Every Summer Is Hot Now in Vermont, Pretty Much

A refreshing, cool summer day on Lake Champlain in
Shelburne a few years ago. Such nice weather
is geting rare in our increasingly hot
Vermont summers

It looks like we're experiencing another hot summer here in Vermont.

After a big heat wave in late June, followed by not as hot, but still muggy weather in the past week, foreasts call for another long hot spell in the upcoming week. We're in for more 90 degree weather, folks.

I guess we should be used to it now.   I checked records from the National Weather Service office in South Burlington this morning. Turns out, the last cooler than average summer in Burlington was way back in 2009 - eleven years ago. That summer wasn't all that cool, either: It was just 0.9 degrees south of the average

In those eleven years since 2009, some summers were only a little warmer than average while others were much  hotter. Four of the top ten hottest summers in Burlington have happened since 2005.

Two years ago, 2018, we had our second hottest summer with a mean temperature of 72.1 degrees. That's just 0.1 degrees off the all time record set in 1949.

We're talking climatological summer, by the way. That's the period from June 1 through August 31.

The last time we had a cooler than average summer month was in June, 2015, which was close to one degree cooler than average. The rest of that summer was definitely on the warm side, so that kept the hot summer streak going.

There is a caveat here.  I didn't get a chance to take a look at some other towns and cities in Vermont. Burlington seems to run  hotter than other towns.  Summers that were only slightly warm in Burlington, like 2017, might actually have been marginally cooler than average in places like Montpelier and St. Johnsbury.  I'll have to check.

The number of 90-degree days in Burlington seems to be on the upswing, too. So far this year, we've had ten such days, double the average for an entire year.

There were eight such days in 2019; sixteen of them in 2018;  eight in 2017 and twelve of them in 2016, for instance.

For those of you wondering if this increased Vermont heat is caused by climate change, I would say global warming has a hand in it.  It's possible natural cycles were involved too, but in all likelihood climate change gave this increased tendency toward heat an extra boost.

The bottom line here is that Vermont's reputation as a nice cool summertime retreat has taken a bit of a hit.  It's still a lot more refreshing here, than say, Miami. However, the Green Mountain State is not quite as naturally air conditioned as it once was.

So, How Did February And The Whole Winter Stack Up Here In Vermont

Heavy snow falls on St. Albans, Vermont on January 20, during
the biggest snowstorm of the winter.

Welcome to meterological spring, when climatologists, just for ease of record keeping, say spring starts. They deem it to begin today, March 1, so there you go.

Which give us the opportunity to look back and see how February stacked up in Vermont, and also, winter as a whole.

First, let's tackle February. Around Burlington, despite a lot of ups and downs, the mean temperature for the month came out close to average. It averaged out at 22.2, which is just 0.7 degrees above normal.

Elsewhere in Vermont, in places like Montpelier and St. Johnsbury, the month came out at about a degree cooler than normal. Which is essentially typical for February.

When it did get cold in February, 2019, it was never that cold. Burlington got to zero or below on five mornings, but the chilliest one was only minus 5, which is well within what we'd expect in the winter. The hottest day was February 5, which reached 53 degrees - good enough to be a record high for the date.

The month was on the wet side. Burlington had 2.34 inches of precipitation, which was a little more than a half inch soggier than average.

Freezing rain glazes trees in Burlington, Vermont on February 6. There
was a lot of mixed precipitation during the winter of 2018-19,
so there was a lot of ice underfoot. 

For the winter as a whole, taking in meteorological winter from December 1 to February 28, temperatures bounced all over the place but landed just about normal if you average it all out.

Burlingon was a whopping one tenth of one degree warmer than average for the winter. Essentially spot on normal.

It was a wet winter. Burlington had 8.46 inches of rain over the three months, which is 2.26 inches above normal. Although we had plenty of snow, there was a lot of rain, too. That kept snow cover modest, at least in the Champlain Valley.

There was briefly 18 inches of snow on the ground in mid-January, but only ten days out of the entire winter had at least 10 inches of snow covering the Queen City's lawns and parks.

Snow cover is much healthier in the Northeast Kingdom, and in mid and high elevations. As of yesterday, there was 39 inches of snow on the ground in Granby and 37 inches in Sutton, both up in the NEK. Averill had 34 inches of snow on the ground Corinth had 32 inches. The summit of Mount Mansfield was up above 100 inches.

It's Not The "Polar Vortex" It's The Yo-Yo Extremes That Wow Me This Winter

Someone flash froze these pants in air that was 20s below
and left them outside to mark the occasion
Uof the worst cold snap in a generation. 

UPDATE: 2 p.m. EST Wednesday.

I'm seeing more reports of some pretty impressive new cold weather records today out in the Midwest.

It looks like there's a new all-time record low temperature for the entire state of Illinois. It reportedly got down to 38 below in Mt. Carroll, Illinois today.

They're going to inspect the Mt Carroll equipment to make sure it's accurate. If it is, that 38 below would break the previous statewide Illinois record low of 36 below in Congerville, set on January 5, 1999.

Moline, Illinois dropped down to 33 below. That broke the city's all-time record low by six degrees. It's very rare to break an all-time record low, but to exceed it by six degrees is absolutely incredible.

We have an update from Rockford, Illinois, which had an all-time record low of 31 below, not 30 below as previously reported. Cedar Rapids, Iowa was at 30 below, a new all-time record for them.

In Michigan, MLive reports some strange things going on inside houses there, and I'm sure this is happening elsewhere. People report frozen water in toilets, ice on indoor electrical outlets, curtains frozen to sliding glass doors and the interior of doors covered in frost.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Yes, yes, I know the cold snap in the Midwest is a memorable, record-breaking weather event.

But what's got me fascinated is not so much the cold wave but the one-extreme-to-another character of this winter. Which actually is a continuation of what we've increasingly seen in this nation and worldwide in recent years and decades.

I had to mention the "Polar Vortex" in the headline of this post because that's all everybody is talking about in relation to this cold snap.  To review, the polar vortex is a normal component of the Arctic winter.

Pieces of the polar vortex sometimes break off and head south. That's also completely normal. Occasionally, these pieces head south into the United States. That's what happened this time.
Again: Normal.

It's just that the particular piece that broke off in recent days and roared south from northern Canada  brought with it air that was even chillier than usual.

And since this piece of the polar vortex raced southward faster than usual, it didn't have time to warm up on its trip south.  That's why the Midwest is seeing record cold.  So there, I've got that out of the way.

The cold is impressive. Cotton, Minnesota reportedly got down to 56 below this morning, which is within four degrees of Minnesota's all time state record for cold. Rockford, Illinois was down to 30 below, that city's coldest reading in history.

Up in International Falls, Minnesota, it was 45 below this morning after a "high" temperature of 19 below on Tuesday.

The Midwest, and eventually us here in Vermont are about to see a spectacular warm up.  In some places, it is said it will warm up at a record pace, whatever that is.  Davenport, Iowa, which was at 27 below this morning, is expecting a high temperaure Sunday of 48 degrees, which is a 75 degree jump.

International Falls, Minnesota is expected to reach 26 degrees Sunday, 71 degrees hotter than it was this morning.

Here in Vermont, the change won't be as extreme. But subzero readings Friday morning will be replaced by highs in the 40s by early next week.

A heavy snow squall in St. Albans, Vermont Wednesday. The
squalls contributed to one of the snowiest Januaries on
record in Burlington, Vermont. 

Speaking of extremes, those snow squalls yesterday covered an amazingly wide area of the Northeast, stretching from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts and Maine.

Some of the squalls caused serious highway pileups in Pennsylvania and New York.  The snow squall that hit my place was one of the most intense I can remember, though, like most snow squalls it was very brief.

The snow squalls added another installment to the month's snow total in Burlington, Vermont. The city has had 41.3 inches of snow this month, making this the third snowiest January on record. You'd never know it, because repeated thaws in this yo-yo winter have cut back on the amount of snow on the ground.  

Caribou, Maine has had 59.8 inches of snow this month, its snowiest January on record.  Meanwhile, Boston, Massachusetts has had only 2.3 inches of snow this winter, which is 20.5 inches below normal.

When I tweeted out Burlington's snow total this morning, Tim Kelley, a meteorologist with NBC10 in Boston and NECN, responded with this very true reply which read in part:

"'Normal' weather does not exist. It's a balance of extremes. Always has been, always will be."

The contrast between snowfall in northern and southern New England is a great example of that. So are the monthly average temperatures in the Midwest for January. Despite the record cold, Minneapolis will have a January, 2019 that will be only about a degree cooler than average. They had a warm start to the month.

In other words, January temperatures in Minneapolis will be  close to "normal."

The sticky question arises when you question whether the extremes that lead to these "normals" are getting more extreme. Climate scientists say they are. To me, judging whether the climate is more extreme than it used to be is sometimes hard to do.

Yes, there are more record highs than record lows lately, even though this week in the United States is chilly. You can measure that. There's evidence that floods, droughts and such are getting worse.

But the causes of months like January in the United States are hard to tease out. How much was due to just the usual randomness of the atmosphere? Did climate change influence any of this, and if so, by how much?

I don't know. The climate scientists will keep studying this. Meanwhile, we just keep bracing ourselves for our roller coaster weather ride, and hope this roller coaster doesn't totally derail.

July Was Burlington, Vermont's Hottest Month On Record

The sprinklers were going frequently in my St. Albans, Vermont
garden in July as I, and my plants, endured the hottest month on record.

If you were saying to yourself in July, "I've never seen a month as hot as this one," you were absolutely right, at least if you were in Vermont, and some other areas of northern New England and southern Quebec.

Burlington, Vermont had an absolutely incredible month of July, capping it off by becoming the hottest month - any month - on record. These records date back to 1892.

A lot of records were tied or broken in Burlington. The ever-helpful National Weather Service office in South Burlington summarizes them for us:

Hottest Month: Mean temperature 76.0 besting the previous record of 75.3 in July, 1921
Hottest Maximums:  The average high temperature during July, 2018 was 87.4, beating the previous record of 86.5 degrees in July, 1949.
Most Days At Or Above 85 degrees in a month: 21 day in July, 2018, besting the old record of 20 such days in 1999, 1975 and 1955.
Most Days In a Month at 80 degrees or more: 29 such days in July, 2018, tying the record set in July, 1975.

Also, back on July 2, we had a minimum temperature for the day of 80 degrees, which is the highest minimum temperature for any date on record going back to 1892. And on June 30 through July 5, we tied the record for the second longest heat wave on record. Six straight days in the 90s.

HOT ELSEWHERE

Up in Caribou, Maine, normally an ice box, they had their hottest month on record, too. Their mean temperature for the month of July was 70.9 degrees, exceeding the previous record of 69.6 degrees in July, 1970.

The records are amazing, but of course they have real world effects. The heat early in the month killed at least four Vermonters and dozens in Quebec. July was drier than normal, but we didn't set any records for dryness. However, the extreme heat increased evaporation, so the ground dried out a lot more than it otherwise would have. You can actually see wilted, dead trees, killed by the dryness along Interstate 89 in Colchester, for instance.

If you thought it was hot in New England, and it certainly was, it was worse elsewhere. Death Valley, California just finished up the hottest month ever recorded anywhere in the United States. The mean temperature of 108 degrees (!!!) exceeded the record  of 107.4 degrees set just last year.

The many heat waves across the Northern Hemisphere seem to keep going. Record high temperatures were reported from Norway to Germany this week. A new heat wave developing in Portugal, Spain and France could bring all time European record high temperatures in the coming days.

It's true it's cool in some parts of the world -  parts of far northern Canada had a cool July and parts of the upper Midwest weren't super hot in July. However, all these heat waves do seem to overwhelm things. To me, a likely sign of global warming, climate change, whatever you want to call it.

HOT NEW ENGLAND OUTLOOK

Back here in Vermont, there's no rest for the heat weary. It's going to remain very warm and humid at least through next Tuesday, I'm afraid.

A warm front is trying to work its way up from the south today, which will set off scattered showers and thunderstorms. A few storms, especially south, and out towards New York's St. Lawrence Valley, might be strong this afternoon.

We still need the rain, so let's hope non-severe showers are widespread tonight. We'll see.

That warm front will make it even more humid going forward over the next few days. Daily highs will be in the 80s, with some 90s possibly showing up Thursday, and especially this coming Sunday and Monday.

There will be some hit and miss showers and storms scattered about through most of this period, but especially going into the weekend, I think the rain will be more miss than hit.

For those of you sick of the heat, I know there's no immediate relief in the forecast, but consider this: We're past the peak of summer. During August, normal temperatures in Vermont begin a slow decline. Maybe the heat will begin to wane later this month.

Amazing Heat Record Set In Burlington, Vermont

Just a brief update this morning because I do want to highlight an incredible new record temperature.

A thunderstorm passes over Highgate and Swanton, Vermont, as viewed
from St. Albans last evening If you look at the left edge of the rain shaft,
it looks like there's a bit of a downburst going on. I did see relatively strong
gusty winds with this storm in Highgate. I'd estimate peak winds at 40 mph,
with a few small branches down. The storm failed to break the heat.

The low temperature in Burlington, Vermont on Monday was 80 degrees.

That sets a new record for the lowest minimum temperature for any date, any time in the Queen City. The old record was 78 degrees on several occasions.

By the way, 80 degrees is the normal high temperature for this time of year.

What makes this all time record for highest minimum even more incredible is that it was set in the face of a major obstacle:

A thunderstorm passed near Burlington last evening. That would normally bring a gust front and rain-cooled air to drop the temperature. And it did. Just not enough to prevent this record from being set.

Another big record came on the top of Mount Mansfield. The high temperature there was 84 degrees, tying the all time record high for any date on the mountain summit.

Back down in Burlington, the high temperature of 97 degrees was good enough for a record high for the date.

The low temperature this Tuesday morning was 78 degrees, which would tie the old all time warmest minimum, but with vaguely lower humidity, I think temperatures will cool to the mid-70s or so by midnight tonight.

A so-called cold front came through early this morning to temper the heat, but you'll barely notice. The Excessive Heat Warning in the Champlain Valley has been downgraded to a heat advisory, as the heat index today will "only" make it feel like it's in the mid to upper 90s.

We're still looking at three more days of temperatures exceeding 90 degrees. The humidity is kind of high today and will be tomorrow, but not as high as it was yesterday. Thursday will be a bad day, as temperatures will increase a bit, and the humidity will go up again ahead of a cold front.

But that cold front! First of all, it looks like it's coming in sooner than first thought, which is great news. A couple of days ago it looked like it would come through Friday night. Now we're looking at Friday morning. Which means you'll notice a welcome change in the air Friday afternoon and evening, toward less humidity.

Saturday is still looking great with sunshine and low humidity. It'll warm up again by the start of next week, but not nearly to the levels we're seeing now. Maybe mid-80s will do it by Monday, which isn't all that bad.

Other than a slight chance of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoons, we'll get no more rain until later Thursday or Thursday night as that cold front approaches.

It's humid, but the hot sunshine is affecting your plants and gardens. Keep 'em watered. Keep yourself watered, too, and we all need to stay hydrated.

Mostly Random Thoughts On The Record Arctic Blast As It Concludes

A frigid near -20 view from a web cam at the University
of Vermont in Burlington this morning. Note the steam
on Lake Champlain from the rapidly shrinking part
of the lake that is still not frozen. 

I'm still working on a bit of an opus on how this huge Arctic blast and storminess has become a pawn in the climate change political wars, but since it's still in the minus 20s as I write this early Sunday morning, let's offer a few other bits and pieces on this first.  

RECORD LOWS

There were widespread record lows across the Northeast this morning, including here in Vermont, where Burlington reached 20 below, the first time the temperature there has touched 20 below since January 16, 2009.

It's also the first time Burlington has had a record low since 2015. (During just 2017 in Burlington, 13 record highs were tied or broken.)

Yesterday in Burlington never got above zero, the first time that's happened since January, 2014.

As the day goes on today, I'm sure we'll get lots of reports of new low temperature record set throughout the Northeast today.

The nation is now temporarily having more record lows than record highs, a reversal from the past year. According to NOAA, as of yesterday, 1.275 record low minimums have been recorded across the United States and just 161 record highs. (way out in the western part of the nation.)

The overall longer term trend has had record highs far outpacing record lows. I'm sure global warming has something to do with that. Over the past 365 days, the United States has seen 34,151 record highs and only 10,398 record lows at the many hundreds of weather stations across the country.

With this long Arctic outbreak finally showing signs of petering out, the pace of record highs will start to increase in the coming days and the pace of record lows will surely decrease.

By the way, back here in Vermont, temperatures are now forecast to get well into the 40s by Thursday. A January thaw seems almost definitely on the way.

NOT SHIP SHAPE

One bit of news that came out of that huge, destructive nor'easter that hit last week has me steaming mad at Norwegian Cruise Lines, of all outfits.

The 4,000 passenger cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway sailed into the teeth of the extraordinarily strong nor'easter on a return trip from Bermuda to New York last week and encountered 30 foot swells and hurricane force winds.

Passengers onboard reported water pouring into the ship from all angles, water dripping down elevator shafts, two inches of water in staterooms. Glass shattered everywhere as things fell off shelves. The force of the waves even shattered glass shower doors in guest rooms, reports CBS 2 in New York. 

You can see in a video at the bottom of this post scenes of interior flooding, and outdoors, immense waves and hurricane force winds.

The infuriating thing is Norwegian Cruise lines should have known that storm was there. The cruise company put out a statement saying the ship "encountered stronger than forecasted weather conditions due to winter storm Grayson during the trip's return to New York from the Bahamas."

There's shifting blame for your own mistakes on to an innocent party for you. The size, strength, intensity and general location of this storm had been widely forecast by meteorologists for days before the storm actually developed.  I call bullshit on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Luckily, there were no serious injuries, but there was damage and a lot of vacations were ruined.

CBS 2 contacted other cruise lines, who said they wisely detoured their ships around the southern periphery of the storm to avoid the worst effects of the waves and wind. These maneuvers caused  minor delays in schedules. But who cares? Everybody was safe and sound on those ships.

FAST NEWS FRIENDS

On to a lighter topic: Inevitably, in extreme weather, news stations put their reporters outdoors into the thick of it, where they look miserable as they tell us the obvious: It's nasty out.

In Belmar, New Jersey, WNBC Reporter Tracie Strahan was out on a beach boardwalk during the storm, near a coffee shop that was closed due to the storm. This gal needed coffee!

Enter "Mikey Bones" as the reporter called him, Mike Flint of Neptune, New Jersey, who brought coffee to our intrepid reporter. The two became fast friends on air. The affable Mike, with his thick Jersey accent and goofy smile, just made the news report so much better and you can see Strahan get much happier on air with Mike, and the coffee.

Video is below, followed by that video from the storm-tossed Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

The famous "Mikey bones blizzard television interview from last week:



The Norwegian Cruise Line in the big storm, where it shouldn't have gone:

This Will Be Burlington, Vermont's Hottest August On Record

Boaters seek cool Lake Champlain breezes on
a very warm evening on August 8 near Burlington,
Vermont. This will be the area's hottest August on record.

Did you sweat much this month? Even in normally cool and comfortable Vermont?

There's a reason for that. August, 2016 is a shoo-in for the hottest August on record.

It looks like the average temperature for the month will come in somewhere in the ballpark of 73.5 to 73.7 degrees, depending on what the temperature does today and tomorrow.

Either way, that would comfortably (or maybe uncomfortably) exceed the previous record for the hottest August, which was 73.1 degrees in 1947.

That might come as a surprise, since we didn't have too much in the way of extreme heat. Oh, sure it was 96 degrees on August 11. But only one other day this month made it above 90.

This month, the warmth and heat was consistent. There weren't any blasts of cool Canadian air that we normally get on occasion during the summer.

So far, 23 days made it to 80 degrees or more in Burlington during August It hasn't gotten any cooler than 52 degrees, in a month that historically has been as chilly as 35 degrees (in 1965.)

A warm August, 2016 evening along the shores of
Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont.  

May, June and July were warmer than average, too. Which prompted a remark by somebody where I work that I don't think I've ever heard in Vermont before, given our long winters: "I'm done with summer. We've had too much of it."

Personally, I wouldn't go that far, but it has been a pretty warm summer. It's gotten to 90 degrees or more 12 times, not a record, but twice the number we normally get in a summer.

By the way, although I haven't examined it closely, I'm sure other cities in the Northeast will also have their hottest August on record this year, or at least come close.

For those of you who DO want a break from summer, I have some good news. A cold front will coem through Wednesday, and September will open with a spell of sort of autumnal weather.

Highs Thursday and Friday in Vermont will only get into the 60s to maybe a few low 70s and overnight lows will drop down into the 40s. Such weather is perfectly normal for early September, but still, it will be the chilliest it's been since about the third week in May.

Summer partisans can also cheer: It'll warm up again as we go through the Labor Day weekend.

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

Remarkably Long Stretch Of Vermont Warmth Peaking

It's been remarkably warm in Vermont and much of the
Northeast since early August, so I'll give you this
photo to cool off for now.  

Yesterday, September 7, Burlington, Vermont tied its record high for the date of 94 degrees. Sunday, Burlington tied a record high of 90 degrees.

A remarkably long stretch of hot weather is peaking, and there are several pretty impressive stats on the warmth that began earlier this summer and continued into September.

A plethora of records has been tied or broken in and around Burlington the past few days.

That 94 degree reading Monday was tied for the third hottest temperature of any September day, in records going back to the 1880s.

Monday was also Burlington's hottest Labor Day on record. The low temperature of 72 degrees was a record high minimum for the date. And the water temperature in Lake Champlain was 75 degrees on Monday, the latest in the season the water has been so warm.

A  truly wild thing is how persistent the warmth has been in the second half of this summer.

The last cooler than normal day in Burlington was August 8, when it was a middling six degrees chillier than average.

Every day since then has been warmer than average except for August 27 which was exactly normal, National Weather Service data shows.  Today will be the 31st day in a row with at or above normal temperatures.

It's very unusual for temperatures to stay at or above normal for that long. I don't know what the record for longest at or above normal streak is, but we have to be up there in Burlington.

The hot streak is even more impressive around New York City. As of yesterday, Central Park had had 60 consecutive days of temperatures of 80 degrees or more. That's a record long stretch. Newark, New Jersey as of yesterday had 65 consecutive days of 80 or more, also a record

The streak will continue this week.  Temperatures in Vermont and the rest of New England will be way, way above normal during the first half of the week. Some record highs, and some record high low temperatures are possible in some areas today and Wednesday.

Other areas have been hot, too. Many cities in the Pacific Northwest had their hottest summer on record.

Caribou, Maine, having survived its coldest winter on record earlier this year, had its hottest August on record.

Caribou is just one example of how the late summer warmth is a big contrast to this past February, which was one of the coldest on record. In Burlington, Vermont, the 38 days ending on March 3, only two days were warmer than normal. And even then, just barely.

The recent warmth has not made up for the early year cold. The year 2015 is so far still running a bit cooler than average in Burlington. That's a contrast to the world as a whole, which is on pace to have its hottest year on record.

Blame El Nino and climate change for that hot world temperature streak. 

In Burlington, the way I see it, the first chance of breaking the long stretch of higher than normal temperatures is Saturday or Sunday, but even that is iffy. Readings will be pretty close to normal next weekend.

I don't see signs of any super nasty cold waves coming in through mid-September.

By the way, yesterday was the seventh day of 90 degree readings this year. Normal for a summer is about six, so Burlington isn't too far off that mark.

It's been wicked dry lately, too. Only 0.02. inches of rain has fallen on Burlington since August 22. That is until very early this morning, when an additional 0.14 fell. Whoop de doo.

Rain, some of it even locally heavy, is due in Vermont midweek. At least we hope so.

Awesome Satellite View of Spring Snow Melt In Vermont/Northern New York.

On April 12 in this screen shot from a NWS Burlington
Vermont video, a satellite image shows bare
ground in the Champlain Valley and ice breaking up
in Lake Champlain, but much of the rest of the
region still buried under snow and ice.  n

The National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont today released a cool video showing the progression of early spring over most of Vermont, Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks of New York.

The view is via NOAA's MODIS visible satellite images, which can get down to pretty good detail in a relatively small area, like Vermont and northern New York.

The National Weather Service put images April 1, 12, 15 and 19 up in the video for comparison. They picked these days because skies were crystal clear, so no clouds were in the way of the view.

On April 1, everything is covered in snow except for a few evident bare patches in parts of the Champlain Valley.

By April 12, all of the Champlain Valley is clear of snow and ice is beginning to break up on Lake Champlain. Pretty much everyone else is snow covered. Things progress to Sunday, April 19, with snow only in the highest elevations, and no ice on Lake Champlain.

Things are beginning to backslide a little bit, temporarily of course.  Snow and sleet fell for a time this morning at mid and high elevations of New York and Vermont, though that had mostly changed to rain showers region wide by noon today.

Later this week and this weekend, a few inches of fresh snow might dust the mountains again as a chilly, unsettled spell of weather takes hold.

But soon enough, similar MODIS satellite images won't look so brown. Trees and fields will green up in another month or so, and the satellite images of Vermont on a clear day will be largely green instead of brown, as spring continues its unsteady advance toward the North Country.  

Here's the video:

Dramatic "Light Pillars" Grace Skies Around Burlington, Vermont This Morning

Light pillars loom in the sky
over Burlington, Vermont International
Airport early this morning. Photo
from National Weather Service,
South Burlington, Vermont.  

The National Weather Service office in Burlington, Vermont posted a photo they took on social media of amazing light pillars that became visible before dawn over the area.

Light pillars appear as columns of light directly upward from an unshielded light.

They form during very cold weather when plate-shaped ice crystals that normally are high up in the atmosphere float close to the ground instead. Horizontal sections of the crystals reflect the light back downward, says Atmospheric Optics. 

The pillars are aren't really a physical presense. Instead, they are a collection of light beams from millions of ice crystals which are reflecting light toward your eyes. The crystals that create the pillars are about halfway between you and the lights.

The higher the crystals are in the sky the taller the light pillar will appear.

The ice crystals this morning seemed to extend pretty high up, judging from the size of the light pillars towering over the Burlington International Airport terminal in the photo.

The weather was certainly right for light pillar formation around Burlington before dawn today. The temperature was a little below zero, winds were calm, and ice crystals could just sort of float around and create the pillars.

See? Even nasty cold nights can be beautiful sometimes.

Vermont's Cool Streak Extended Through April

Technically, anyway, April in Burlington, Vermont was on the cool side.

Snow on the ground in St. Albans, Vermont on April 16.
The month that just ended was a little cooler than average. 

The mean temperature for the month was 44.6 degrees or 0.2 degrees cooler than normal.

Essentially, that's normal, but if you want to get strict about it, April was the sixth consecutive cooler than average month in Burlington. We've been in kind of a temperature rut. You have to go back to October to find a warmer than average month

At least April was nothing like March, which for Vermont as a whole was the coldest on record. We actually pulled off some spring like days in April, which is a good thing.

April showers were abudant this year. The month's rainfall came to 3.66 inches, which was 0.84 inches wetter than average.

That's not extreme, though. The record wet April, in 2011, had Burlington drowning in 7.88 inches of precipitation.

There's no telling if May will break the cool streak. Today will be on the warm side, but the next few days after that look to be on the chilly, damp side.

But at least it won't go below zero again until November at the earliest