HARDWICK – Cooler weather is seeping in from the northern half of Canada, as an upper-level low slowly spins just east of Hudson Bay, turning the flow northwesterly and causing lingering clouds and scattered light rain showers.
That air-mass transition became especially evident Monday morning, after an evening of scattered showers and thunderstorms Sunday, bringing about a tenth of an inch of rainfall. This shot of cold air came secondary to another frontal passage on Friday night, with intervals of sun holding on in between for the weekend. Some patchy frost did form in sheltered areas. A temperature of 35 degrees was reported Sunday morning in East Hardwick, with frost evident. The frost was more significant in the headwaters of the Lamoille River, where a hard freeze occurred with a temperature of 31 degrees in Greensboro Bend.
Enough clearing remained Sunday night before the onset of rain to yield a brief aurora window until about 9:30 p.m.; one of many shows we’ve been fortunate enough to see this year.
This week’s lingering upper low will be the focus for scattered showers developing later this afternoon into this evening. The temperatures are low enough that snow may start to fall at the highest elevations of our local area (Stannard Mountain, Coles Pond, Barr Hill, Spruce Mountain), before the precipitation wraps up in the early hours of Thursday morning. Little accumulation is expected.
The best day of the week looks to be Friday, when enough ridging should occur to push the low away and some peeks of sunshine are possible. Another trough starts digging into the Great Lakes, with more precipitation in the queue for the weekend. A warm front approaches Friday night, with a brief period of steady rain for the early daytime hours, some clearing, followed by another batch of rain by late Sunday. This will again change to higher-elevation snow Sunday night into Monday morning above 1500-2000 feet with little accumulation. Here’s a look at the forecast details:
Wednesday: Mostly cloudy. Scattered rain showers developing by late day, possibly mixing with snow at higher elevations overnight. High: 54. Low: 35.
Thursday: Mostly cloudy. Scattered rain or snow showers in the morning. Much cooler. High: 45. Low: 34.
Friday: Mostly sunny. High: 56. Low: 39.
Saturday: Partly sunny. Scattered rain showers in the morning. High: 58. Low: 38.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy, Scattered rain showers in the evening, possibly mixing with snow. High: 47. Low: 34.
Tyler is our weather reporter and a community journalist. He works as a nurse and EMT, volunteers with Hardwick Rescue and helps to train new EMTs.