VT Summer 2020 Recap

This post is my last one in the four-part series that recapped August and summer 2020 weather in Connecticut and Vermont. For yesterday's recap of summer 2020 weather in Connecticut, see the link here. Meteorological summer is defined as June 1 to August 31, so that period will be the focus of this post. Again, I will focus on Burlington International Airport (BTV) in Burlington, VT.

Temperatures

We had one daily high record temperature set this summer, occurring on June 23. On that date, BTV had a high temperature of 96 °F, which broke the previous June 23 record of 93 °F. For me, the most interesting record of the summer of BTV was the greatest number of consecutive days where the temperature did not drop below 60 °F. On August 6, the temperature dropped below 60 °F for the first time in 41 days, breaking the old streak record of 37 days, set in 1898.

(NOAA Regional Climate Centers/xmACIS)

There were 3 heatwaves at BTV this summer, the longest of which being 6 days and ending on June 23. In summer 2019, there were no heatwaves at BTV. The daily high temperature recorded in Burlington was greater than or equal to 90 °F on 18 different days this summer. In a normal summer, we'd only have 4.8 days where the maximum temperature is >= 90 °F.

To further examine the temperatures of the summer, I like to look at cooling degree days (CDD), which are a measurement that attempts to determine how much energy is needed to cool buildings (with 65 °F being the temperature to which they get cooled). This summer, we had 766 CDDs, which is a record for BTV. If you had air conditioning, you likely spent a lot of money on it this summer.

Total historical summer cooling degree days for BTV (NOAA Regional Climate Centers/xmACIS)

Like at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, BTV had its warmest summer on record this year, with an average temperature of 72.3 °F, breaking the old record of 72.2 °F set in 1949. In a normal year, the average temperature would be 68.4 °F, giving us a departure from normal of 3.9 °F.

Historical summer average temperatures (°F) at BTV (NOAA Regional Climate Centers/xmACIS)

Summertime temperatures have been trending upwards, as evidence by the positive sloping regression line in the above graph. It is significant, though, that summer 2020 was the warmest on record.

Precipitation

In terms of precipitation, BTV had a fairly typical summer, though slightly dry. We had 10.94 inches of rainfall this summer, when a normal year as 11.76 in., meaning that 93% of the expected total precipitation fell this summer. Though we were mostly dry this summer and playing catchup to "normal precipitation" (the brown line in the graph below) on August 11 and 12 we had actually accumulated more summertime rain than the expected amount for those days.

BTV summer 2020 accumulation (NOAA Regional Climate Centers/xmACIS)

The big upward trend in the above graph occurred thanks to Tropical storm Isaias, which brought 2.50 in. of rain to BTV on August 5. Also, note that it was especially dry during June, when the green line really does not slope upwards at all.

While BTV did see a fairly normal total summer precipitation this year, much of the state was very dry, as evidenced in the map below.

 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers)

While Burlington, VT is abnormally dry right now, eastern parts of the state are experiencing a moderate drought.

Wrap Up

Summer is always a spectacular time to be in Vermont, and this summer did not disappoint. Though it was hot, there were some spectacular weather days. Isaias brought some much needed rain to the state on August 4, and there were some exciting convective storms throughout the summer.

Vermont is known for its fall foliage. This year, however, I'm curious as to how radiant it will be, since it was so dry this summer. We'll have to wait and see!