Never Ending Summer Finally Over In Vermont, Elsewhere

Pretty tropical looking clouds over
South Burlington, Vermont in August,
during this year's never ending summer

While we were focusing on Hurricane Joaquin and the epic flooding in the Southeast over the past few days, the never ending summer I've been experiencing at my perch in northwestern Vermont has finally come to end.

It was the longest summer I can remember, beginning with record warmth in May and topped off by a September that by far was the hottest on record. I'm not complaining about the unusually long summer, but I also knew it had to end.

In Burlington, Vermont, the September mean temperature was 67.4 degrees. I've seen colder Julys than that. September's temperatures broke the old record set in 1961 by a full two degrees. That's an unusually wide margin to break a monthly record by.

As I said, it really was a never ending summer, since it kicked off with a record warm May, which brought us summer warmth in a month that can still be kinda chilly.

June and July temperatures were close to normal, but it was really summer then, so the warm season continued. August was the third hottest on record for Burlington, and then we hit September.

Lots of places had a very long, hot summer in the nation, especially toward the end in the Northeast. Several cities, including New York, also had their hottest September on record. Caribou, Maine, famous for its record cold winter earlier this year, had its hottest August and September combo on record.

Not everyone was necessarily warm in the nation. Seattle, Washington, was slightly cooler than normal, ending a remarkable 18 consecutive months of warmer than normal weather.

Also, Fairbanks, Alaska had 20.9 inches of snow in September, its snowiest September on record. But it wasn't nearly the coldest ninth of the month on record up there in Fairbanks. The average temperature was a middling 2.5 degrees below normal.

The never ending summer in Vermont finally ended, of course. The temperature in Burlington on September 30 failed to rise above 60 degrees for the first time since June 1.

On Friday, the average temperature was seven degrees below normal for the date. That's not extreme at all, but it was the largest daily departure below normal since July 16.

The late heat in September prevented Vermont's trees from starting to turn to their brilliant autumn glory. Things were still very, very green as the month closed.

Now that it's chilly, with frosty mornings the past few days in some towns in northern Vermont, the leaves are now rapidly changing.

This late start might be good, because it's beginning to look like almost  all the trees are going to turn at once, which could mean a really spectacular season.

Sometimes, warm, dry sunny weather early in the autumn brings out the brightest reds in some trees, and there's some evidence that might be starting to happen this week in Vermont.

So, I've put on my jacket, turned the truck heater on, and will be wandering around looking for that great fall foliage.

Yep, summer is TOTALLY over for 2015