 |
| Record heat and dry weather in St. Albans, Vermont on Tuesday. May is awfully early to need to start watering well-established perennial beds, but that was the case in this very dry month. Record heat is making the dryness worse. |
Several record highs fell in and around Vermont on Tuesday, and today could be even hotter.
First, here are some of Tuesday's records:
Burlington reached 92 degrees, tying a record set exactly a decade ago. Montpelier also tied its decade old record of 87 degrees.
Elsewhere, Buffalo, New York reached 93 degrees, breaking the record of 88 set in 1944. Yesterday's 93 degrees was the hottest it's been in Buffalo on any date since July 4, 2018. Rochester, New York also set a record for the date of 93 degrees.
The quote, unquote low temperature in Burlington this morning was 72 degrees. If it stays above that level through midnight tonight, it will be the warmest "low" temperature for the month of May on record. The warmest low on record for May in Burlington is 70 degrees, on three dates in the past.
Not only are temperatures here in Vermont starting out warmer in the morning than they did yesterday, the atmosphere as a whole is a tiny bit warmer than it was on Tuesday.
This sets the stage for a possible real record setter. The National Weather Service in Burlington early this morning was forecasting a high of 94 degrees in Burlington, today. That would break the all time record for May of 93 degrees, set in 1977 and 2017.
Montpelier's all time May record of 90 degrees is also definitely threatened.
May heat waves have gotten more frequent in recent years. Temperatures reached into the 90s in May of 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2017.
In 2017, it was 93 degrees in Burlington, tying that all time May high temperature that might be broken today.
The heat is exacerbating the dryness out there. It's been 12 days since we've had any measurable rain. I found myself yesterday watering a well established perennial bed in May, the first time I've had to do that so early in the season.
Isolated thunderstorms could develop, especially over mountainous terrain today, but the vast majority of us won't see any rain.
The next good chance of rain is Friday and Friday night, when some cold fronts will come through. There could be locallly heavy rain with that, but the spots that get the heavy rain will probably be relativey few and far between. But all of us do have a shot of geting a least a little rain heading into the weekend.
By Sunday and Monday, temperatures will actually be fairly far below normal for early June.
