My Favorite Cold Front Of The Year Comes Through Today

Yesterday, July 20, afternoon temperatures were in the 90s with
heat indexes around 100 degrees. Exactly six moths earlier,
on the afternoon of January 20, this was the scene in
front of my St. Albans, Vermont house. 

Dozens of cold fronts pass through Vermont every year. Some of them bring improvement to the weather, others make things worse.

Today's cold front, a true gift from Canada, will surely become my favorite cold front of the year.

I wilt in heat and humidity, and this has most certainly been wilt weather over the past couple of days.

This hasn't been a long heat wave, but it sure has been oppressive. The old saying, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity," is certainly true.

Dew point temperatures are a good measure of how humid it is. If the dew point is over 60, you begin to notice a bit of stickiness to the air. If the dew point is 70 degrees, it is truely oppressive.

Yesterday, Vermont's dewpoints were mostly in the 70 to 75 degree range. At one point last evening, Highgate reported a dewpoint of 80. If accurate, which is admittedly iffy, it would be the highest dew point I've ever seen in Vermont.

For perspective, dew points of 80 degrees happen a few times every summer in places like New Orleans and Miami, but even there, it's not an everyday occurance.

High dew points mean temperatures warm at night. Drier air leads to cooler nights. The high dew points were the main reason it stayed so stuffy last night.

The cold front I referred to is actually coming through in two pieces. The first one was entering northern Vermont as of 11 a.m. or so, when I was writing this. I noticed from my perch in St. Albans, Vermont that the wind has picked up a bit and the sky darkened a bit as a narrow, broken line of showers approaches.

That line will probably intensify as it moves southeastward through Vermont today. There won't be widespread trouble with this, but a few isolated storms will become strong.

In northern Vermont, you'll notice that the humidity will have waned a bit behind this first boundary this afternoon. This first front comes through later in southern Vermont, so it will stay hot and humid, with heat advisories remaining in effect there.

The second, main cold front will come through Vermont this evening and overnight. There won't be much weather along this one either. Just scattered showers and thunderstorms, one or two of which might be strong.

You'll really notice the humidity drop down overnight.

The lack of rain with this cold front is a little concerning. There were scattered storms last evening, but not everybody was hit. The same is true today.

The cold front is still expected to get hung up in southern New England tomorrow. A disturbance riding along this front will bring a soaking rain into southern and central New England, including southern Vermont

Far northwestern Vermont seems to be getting a little dry, despite some downpours last Wednesday. It's uncertain, but it looks like this soaker might miss northern Vermont. Which is too bad.

At least it will be comfortably cool for a few days. But it looks like warmth and humidity will make a return starting next weekend. It's a little soon to determine how icky it will get. But at least we get a break.