Some showers and thunderstorms did break out early this morning, but in many places, it didn't rain as hard as I would have hoped.
We really need the rain, and this upcoming cold front is a disappointment in that regard. Only a few more showers will come down before the front goes by.
The front will NOT be a disappointment in ending this horrible heat and humidity, but we'll have to be a little patient early this morning, especially the more south and east you go. By 6 a.m this morning the front had entered northwestern New York - Massena's dew point dropped from 71 to 64 degrees within an hour. It will soon cross Vermont and will move out of southeastern parts of the state by early afternoon.
As the day goes on, you'll really notice a sharp drop in humidity levels. Temperatures in the 70s early this morning should pretty much stay there, except pop back up into the low and 80s across southeastern Vermont.
Tonight will be a spectacular night for sleeping in the North Country. I promise. Pretty much everybody will get down into the 45 to 55 degree range, which is actually cooler than normal for this time of year.
I wouldn't be surprised if the very coldest hollows like Saranac Lake, New York and Island Pond, Vermont get down to something like 39 degrees. Yes!
As the heat closes, Burlington and other areas of Vermont continued to set new records. For the third time in a week, the summit of Mount Mansfield tied its all time record high of 84 degrees. The six days ending yesterday were the hottest six day period on record for Burlington, with a mean temperature of 83.5.
In Quebec, the death toll from the heat wave has risen to 33 people, with 18 of those in Montreal. I described this heat wave yesterday as one of Quebec's worst weather disasters, and as you can see, it has gotten even worse. I bet there will be more death reports in Quebec, as last night stayed hot up there, too.
I'm pleasantly surprised there have so far been no reports of heat deaths in Vermont, though a man participating in a trail race died of heat stroke last Sunday in the Adirondacks of New York.
LOOKING AHEAD
As nice as the cool blast will be, it won't last that long, and, as it turns out, it will be somewhat hotter starting Sunday and continuing through next week than we might have thought earlier.
Before you panic, we are NOT returning to days on end of highs in the mid 90s with stifling humidity like we just experienced.
Sunday, after a cool start, will turn into another great beach day. There will be lots of sun and temperatures will spike into the mid 80s in many location. Pretty toasty, yes, but the humidity will still be low.
Monday looks warmer still, with highs in the upper 80s, with a few spots maybe making it to 90 degrees.
It has seemed like the heat ridge that gave us this terrible hot weather will migrate west and give the western half of the nation a big heat wave. That's still true, but the heat ridge will sort of elongate next week to cover most of the nation
We'll be on the edge of it, and far enough north and east so that little cold fronts and disturbances zipping through will keep the worst of the heat at bay for us. It will be a warm week, with temperatures in the 80s probably every day. But humidity will generally be moderate, and I still don't see signs yet of another big heat wave looming. We'll just settle into typical summer weather next week.
THE TROPICS TURN ACTIVE
While we were focusing on our heat wave the tropics got active both in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Surprising just about everyone, we now have Hurricane Beryl way out over the central Atlantic, east of the Lesser Antilles. We usually don't have hurricanes forming in this location until later in the season, but there you go.
Beryl was expected to just be a piddling weak tropical storm, but it surprised everyone by becoming a hurricane this morning with top winds of 75 mph. It'll probably strengthen a bit more today.
Beryl is a tiny little thing, as hurricanes go. Hurricane force winds extend out only 10 miles from its center, and tropical storm force winds of 39 mph only go out 35 miles from the center. To give you an idea how small this thing is, imagine if it was centered over Montpelier, Vermont. Beryl's outer edges would barely make it into eastern New York and western New Hampshire.
The fact that Beryl is so itty bitty means it can be torn apart easily by strong upper level winds if they develop. They are indeed expected to develop, and Beryl will probably fall apart as quickly as it formed, and do so before it reaches the Lesser Antilles.
Meanwhile, there is another disturbance halfway between the southeastern United States coast and Bermuda. Forecasters give it only a 50-50 chance at best of turning into a tropical storm, but it's still worth watching as it meanders off the coast over the next few days.
It turns out Maria is a bad name for hurricanes. We had Hurricane Maria last year, which as we know devastated Puerto Rico and other islands to the point where they still haven't nearly recovered. (The power blackouts on Puerto Rico are only now just ending.)
Now we have Typhoon Maria. (Typhoons are what we call hurricanes in the western Pacific Ocean, near Asia.)
Maria is now regarded as a "Super Typhoon," the equivalent of a very strong Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. Typhoon Maria has sustained winds of 155 mph. It could affect Japan and China next week, but the typhoon, if it gets there, will likely have weakened somewhat, which is good news.
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