EAST HARDWICK – Prevailing conditions last week put us in a soupy air mass that coincided with some heat. The moisture hanging around, combined with frontal systems that were slow to move resulted in some pockets of heavy rain that added up quickly. Wednesday evening, parts of Hardwick west of the village into Wolcott saw upwards of four inches of rain by radar estimate. Flash flooding closed some local roads there. The small area of this intense rainfall meant it wasn’t measured by observation station rain gauges, which largely reported somewhere around an inch and a half to two inches of rain region wide for the entire week.
photo by Dawn Gustafson
Montpelier set a record high on June 12 of 89 degrees, breaking the 88-degree record set in 1949. Their overnight low of 67 was the warmest low since 1979, when the record maximum low temperature record was set as the same. Relief from the humidity came with a series of cold fronts that scoured out the heat late Friday, then the humidity during the overnight on Sunday. Temperatures in the wake of these systems on Monday reached the upper 60s and low 70s.
We’re flipping the temperature pattern into persistently cool conditions, thanks to the influence of an upper-level system over Hudson Bay, which will pinwheel some disturbances through the region throughout the forecast period. It will also feature cooler conditions. A weak system passes through New England today, and this will again be repeated each day Friday through Sunday with some scattered showers.
Thursday will be a day to watch as a stronger frontal system approaches from the Great Lakes. This system does have the potential to bring some heavy rain in any thunderstorms that form, along with some gusty winds. Any flash flooding that occurs will be localized. Here are the forecast details:
Wednesday: Partly sunny. Scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High: 74. Low: 50. South wind around 5 mph.
Thursday: Mostly cloudy. Showers and thunderstorms likely. High: 72. Low: 53. Southeast wind 10-15 mph, with gusts to 25 mph.
Friday: Partly sunny. Becoming mostly cloudy with scattered showers in the afternoon. High: 72. Low: 50. West wind 5 to 10 mph with gusts to 20 mph.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy. Scattered showers. High: 66. Low: 48. West wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts to 20 mph.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy. Scattered showers. High: 68. Low: 46. West wind around 5 mph.
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