Long, Drawn Out Vermont Hot Spell Starts Today

Blue skies as far as the eye could see yesterday in Vermont as
a spell of very warm weather starts. This is looking north from
St. Albans, Vermont. You can make out hills in the distance
near Montreal. 

In those relatively rare occasions when Vermont goes for days on end of very warm to hot often humid weather, these spells almost always wait until July and August to happen. June hot spells usually last a day or two, then fade away pretty quickly.

Not this time.

Starting today, we are in for an early version of a lenghty hot spell, one that could conceivably last until next Wednesday.

At first, the humidity won't feel too bad at all. Notice how refreshing it felt early this morning.  By this afternoon, most of us will be well into the 80s.

Humidity levels will slowly come up. By the weekend and early next week, it will feel quite oppressive.

All his is part of a larger weather pattern that will keep a very warm dome of air - a high pressure system - especially over much of New England and southeastern Canada.

Some record highs are possible in parts of northern Maine and southern Quebec.

Here in Vermont, it doesn't really look like we'll have record highs -- with daily daytime readings expected to be well into the 80s to around 90 through early next week. Forecast highs in Burlington, for instance are between 86 and 88 degrees today through next Tuesday.

The fact that it has been so dry will help afternoon temperatures get warmer than they otherwise would.

If there were a lot of ground moisture from heavy rains, that moisture would percolate into the atmosphere, making it even more humid, but suppressing temperatures a bit.  The pre-existing dryness will help boost temperatures.

The dryness will be an increasing problem for most of us during this spell of very warm weather.  Starting Friday, then ramping up a little bit over the weekend and early next week, the warm, humid air will help fire up some scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms.

Most of these storms would be in the higher terrain. They'll be slow movers, so those lucky enough to get hit by one of these things will get some needed downpours. The trouble is, most of us will miss out, or get so little rain from the edges of these storms that it won't make a difference.

What I regard as a developing drought will only get worse during this hot spell.

It's unclear when any kind of cold front will sweep through with some refreshing air.  The best guess now is next Wednesday. If we're lucky, the cold front come come a day or so sooner than that. If we're unlucky, we'll need to wait until the end of next week to see any relief.

Roller Coaster May Was Near "Average" But Not Really

A St. Albans, Vermont daffodil shivers in the snow on May 9. By
the end of the month  the same gardens were wilting in record heat

If you like changeable weather, May was surely your month here in Vermont.

The weather gave us a little bit of everything: Snow, record heat, subfreezing cold and severe weather.  No locusts that I'm are of, though.

This was the only May on record in Burlington with both measurable snow and 90 degree heat. As reported last week, that 95 degree reading on the 27th was the hottest temperature on record for the month of May, besting the old record by two degrees.

If you take all the extremes we had this month, you end up with a May with near normal temperatures.  Never mind that there were few actual days that were near normal.  Combine near record cold with record heat and you get something lukewarm, I guess.

In Burlington, the mean temperature for May, 2020 was 57.9 degrees, or 1.6 degrees above normal. Most other weather stations in northern Vermont, including Montpelier, St Johnsbury and Morrisville,  had a month that averaged out a little on the cool side.

If you ignore the Mother's Day weekend snows, the record heat near the end of the month and two severe weather outbreaks - which is a lot to ignore - the month overall was quite pleasant, with plenty of sunny days.

It was a dry May in Vermont, meaning garden irrigation got off
to an early start 

The inevitable result of all those sunny days, of course, is a dearth of precipitation. All of Vermont was solidly on the dry side in May.

That ranged from just a bit below normal in St. Johnsbury to more than a half inch below normal in precipitation elsewhere.

Both Burlington and Montpelier were on the dry side by nearly an inch, and Springfield's May precipitation was nearly an inch and a half below normal.

When it did rain in May, it was sometimes accompanied by dangerous weather. One round of severe weather prompted a tornado warning in southwestern Vermont on May 15. Though no tornadoes touched down in Vermont, there were aeveral reports of wind damage in the southern half of the state.

Another round of severe weather caused scattered damage throughout Vermont, but especially in the southwestern part of the state again.  I also saw some minor erosion damage around from torrential downpours. You can get that during dry months, even.

True to form, May closed with another wild shift in the weather with another cold shot. Snow was reported yesterday atop Mount Mansfield. Especially during light rain showers, mid-afternoon temperatures dipped into the 40s across northern Vermont at a time of day and year when it should have been around 70 degrees.

As June opened this morning, scattered frost iced up a few parts of Vermont and surrounding areas. It was 27 degrees in Saranac Lake, New York this morning and 32 degrees in Bennington. It was 39 degrees in Burlington, making it I believe the first time in several years that Burlington got under 40 degrees in June.

Welcome To Autumn! What's With This Humid Warmth?

A bit of foliage last Sunday over northwest Vermont.  It's gotten
even more colorful over the past week.

Astronomical autumn officially arrived at 3:50 a.m. this morning, but it sure didn't feel like it here in Vermont.

After a rather summery day, south winds and clouds kept temperatures up overnight to welcome autumn. And I mean way up. 

Much of the Green Mountain State was in the 70s as dawn broke on this first day of autumn. Usually, the high temperature this time of year is in the upper 60s, so as you can see, it was balmy.

And humid. Dew points were in the 60s, which equates to a rather muggy July morning.  Certainly not like the third week in September.  

While this early morning warmth  and humidity is definitely unusual for this time of year, it's not unheard of. It can get more extreme. You might remember an unprecedented three-day heat wave with 90 degree temperatures in late September, 2017 as an example.

Plus, this morning's warmth won't last. A cold front is on our doorstep, and will pass through by this evening. A good part of today will be warm and rather humid, with highs staying in the 70s in the northwestern part of our area and getting into the 80s as you go south and east.  A few places in southern New England could reach 90 degrees today.

Despite this weekend's warmth and this morning's mugginess, fall foliage is coming on faster than it has in recent years. By traditional standards its right on schedule. But the past few autumns have been super warm, so foliage was late. I guess not this year.

The next cool down gets underway in earnest tonight. But don't expect anything super chilly in the near future.

Normal temperatures this time of year are falling fast day by day. Tomorrow will feel a bit chilly, but temperatures will be right around normal. (It'll be in the 60s during the day.) There will be a few showers around, but it won't rain all day.

We could use the rain, though. I mentioned the other day the weather pattern is still favoring rather sunny, dry weather in our neck of the woods. The U.S. Drought Monitor has a good chunk of Vermont under abnormally dry conditions. That's not drought, but we could be heading that way if things stay dry.

I don't mean to be alarmist, though. Our wells aren't going to go dry.  There will be several chances of rain in Vermont over the next week or so, though each episode will probably feature scattered showers with light amounts of rain.

As we get later into the fall, we typically get into larger, more drenching rain storms, especially from about Halloween into November. So that will help, if things go according to plan.

With that eastern North American ridge firmly in place, expect temperatures on most days into early October to be near or above normal. There could easily be a few cold days, but most of the time, it will be mild.

Hit And Miss Showers Missing Some Parts Of Vermont Too Often

Parts of my gardens in St. Albans, Vermont.  The flowers are blooming
only because I've had to water frequently. And, unlike last year, I've
gotten lucky: A couple rounds of hit and mostly miss showers
and storms hit me in the past week or so. 

As darkness fell last evening around my place in St. Albans, Vermont, I was still out there tending my gardens, when...splish, splash. It suddenly began to rain. At a fairly good clip.

What a pleasant surprise! I knew there was a chance of a few scattered showers, but I figured there would be more misses than hits. It turns out there were more misses than hits, but I got lucky.

 It was only about a quarter inch of rain, but I'll take it. Most places in Vermont got nothing, or next to nothing.  

We've had a lot of warmer than normal weather since late June at least, and that tends to make things dry out faster. In the summer, there's rarely a nice general soaking rain. It's always a bunch of showers and thunderstorms, with winners getting a nice soaking and the losers, well, losing out.

The rain has been generally more scattered and sporadic this summer than usual. Between the heat and the lack of storms, it's getting dry. Not nearly as bad as last year, when much of Vermont was in a drought, but still dry.

I have a feeling that the next U.S. Drought Monitor, which comes out weekly on Thursdays, might start popping up an "abnormally dry" status in parts of Vermont, which is their lowest status in a five-tier ranking of how dry it is. Currently the U.S. Drought Monitor doesn't have any part of the Green Mountain State listed as dry.

Since July 14, Burlington, Vermont has only had 0.8 inches of rain. The rough rule of thumb is you should get about an inch of rain per week to keep things nice and wet and lush in the summer. Certain areas of the Burlington area have gotten less than that. I was working in a client's garden on the Burlington/South Burlington border yesterday and it was basically a dust bowl.

I had trouble with another South Burlington client in June, as parts of their property were a swamp and inaccessible from all the rain. Now their lawn is brown and dry.

Here in St. Albans, I'll be back to watering my gardens as soon as tonight, even with last night's rain. A torrential downpour this past Wednesday dried up quickly, and my garden plots were dusty by Friday afternoon.

We're not expecting much in way of rain anytime soon. Although there are daily chances of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday through at least Friday as a series of seasonably weak weather systems pass through.

It'll be hit or miss with these, too.  Once we get toward into the autumn, storm systems will generally transition into ones that bring more widespread, steady rains, so we have that to look forward to. Or, the remains of some tropical systems can start giving us better rains in the late summer or autumn, but that's very iffy.

The sunny weather of late has certainly been fantastic to enjoy the outdoors, so we have that to be thankful for.  I might be complaining about a relative lack of rain, but it has been a gorgeous, if at times toasty summer so far.

Super Hot July Ends With Another Big Bang

A distant thunderstorm looms over a still, muggy Malletts Bay,
Colchester, Vermont Wednesday to close out the
the third hottest July o record. 

July ended with a bang - literally - across parts of Vermont as another round of thunderstorms ushered out a near-record hot month.

Wednesday's storms weren't as extensive or destructive as those on Tuesday. Still, one strong storm cut power and flooded streets across St. Albans, Vermont.  Trees and power lines went down in Bridport.

The storms ushered in a welcome cold front. It's much nicer - and cooler - as we open up August today. but it remains to be seen whether August will be another hot one or not.

In Burlington, Vermont, the mean temperature for July was 74.9 degrees, which was 4.3 degrees hotter than normal. It was also the third hottest July on record, with data going back to the 1880s.

Temperatures in Burlington reached 90 or more on seven days. We normally get about five days per year with 90 degree temperatures, so we're already ahead of the game heading into August. Only two days in July failed to make it to 80 degrees. We usually get many more cool days than that.

The only hotter Julys in the data base are 76.0 degrees just last year and 75.3 degrees in 1921. Interesting, four of the top ten hottest Julys in Burlington have happened since the year 2000.

A thunderstorm approaches Georgia, Vermont Wednesday afternoon,
signalling the arrival of cooler air. July was the third hottest on record.

It was a hotter than normal month throughout the rest of Vermont and New England, too. Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut both clocked in with their hottest month on record this year.  Not just hottest July, but hottest month.

Eric Fisher, meteorologist at WBZ in Boston, explains that Boston  had a record number of July nights that failed to drop below 70 degrees.

Also, the only two months in Boston that had a mean low temperature of 70 degrees or higher were August, 2018, yes, last year and July, 2019.  Nights are getting warmer, it seems.

For the most part, July was dry up here in Vermont, as thunderstorms were few and far between. But they had some gusto where they did hit. Montpelier was the exception to the dry July.  They had 5.62 inches of rain, which is 1.5 inches above normal. Half of that total came in just the last four days of the month.

If you're sick of muggy, hot air, I do have a bit of good news. There's no real sign of another significant spell of sticky weather for at least a week or more.

A Brief, Semi-Break From Our Early Winter?

Subzero cold this morning created frost on my side view
mirror, so visibility was bad there until I scraped it.

It was damn cold across the North Country once again this morning, with most areas in the northern half of Vermont, plus New York and New Hampshire dipping below zero.

I saw reports of 19 below zero in Saranac Lake, New York, 20 below in Lake Eden, Vermont and a bone-numbing 21 below in Island Pond, Vermont early this morning. The "warm" spots near Lake Champlain were just above zero.

There are uncertain hints that we might get a brief reprieve from our early cold and snowy winter, but it may not last long. Plus we're going to have to wait awhile for this alleged warmer air to get here.

We don't expect it to be as cold as this morning for the next week, but temperatures will remain generally below normal through about next Thursday. That means highs in the 20s and lows in the single numbers to low teens most days through then. (Tomorrow might be "mild" with highs near 30.)

The New England snow machine has finally been temporarily turned off as well, so we can give our aching backs a rest. Aside from some light snow showers Saturday night that will drop an inch or less of new snow, it'll be mostly dry through Thursday.

Places like North Carolina still look like they're going to get dumped on with snow and ice this weekend, but that storm will stay far south of us and out of our hair.

And sun! Did I mention sun? It came out yesterday afternoon! Yes, it was pretty chilly, but at least it was bright. More sun will grace the skies on most days between tomorrow and Thursday. Some sun looks likely this morning, but it will cloud up this afternoon. Oh, well. Still, it's been so cloudy lately that any glimpses of blue sky are a bonus.

That anticipated warm up, if it comes, looks to hit starting next Friday and into next weekend. A storm looks to travel to the west of us. The good news is temperatures might get a little above  normal for a few days for a change. The bad news is we might end up getting mixed precipitation, rain and wind from this system. Stay tuned.

It's too late for Indian Summer, and it's going to be a long winter, so we'll take any breaths of mild air we can get.

Finally, Some Rain Coming, But Not Enough

Over the past 24 days, Burlington, Vermont has had only 0.01 inches of rain - a real pittance.

Though it's not nearly as dry as it was at this time last
year, it's starting to dry out too much in the Northeast
especially in Downeast Maine Yellow spots
depict areas that are abnormally dry. Eastern Maine
is in moderate drought. This is a map from nearly
a week ago. An update tomorrow will probably
show even drier conditions. 

It's getting pretty dry in Vermont. We need the rain this fall, mostly to recharge the ground water before things freeze up for the winter.

It's not as bad as the early part of last fall, when most of us were in a substantial drought and forest fires were breaking out, but it's dry. And at least last year we had good rains in late October and November to fix things up.

It looks like we'll finally get some rain tonight. Not much, but anything helps. And the rain might end up avoiding southern Vermont. Still, the quarter inch of rain or so many of us can expect tonight will at least dampen things up and stop leaving things so dusty.

Actually a few showers could become gusty thunderstorms in northern New York and northwestern Vermont this evening. It's a bit late in the season for something like that to happen, but it can.

The forecast going into this weekend is uncertain, but it does look like there are at least some more rain chances through early next week. How much depends on how cold fronts, surges of subtropical moisture and other factors interact.

It also looks like we will stay on the warm side. The upper 70s expected today in and around Burlington, Vermont are not too far away from the record high for the date of 82 degrees,

Depending on how much sunshine works between the clouds Sunday and Monday, we're looking at temperatures that could flirt with 80 degrees on those days, too. Of course, if cold fronts are faster or if it's rainier than we think it will be on those days, it will be somewhat cooler.

But whatever happens, bring on the rain!

Vermont Just Ended A Very Warm, Dry Year.

This image pretty much sums up Vermont's weather
in 2016, which was very warm and very dry. The
photo shows a forest fire burning in October
southeast of Richmond, Vermont amid fall foliage.

Most of the climatologists out there say 2016 was the warmest year on record.

Here in Vermont, we got close to the top spot, but not the winner.

If you take the data from the National Weather Service office in South Burlington, 2016 was the second warmest year on record.

The mean temperature for 2016 was 49.2 degrees. Only 2012 was hotter, coming in at 49.9 degrees.

Records for Burlington go back all the to the 1880s, but the top five hottest years in Burlington have happened since 1998, which is a blink of an eye in terms of climatology.

The year was definitely dry, too. The National Weather Service office in South Burlington measured just 27.73 inches of precipitation, which is about nine inches below average.

That's not among the Top 10 driest years, but you can see how the drought, that's really still ongoing in Vermont, slowly developed during the year.

Things looked OK in February, as we had the seventh wettest February on record. March rainfall was about normal, but each of the rest of 2016's months were drier than normal. None broke records for driest, but combined with the consistently warmer than normal temperatures the drought kept deepening through the year.

Wetter weather sort of returned in December, with very close to normal precipitation. Only a tiny corner of eastern Vermont is in severe drought, as opposed to much of the state a few months ago.

Most of the state is still in moderate drought. We'd better have a wet winter and spring.

Other climate highlights, as measured at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington

---- The winter of 2015-16 was the third least snowy winter on record, with just 34.3 inches of snow.  This winter, we're already up to 21 inches and it's only January 1.
---- February was the eighth warmest and sevenenth wettest on record.
---- March was the 11th warmest on record.
---- August was the warmest on record.
---- September was the second warmest on record. Only the year before - 2015 - was hotter. September was also the 7th driest on record.
----- There were 86 days in 2016 that reached 80 degrees or more in Burlington. That's more than any other year.

Storm clouds loom over Starksboro, Vermont in June.
Despite the dry conditions, there were several rounds
of severe thunderstorms in the state in 2016.

Other notable weather events in 2016:  

January 10: A strong storm brought rare mid-winter thunderstorms to much of Vermont. Strong downslope winds on the west slopes of the Green Mountains, gusting to near 70 mph, brought down numerous trees and branches, especially around Underhill and Cambridge. Burlington reached a record high of 53 degrees.

Click on this sentence for video of the Underhill/Cambridge wind.

February 24: A strong storm that brough severe weather and tornadoes to much of the eastern United States unleashed heavy rain on Vermont. Ice jams and flooding was reported along the Lamoille and Missisquoi rivers, among other places.

March 9: A high temperature of 70 degrees in Burlington was the earliest 70 degree reading on record.

April 4-6 and 26-29: Strong cold waves nipped buds that had started growing too early due to high early spring temperatures. This cut down on fall fruit harvests, and prevented many spring blossoms from blooming. Snowfall of 2 to 5 inches on April 26 made the chill seem even worse.

An isolated thunderstorm erupts over northern
New York state at sunset on July 23, as
viewed from St. Albans, Vermont

May 27-29: An early season heat wave brought temperatures into the 90s, with a record high of 91 at Burlington On May 27.

High heat and humidity cut short the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington on May 29 as heat and humidity was causing many medical problems.  

Later on May 29, severe thunderstorms ahead of an approaching cold front knocked down hundreds of trees and cut power in Franklin County.  Click here for a video of the storm in Franklin County

July 18: Severe thunderstorms caused scattered damage around northern Vermont. A supercell with a rotating wall cloud was observed over Lake Champlain near Colchester, but no tornado or waterspout touched down.  

July 22-23: Two days of severe thunderstorms caused damage throughout Vermont and killed one person. The storms on the night of July 22 produced near continuous lightning over northern Vermont.

The storms were worse on July 23. A man was killed by a falling tree in Hubbarton, and many boaters had to be rescued from Lake Champlain as the fast moving storms rolled throught. Thousands lost electricity in the high winds.

Click on this sentence to see heavy hail during one of these storms on July 23 in Shelburne, Vermont.

August 28: Storms in northwest Vermont dumped up to four inches of rain in a few hours in parts of northern Vermont north of Route 2. Flashf flood warnings were issued

Click on this setence to see a dramatic, fast moving shelf cloud with one of these storms over St. Albans, Vermont.  

Snow begins to accumulate during a
November snowstorm in St. Albans, Vermont

Late Sept/Early Oct: Scattered forest fires broke out amid foliage season in Vermont as the continuing drought left the region parched.

Oct 23-27: After what had been a rather warm October, several snowfalls hit mid and high elevations in Vermont. Jay Peak recorded 30 inches of snow over the course of the week and Bolton Valley Ski Resort logged 19 inches.

Power outages and slick roads were common in Vermont that week.

Nov. 20-21: Heavy snow caused power failures and tree damage across Vermont, especially the higher elevations of southern Vermont. Woodford, Vermont reported 26 inches of snow.

Dec. 26: High winds caused power failures and tree damage in Vermont's Champlain Valley. Winds gusted as high as 61 mph in South Hero. The Lake Champlain Ferry between Grand Isle, Vermont and Cumberland Head, NY had a rare weather-related shutdown because of the wind.

It's Gorgeous In Vermont, But Maybe Too Much Of A Good Thing Is Making Us Too Dry?

Yellow depict abnormally dry, the darker orange shade
is droubht. As you can see there are already
pockets of drought in New England, and most
of the region is abnormally dry.  

The forecast for the rest of this June Sunday in Vermont is for sunny, hot and dry weather, with readings in the 80s to low 90s.

In other words, a perfect summer day for the beach or a picnic.

We've had lots of such days lately. Which generally is a good thing. The tourists like it and spend money. We like it because we get to do stuff outside in our all-too-brief summer.

But these repeated stretches of sunny, dry weather are starting to become too much of a good thing.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says the entire state of Vermont - and most of New England for that matter - is abnormally dry, just one step below being declared within an official drought.

In fact patches of New England are now considered in a drought, though at least it's not extreme like California's.

If this weather pattern goes on for the rest of the summer, though, Vermont and the rest of New England is definitely at risk for crop damage, water shortages in some towns and maybe even a few forest fires.

The dryness has been slowly building all spring. Precipitation has come in fits and starts. We haven't had any near record dry months, but April, May and so far June have been running below normal.

Some particular weather patterns made soils dry out more than you'd expect when precipitation is only somewhat below normal.

Vermont's very scant snow winter snow cover melted early in March. That allowed sun to penetrate into the ground and dry it out.

April and early May were on the cool side, delaying the leaf out in the trees. That kept the sun drying the forest floor more and more, since there were no leaves on the trees to block the sun for weeks on end.

Finally, the warm to hot spells Vermont has experienced in late May and June have tended to feature pretty low humidity. Usually, hot spells have quite a bit of humidity, which slows evaporation. This year, the humidity is tending to stay low, so things dry out faster.

There is some rain in the forecast. Maybe a little Monday afternoon, and then some showers and thunderstorms Tuesday and Tuesday evening. But these showers don't look like they'll be super soakers, and we'll  probably go back to the generally dry weather again for the second half of the week.

This could turn around and the rest of the summer could be relatively wet, for all I know.  We are DEFINITELY nowhere near any kind of crisis level.

But if I were a farmer or a water manager, I might be starting to get just slightly concerned.

Despite Early Drizzly Showers, Vermont Fire Danger Actually Increases Today

Firefighters work to contain a Bristol, Vermont forest
fire in April, 2013. Conditions are ripe
for similar fires in Vermont this week.  

During that nice weather we had over the weekend, me and many others were warning people to be careful with fire. Blazes could get out of control quickly this time of year in that kind of weather.

Early this morning, it was a bit damp and drizzly in Vermont, especially across the north, after some light overnight rain. Fire danger over, right?

Nope, not by a long shot.

It didn't rain much at all last night, with most places having a quarter inch or less, and southern Vermont getting barely a sprinkle, if anything. So things didn't get wetted down that much.

On top of that, a blast of dry air is coming into Vermont today, which, with the sun, will dry out anything that got even vaguely wet. The difference today, too, is that winds will gust to 30 mph or more, which would quickly spread any fires that start.

By the way, most of New England and the Northeast is in the same boat today. Dry air, sun and strong winds have got a high fire danger stretching from Delaware northward through southern and central New England into eastern New York and Vermont.

Here in Vermont, the fire danger today gets higher the more south you go. Less rain fell last night in the south as mentioned, and they've been drier than the north all spring anyway.

In far southern Vermont, theres a red flag warning, which basically means no outdoor fires and be very much on the lookout for brush fires.

A slightly less dire special weather statement covers the rest of southern and central Vermont, telling people to be very careful with fire.

There are no particular weather statements for far northern Vermont and New York and New Hampshire, but even there, things should dry out this afternoon quite a bit, and with the gusty winds, I'd avoid outdoor burning there too, for sure.

Wednesday and Thursday are going to be very dry, too, so you'll have to watch out then, too. At least then, the wind won't be blowing as strong.

There might be some welcome showers on Friday.

Fire Weather Alerts Point To Too Dry Conditions In The Northeast

A firefighter works to contain a forest fire
near Bristol, Vermont during dry conditions
in the spring of 2013. Similar dry
conditions exist today.  

Today is probably the worst possible day to torch your burn pile, if you have one, pretty much anywhere in the Northeast.

Especially in New York and New England, it will be windy and warm today with low humidity. That's a great recipe to get a nasty brush, grass or forest fire going, especially this time of year.

The dead stuff from last year has dried out in the spring sunshine. Especially in northern areas, trees are just now leafing out, so drying sun is getting to the forest floor.

It hasn't rained much lately, so it's especially dry.  Bottom line: Don't do anything involving fire outside today. And please, smokers, just for once, don't throw your cigarette butts out the car window.

The fire alerts today point to another issue. It's getting pretty dry in the Northeast. That might come as a surprise to people who followed news of all those feet and feet of snow that buried parts of New England over the winter.

But the spring season hasn't been too wet. That was great because we didn't have much heavy rain to combine with snowmelt, which meant there wasn't much spring flooding.

Now, though, New England needs the rain. I noticed it working out in the gardens on Sunday. It's a lot drier than I'm used to this time of year.

The U.S. Drought Monitor has
dry and drought conditions across much of the nation.
 

The U.S. Drought Monitor has New England as abnormally dry, but there's no drought like out in California or other parrs of the western United States.

The dryness in New England and elsewhere represents an expansion of drought or potentially drought conditions in the United States this year.

In New England, the dryness is still far from a crisis, but we need the rain. A cold front tonight will product a paltry set of scattered showers, but no soaking.

Most of the rest of the week will be dry and warm, perfect for outdoor spring activities, but not so great if you want to wet the gardens or you don't want to see us slowly slide toward a drought.

Again, no immediate threat, but we ought to hope some showers due next weekend are heavier than previous forecasts indicate.

Meanwhile, put the matches down and slowly back away. No outdoor burning today, caliche?

In Vermont, September Was Dry, And Wore Two Temperature Faces

On the last day of September, fall foliage
in Richmond, Vermont.  

If you thought September was nice in Vermont, you're right. We had lots and lots of sunny, dry days and not much rain.

Which of course could be a problem.  Yes, I can find the dark side even in pleasant weather.

Much of Vermont had about half, or even less than half of its normal precipitation in September.

For instance, Burlington clocked in with a month's total of 1.63 inches, which was a good two inches below normal.

In case you haven't noticed, it's getting rather dusty out there.  We really could use the rain.

True, it's definitely no crisis yet. Only parts of Vermont and New England are "slightly dry" according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and part of southeastern New England has fallen into "moderate drought."

A few good nor'easters in October and November will take care of the dry problem, but we do need the nor'easters. Or some type of good, repeated soaking rains.

Temperatures for September in Vermont were close to average, but the month really wore two faces. At the beginning and end of the month, it was like August. The middle was like October. We didn't have much in the way of normal September temperatures.

For the record, from the National Weather Service, Burlington's mean temperature for September was 1.6 degrees above normal. However, Montpelier was one degree chillier than normal and St. Johnsbury was almost two degrees on the cool side. Morrisville and Springfield were less than a degree warmer than normal.

The temperature got into the 80s seven times during the month in Burlington, which is more than we usually get. A record high for the date of 83 degrees was set on Sunday.

On the other hand, the temperature dropped to a record tying 32 degrees in Burlington on September 19. That was the earliest freeze there since 1964.

As always, who knows what the next month will bring. I'm sure something interesting will happen in the weather department. It always does.