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Autumn arrives as summer leaves; late-week rain precedes sweet fall weekend

Hello and good day to you, residents of lovely Windham County, Vermont! I hope things are well with you. As the world continues to spin, I am grateful for the opportunity each week to keep you updated on our incoming weather.

This week, in particular, is notable in that our large-scale pattern is changing and autumn is arriving and settling in deeper to southern Vermont.

The southeastern U.S. ridge is being pressed further south by incoming Canadian air, and as such, our warmer reprisals will still come but become more anemic and shorter-lasting, at least into the first half of October.

As to our weekly weather picture, Wednesday will be warmer, more humid and showery before we turn cooler. Low pressure then rides along this front to our south and brings a cool autumn rain Thursday night into Friday morning.

After a breezy Friday afternoon, a widespread frost and possible hard freeze for the high terrain of Windham County is expected early Saturday morning. A sweet fall weekend follows with plenty of sunshine and cooler temperatures before more rain arrives early next week.

With the broad brush strokes in place, let's pencil in the finer daily details for the week ahead!

For Wednesday, a sharp cold front will be tracking from north to south through the region sometime between the later morning and early afternoon. Any warming that occurs during the morning may allow temps to reach 70 degrees, although I think highs in the 60s are more likely.

It will be humid as well, and showers, downpours and thunderstorms will be pressing south through the region. As the day wears on, much cooler and drier air will rush in from the north, drying us out, and allowing temps to plummet into the upper 30s and low 40s Wednesday night which should become mostly clear late. This marks the shift from a summer to an autumn pattern.

For Thursday, we will start off with partly sunny skies but clouds will build in during the daylight hours. It will be comparatively cold, with highs only in the upper 40s to mid 50s and scattered showers will build in during the later afternoon and at night, with a widespread rainfall possible.

This will be due to low pressure tracking east along the stalled cold front to our south. Lows Thursday night will drop into the low to mid 40s.

Friday will start off rainy, but high pressure quickly builds in from the west. Northwest winds may gust 20-30 mph as sunshine develops. Highs will reach the low to mid 50s, and winds will slacken at night. As high pressure approaches, the calm wind and clear skies will allow radiational cooling to maximize and a widespread frost is expected with lows in the low to mid 30s.

A beautiful fall weekend is on the way with abundant sunshine, calm conditions, highs in the 50s and lows in the upper 30s on Saturday, and highs near 60 and lows in the 40s on Sunday as clouds build back in.

A brief warm-up into the 60s for early next week will be accompanied by more showery weather which will dry out into the middle of next week. Have a great week!

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