FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports11.27.11 Welcome To The Party St. Johnsbury

11.27.11 Welcome To The Party St. Johnsbury

During this wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, Vermont's Northeast Kingdom has reminded me not to rush through a forecast.  Late last week I could have put "highs in the 50s" and move on.  However when looking at the current observations Friday night a light bulb went off above my head.  Aha!  It's 52 in Rutland, Vermont, but 29 degrees in Lebanon, NH!?! What is going on!

I wrote a blog about how the cold air was getting stuck across our northeast sections in the Green Mountain State.  Cold, dense, heavier air was just stuck in place while warmer, lighter, and less dense air was overriding the surface conditions. 

Finally that set up has broken down!  Well, at least a little bit. 

Here are the past five days of high temperatures observed at the Burlington Int'l Airport:

On Friday Burlington broke out of the cold swing fairly easily.  It helps having a very wide and long valley.  The air mixed down and boosted temperatures.  Meanwhile, look at locations east of the Champlain Valley like Montpelier, VT:

Montpelier had its share of mixing the colder air out, but did not get nearly as warm as Burlington did during the weekend. 

Parts of the Northeast Kingdom were just locked into that cold air the longest.  They finally joined the warm party on Sunday.  Here's a look at St. Johnsbury observed highs.

The temperature finally surpassed the 'average' mark Sunday, with a high in St. J of 46 degrees.  So while Burlington was at 50 Friday and 55 Saturday, parts of the Northeast Kingdom were a good 15 to 20 degrees cooler. 

I guess I could have put "highs today 36-56 degrees" but putting a 20-degree range is a little too much for me :) Now that I have seen the breakthrough, I feel more confident these northeast areas (as well as the rest of the Connecticut River Valley) will get to share some of these warmer temperatures everyone else has been getting.

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