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| Still no frost at my St. Albans, Vermont house yet. so I've still got some flowers as October begins even though the leaves are changing and falling. |
Meanwhile, here in Vermont, we enjoyed a most pleasant weather for the most part, weather that was pretty much spot on normal for September.
The Green Mountain State spent September in the sweet spot. Close enough to the heat dome in the South to keep the heaviest rain storms at bay, but far enough away to get some coolish, dry air from southern Canada.
We were too far east to get caught up in those midwestern storms, and way too far away for us to get any kind of weather that would remind you of winter.
Subjectively, this was easily one of my favorite Septembers in my 57 years living in Vermont. Rainfall was certainly adequate, but between those showers, we had a large number of days with plenty of sunshine and comfortable temperatures. It ws just pleasant.
For stats, Burlington came in with a mean September temperature of 62.0, which was 1.5 degrees above normal. Rainfall was nearly spot on perfect, with 3.71 inches for the month, just 0.07 inches wetter than normal. A rounding error, basically.
There wasn't even that big a range in temperature during Burlington's September. The hottest day reached 83 degrees, the coolest morning was just 40 degrees.
Elsewhere in Vermont, September temperatures were at or just a smidge below normal. The Northeast Kingdom was a bit on the cool side. Like in Burlington, precipitation was close to normal.
Temperatures in southern Vermont were also quite close to normal, but it was on the dry side down there. For instance, Springfield had only 1.27 inches of rain during the month, which was about 2.5 inches below normal.
As mentioned, other parts of the nation were wild. I'll cherry pick some spots as examples.
Dallas, Texas endured a September that averaged out at 85.5 degrees, or 7.5 degrees hotter than normal. Only one day in September there failed to reach 90 degrees.
Memphis, Tennessee had its hottest September on record, as did Evansville, Indiana, where temperatures reached 80 degrees each day of the month for the first time records started being kept there in 1897.
Atlanta, Georgia was just about nine degrees hotter than normal. The average high temperature in Macon, Georgia in September was 96.4 degrees. During the final week of the month, each day in Macon reached at least 97 degrees, with three of those breaking 100 degrees. Only 0.03 inches of rain fell there. They should have had more than 3.5 inches.
All the rain was instead in the middle of the nation. Peoria, Illinois, for instance had more than 7.5 inches of rain last month.
Actually, places like Montana didn't have all that cold a September until the final days of the month, with that record snowfall of up to four feet. This morning, the temperature was a wintry 5 degrees in Cut Bank, Montana.
The opening few days of October will bring more of the same. Record heat will continue in the South and East for the first few days of the month. All-time record October highs are expected today and tomorrow in some places.
Flood watches are up once again in a band stretching from New Mexico to Michigan.
And here in Vermont, there will be some weather action, but nothing too extreme. The oddest thing would be the chance of a few late season thunderstorms today. A few might even bring gusty winds and heavy downpours.
It'll be a little on the warm side today, and a little on the cool side tomorrow and on through the weekend. There will definitely be showers around on several of these days, but again, nothing scary.
Once we get into the cool season, weather tends to get more variable, so anytbing could happen durin the rest of October. But will Vermont remain in the relatively calm weather sweet spot? Only time will tell.
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