FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports10.06.11 Coldest Morning/Dry Streak Record?

10.06.11 Coldest Morning/Dry Streak Record?

Many of us woke up to a frosty morning today with temperatures in the 20s and 30s.  This was the coldest temperature of the season for many of us, including Burlington, Vermont.

At the National Weather Service office in South Burlington, VT the morning low temperature Thursday was 31 degrees.  That's measured at the Burlington Int'l Airport. That's also the coldest overnight low temperature in 167 days!

April 22, 2011 was the last time Burlington was that cold.  In fact it dropped below that mark, into the upper 20s.  Interestingly enough, it dropped to 31 degrees in South Burlington, but only 34 degrees at our studio in Colchester, VT! (about 70 feet higher than the airport).

On a separate note, we could break another record!

This time it's a good one folks.  No more record snow.  No more record rain.  No more record floods.  Let's talk about record dry!!!

There's no doubt 2011 has been a wet year.  In fact, the longest stretch of weather that we've had without getting rain or snow, is just eight days! That's it.  That surprised me.

That fact is from the airport in South Burlington.  The least amount of precipitation that registers is Trace.  Burlington had plenty of those this year.  What I looked for was several 0.00's in a row. 

That's a nice way to start! ^^

Here are the currently streaks as they stand.

4 dry days in a row:  September 9-12, 16-19

6 dry days in a row: July 31-August 5

8 dry days in a row: May 6-13

In Burlington, VT Wednesday was day 1.  The airport did not receive any precipitation on the 5th day of October.

This is the first time in a long while that I haven't put a rain drop on the seven-day forecast.  Sure there will be days with a few clouds, but rain-free.  Including Wednesday with this forecast, we could certainly tie the driest weather streak, mentioned above, in May.

Here's what is going on.  We talk about pressures all the time, and we'll do it again here.  A high pressure area is sinking down from Canada today and it's going to hold strong across the area.  When we have high pressure, imagine the atmosphere pushing down on us.  It's associated with sinking air, air that has a higher pressure here at the surface.  Sinking air dries and that's why we usually see a clear sky.

I expect the high pressure ridge to last until next week.  The high pressure is strong.  It can be seen at all levels of the atmosphere from the surface, to 40,000 feet up.  This will be a nice time to dry out for a change.

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