Getting Back To Vermont: A Generously Rainy September So Far

Showers blossom east of Burlington, Vermont on September 4.
Most of the Green Mountain State has had a wet beginning to
October, easing a dry spell

While we've been focusing on Hurricane Dorian, which trashed Nova Scotia yesterday, I've also noticed we here in Vermont have been getting plenty of rain. At least in most places.

The cold front yesterday afternoon and evening certainly overproduced in many locations, especially north. While perhaps a tenth to a quarter inch of rain was expected at most, some pretty heavy downpours pushed through.

Burlington received a healthy 0.69 inches of rain. My unofficial rain guage in St. Albans, Vermont clocked in with 0.35 of an inch. Not huge, but still.

This after a 2.1 inch deluge in St. Albans on September 2-3 and other showers since then.

Burlington has already had more than half its normal September rainfall just a week into the month.

More rain is likely midweek.

All this is good news, because it had been getting rather dry. In fact, the U.S. Drought Monitor as of September 3 had parts of central and northern Vermont in the "abnormally dry" category, which is a precurser to drought conditions. That risk has eased.

If I want to be a nervous nelly about anything, it's that there is a risk, a very low one at this point that the rain could get out of hand later in the autumn.

Water temperatures off the East Coast are abnormally warm.  That would help keep tropical systems alive and very wet if they wanted to come inland and go into western New England. (I think Hurricane Dorian was so powerful in Nova Scotia because of oddly warm waters.

Additionally, in the autumn we start to get larger storm systems, including those that either move up the coast or pull moisture from the Atlantic. Storms would tend to be wetter if they're pulling from toastier than average water.

But like I said, at this point it's all good. We're still getting breaks of nice weather in between the showers. And for those who were sick of summertime heat and humidity, this September is a break from the previous three. Septembers 2016, 2017 and 2018 were the warmest on record in Vermont, and were essentially extensions of August.

So far this September, the temperature hasn't even made it to 80 degrees yet, never mind 90. The next few days will also be cool and autumnal. What's not to love about this September? At least so far.