Surface high pressure and a ridge aloft provides a drying and warming trend through the middle to end of the new week. A few showers likely linger into Tuesday. Highs to start the new week only rise into the 60s with lots of cloud cover. Areas south of Montpelier and the afternoon hours see the most showery activity on Monday. Widespread showers likely return on Labor Day, due to weak low pressure moving along the cold front which stalls to the south of Northern New England. Highs tomorrow are a bit tricky to pinpoint but most valley locations make it into the 70s with the warmest readings around 80 coming south. Tomorrow will be far from a washout but not as pleasant as today. Showers take over central and southern areas through midday and the afternoon tomorrow as the cold front slips south. A rumble of thunder can not be ruled out as well. This allows for a few showers to return tomorrow morning with areas of drizzle, over northern areas. A cold front slowly sags southeast tonight into tomorrow. Sunshine mixes with mid and high clouds today with increasing sky cover overnight ahead of the next disturbance. South winds become a bit breezy over the Champlain Valley as the day wears on. It remains dry today with warmer highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s. Surface high pressure remains in control of Vermont’s weather today, before a cold front and weak low pressure system usher in the return of unsettled conditions for the second half of the holiday weekend. South winds 10 to 20 mph strongest over the Champlain Valley. Warm and a bit breezy with highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s. Sunshine mixing with scattered mid and high clouds, another nice day. A bit warmer with highs in the mid 70s to around 80. A bit cooler with lows in the upper 40s to mid 50s. A bit warmer with highs in the upper 60s to mid 70s. Gradually increasing sunshine with scattered showers tapering off throughout the day. Mostly cloudy with scattered showers, most numerous before midnight. Cooler with highs in the mid 60s to around 70. Labor Day: Cloudy with periods of rain likely. TonightĬloudy with scattered showers or areas of drizzle, mainly south of Montpelier mostly ending before midnight. A wide range in highs with mid 60s to lower 80s northwest to southeast. Scattered showers and possibly a rumble of thunder spreading south through midday. Since hail can cause the rainfall estimates to be higher than what is actually occurring, steps are taken to prevent these high dBZ values from being converted to rainfall.Mostly cloudy with isolated showers and areas of drizzle through the morning north. Hail is a good reflector of energy and will return very high dBZ values. These values are estimates of the rainfall per hour, updated each volume scan, with rainfall accumulated over time. Depending on the type of weather occurring and the area of the U.S., forecasters use a set of rainrates which are associated to the dBZ values. The higher the dBZ, the stronger the rainrate. Typically, light rain is occurring when the dBZ value reaches 20. The scale of dBZ values is also related to the intensity of rainfall. The value of the dBZ depends upon the mode the radar is in at the time the image was created. Notice the color on each scale remains the same in both operational modes, only the values change. The other scale (near left) represents dBZ values when the radar is in precipitation mode (dBZ values from 5 to 75). One scale (far left) represents dBZ values when the radar is in clear air mode (dBZ values from -28 to +28). Each reflectivity image you see includes one of two color scales. The dBZ values increase as the strength of the signal returned to the radar increases. So, a more convenient number for calculations and comparison, a decibel (or logarithmic) scale (dBZ), is used. Reflectivity (designated by the letter Z) covers a wide range of signals (from very weak to very strong).

'Reflectivity' is the amount of transmitted power returned to the radar receiver. The colors are the different echo intensities (reflectivity) measured in dBZ (decibels of Z) during each elevation scan.

Big weather radar