Forecast For A Windy Friday Stays The Same

It was windy, warm and wet early this morning in the Champlain Valley as a strong storm continues to move across the Great Lakes into Canada.

Wind bends trees in St. Albans Thursday afternoon.
It'll be even windier in Vermont today.  

Pre-dawn temperatures of near 60 degrees were close to normal for July, not the first of November.

That warmth is the first clue it's going to be an odd, busy day in the weather department.

Winds in north-south oriented valleys, like along Lake Champlain, were gusting to near 40 mph in the early morning, and those will increase later today.

It might seem odd to some, but the strongest winds today will come this afternoon, when the rain tapers off and the sun breaks through the clouds at times. Then, winds in Vermont will gust to 50 mph and up to 60 mph in northern New York.

Those bits of sun will come after the storm's cold front comes through. Just ahead of the front, for the rest of this morning and maybe into the early afternoon in eastern Vermont, the showers will continue. A gusty downpour might come through just ahead of the cold front, and don't be surprised if you hear a rumble of thunder.

After the front goes through, even stronger winds from several thousand feet above the surface will occasionally be able to dip down to the earth's surface, where we live, which explains why forecasters think the strongest winds will come this afternoon.

Be ready for scattered power failures and some downed branches and trees. My lawn in St Albans, Vermont  is already littered with small branches because winds here have been gusting to at least 40 mph at times since yesterday afternoon.

Usually, it turns colder after a cold front (A cold front being the front part of a big batch of cold air, duh!) but in this case, the chill is lagging quite a ways behind the front.

So we'll wait awhile for the chill to arriv and we'll have a warm Friday. It could make it to 70 degrees in some areas, especially maybe the Champlain Valley and lower Connecticut River valley.

The record high temperature for today's date in Burlington is 71 degrees set in 1950, and there is a chance we could break that record.

The cold air will come in, of course, and it will start to turn cooler tonight. Saturday will be a transition day, with steady or slowly falling temperatures during the day, with scattered rain showers changing to snow showers and flurries Saturday night.

On Sunday, you'll know its November, as daytime temperatures won't even make it out of the 30s, for highs, there will be a lot of clouds around, and a chilly north breeze will add to the frostiness.