Disaster Aid Request For July 10 Northeast Kingdom Vermont Flood

Damage in Sutton, Vermont after the July 10, 2025. 
Gov Phil Scott this week has asked for a federal
disaster designation for Caledonia and Essex counties.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott is asking for federal help for a July 10 flash flood that mostly affected the state's Northeast Kingdom. 

The request asks the Trump administration for a major disaster declaration in Caledonia and Essex counties. 

If the request is approved, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would reimburse towns and cities for 75 percent of the cost of debris removal, repairs to roads and public structures, staff overtime and other expenses associated with the flood. 

In a statement, Scott said, "The damage from last month's storm impacted small towns with limited financial resources..... Submitted this request is an important step in the process to bring FEMA funds to Vermont to help towns rebuild and recover."

 As Vermont Public reports: 

"In the tiny town of Sutton alone, the storm caused more than $1 million in damage, according to a press release from Scott's office. Total statewide damage surpassed $1.8 million." 

That total damage exceeded the minimum of $1.2 million needed for the state to qualify for a declaration. 

The July storm also caused some damage in Addison County, but the wind and water damage there appears not to have been enough to qualify for federal disaster assistance. 

President Trump will make the final decision on the disaster relief application. Given Trump's willingness to ignore disasters, especially in blue states, this might well not get approved. 

This was the third year in a row that a destructive flood struck Vermont on July 10. Though this one wasn't as bad or as widespread as the floods of 2023 and 2024, it still stung. 

Vermont is especially vulnerable to weather and climate disasters. Parts of the Green Mountain State have been declared federal disaster areas - mostly from floods - thirteen times since 2017.   

  

Something Else To Worry About: Droughts Can Make Tree Branches Break Off Spontaneously

Trees wilted by drought near Colchester, Vermont this
month. Another hazard was highlighted in
British Columbia: Repeated droughts can cause
trees and branches to spontaneously break off.

In British Columbia on July 31, a mother and her five month old son died when a tree fell on them while they visited a beach at Cumberland Lake Park campground on Vancouver Island. 

On August 10, also on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, a woman was injured when part of a large tree fell on her.  

In both cases, there were no storms, no strong winds. In both occasions, it was a gleaming, bright sunny day. 

So what happened?

It might have been drought. Per CTV News in Canada:

"A tree physiologist said that several years of repeated drought in British Columbia mixed with heat stress increased the likelihood of branches breaking off and this could even happen on a 'perfectly calm day' without any breeze."

Chances are the trees that caused the British Columbia tragedies had something else wrong with them besides drought. But the dry weather could have been a tipping point. Cumulative droughts tend to weaken trees more than one-offs, so that could have been a factor as well. 

Here in Vermont, the drought hasn't exactly been good for trees, especially those that turned brown, yellow or completely wilted in places where the soil has completely dried out. Examples include the now-sad, wilted, brown trees and bushes you see on the ledges along some of Vermont's Interstate highways. 

However, the risk of tree branches suddenly breaking off for no reason while you're at a state or local park are pretty low. But drought does appear to up the chances of that happening, at least a little. 

Vancouver Island has had repeated droughts in recent years, though the island is not currently especially dry for summer. 

Peter Constabel, a professor of biology at the University of Victoria, said he has seen branches of maple and oak trees just break off and fall on calm days during recent droughts.  

Per CTV News again: 

"It's just hot and dry for a long time, and the branch just breaks off. It's really kind of counterintuitive,' said Constabel, adding that the water in the cell walls in the old helps stabilize a weakened tree. 

Simon Fraser University biological sciences professor Jim Mattsson said he had recently witnessed big branches fall from a Douglas fir on Burnaby Mountain 'If some had been hit by that, that could be quite serious,' said Mattsson, adding that a prolonged period of drought can wear down even a Douglas fir, which is usually very drought-resistant."

Droughts reduce photosynthesis and growth, cut energy and sugar reserves and degrade defenses. All this creates a chain reaction that increases the risk of insect and fungal diseases, causing trees to rot inside.

That inside rot inside, increasing the risk of the tree or large branch breaking or falling over. 

Trees in urban settings are most at risk due to compacted soil, less access to water and hotter temperatures in a city's heat island. 

Climate change can make droughts worse, long lasting or more frequent, so this is an issue that will always be there. And it might get more frequent. 

Trees also lose leaves during droughts. That's why you see a lot of leaves on the ground here in Vermont even though it's only August, not October.  Trees try to conserve water during droughts by dropping leaves.  The fewer leaves on a tree, the less water they need. 

It's too soon to tell whether all this will have any effect on our fall foliage season. 

Wednesday Morning Vermont Update: Drops Of Rain, But Little Drought Relief

A few sprinkles helped enhance the colors in the sky
over St. Albans, Vermont Tuesday evening. The 
showers only produced a trace of rain here. 

Tantalizing drops of rain have fallen here and there in Vermont over the past 24 hours, slightly wetting the ground in a few spots, but still doing almost nothing to relieve drought conditions.  

A very brief downpour blew through the Burlington area last evening, depositing 0.16 inches of rain. But that left Burlington easily among the wettest spot in Vermont Tuesday, which really isn't saying much. 

A little more rain is in the forecast which will keep the worsening drought slightly at bay, but there's still not much of a prospect of any super soaking rains soon.

A semi-decent area of showers was over parts of Addison and northwest Rutland counties as of 8 a.m. today. A few spot showers will continue today, especially in the southern half of Vermont, where a few lucky towns could get a little over a tenth of an inch of rain, while others say dry. Hit and miss again. 

Today should  be about as autumnal as yesterday, with highs within a few degrees either side of 70.

SLIGHTLY WET COLD FRONT

The cold front we've been talking about for the end of the week looks like it will graciously dampen Vermont a little, which is nice.  But once again, it will be a bit of a swing and a miss for heavier rains.

The last cold front this past Sunday and Monday was supposed to slow down and create extra rain over Vermont. Instead, most of that extra rain fell in northern New York and extreme northwest Vermont.

It looks like a somewhat similar rainfall pattern will strike again, with some key differences.  

The latest rain forecast from the National Weather 
Service. Only a quarter inch of rain is expected through
early Saturday in most places. 

It'll start off cool again tomorrow with dawn temperatures in the 40s for many of us. Some southwest breezes in the afternoon will bring temperatures into the mid-70s, which is just a smidge below normal,

Increasing clouds will promise rain but there's a catch. The approaching cold front will start out with great dynamics, dropping decent rains Thursday night in northern New York despite a "meh" moisture supply. 

Over in the St. Lawrence Valley, they could see a good 0.5 to 0,75 inches of rain Thursday night and Friday. 

As the front gets into Vermont Friday, it will start to weaken.  It will have enough oomph left to drop some rain, especially north, and that might even be a rumble or two of thunder. 

Expected rainfall amounts are subject to change, and the forecast could change a lot by the time we get to the event. 

But at this point it looks like rainfall with the actually front will only amount to a quarter inch, give or take. It'll be a little more to the northwest, where the northern Champlain Valley could see more than a third an inch with the front by Friday afternoon. The south and east loses again, with maybe a 0.1 to 0.2 inches.

After the cold front goes through, a chilly pool of air aloft - an upper level low - will probably basically sit and spin somewhere near the Vermont/Quebec border Friday night through Saturday night. 

That will keep light showers going over much of Vermont. They should be just inconsequential sprinkles in southern valleys, if that. More frequent light showers should hit central Vermont and the valleys of northern Vermont Friday night and Saturday, but they won't amount to all that much. 

The western slopes and ridgelines of the central and northern Green Mountains could get a decent dampening with this regime through Saturday. Those high elevation places could see a quarter inch of rain. 

Expect continued pre-fall weather Friday and Saturday as highs stay in the 60s, except lower 70s in warmer, sunnier southern valleys. 

BEYOND SATURDAY.

The dry times return after Saturday. There might be a few lingering sprinkles in the north and mountains Sunday. But that will be it for several days, as it looks now. Dry high pressure looks like it will stall nearby later Sunday through at least next Thursday morning. 

That'll bring low humidity, sunshine and somewhat of a warming trend, all bad news because that week of weather would dry out whatever meager rains we see through Saturday.  

Massive Haboob Slams Phoenix, And Other Arizona Communities. Quite The Spectacle

Image of yesterday's massive haboob taking over
the Phoenix metro area. 

 Gosh, this blog thingy is turning into all Phoenix, all the time. 

I went on and on about the extreme summer heat there the other day, but yesterday, things got really wild out there in Arizona. 

A haboob, or giant dust storm hit the area as monsoon thunderstorms raged over large parts of Arizona and adjacent southeast California. 

Outflow from the storms stirred up the massive, apocalyptic looking wall of dust that dropped visibility to zero when it hit.

The haboob hit during the evening commute and some motorists said they couldn't see past their car hoods. The National Weather Service warned everyone to "pull aside to stay alive."

Apparently, everyone did. So far, I haven't seen any reports of deaths or serious injuries. 

Winds were intense in this swirling dust storm. A gust to 94 mph was reported at Sun Tan Valley, in the southeastern outskirts of the Phoenix metro area. The wind at Sky Harbor International Airport gusted to 70 mph amid the clouds of dust. Visibility there was at zero from 5:35 to 5:51 p.m. 

The temperature at the airport fell from 100 to 79 degrees in just 17 minutes.

To the shock of nobody, the haboob delayed plenty of flights at the airport.  A ground stop there lasted a good hour. A connector bridge at the airport was shredded by the storm, and part of a roof at a terminal was damaged. 

Power lines and even utility poles snapped. Trees fell on houses, cars and carports. Photos and video from the Phoenix showed fallen trees, traffic signals and wires. The bottoms of countless swimming pools were covered in dirt.  

The haboob yesterday about to swallow the Phoeni
Sky Harbor airport. 

In Arizona Monday,  the haboob was followed in many areas by torrential rains from the parent thunderstorm. 

As the rain turned the dust to mud then washed it away, flash flood alerts blared in the Phoenix area, along with many other areas in southern Arizona and far southern California away from the coast. 

The haboob traveled quite a distance, too. It developed a little north to Tucson, then slammed through Casa Grande around 4:25 p.m. local time before slamming into Phoenix an hour later. Which means it traveled a good 60 miles at least. 

Haboobs are pretty common in arid areas, including in the U.S. Desert Southwest.  A similar serious haboob swept through the Burning Man festival in northwest Nevada last weekend, ripping up encampments and other temporary structures. 

Some observers say the Phoenix haboob on Monday was the most intense since July, 2011. 

Every weather emergency has its precautions, and haboobs have theirs.  Motorists who see a wall of dust coming should pull into a parking lot. Or, if none is available, pull as far off the side of the road as possible. 

People are told to shut off their car lights.  The visibility in haboobs is so bad that people have been known to smash into parked cars with lights on, thinking they were on the highway. Kind of like a blizzard here in Vermont. Except obviously with sand, not snow. 

More haboobs, big thunderstorms and flash floods are possible in the Desert Southwest for the rest of today and likely tomorrow. 

On a vaguely humorous note, spell check kept trying to make me say Phoenix was hit with either a "kabob" or a "baboon" either of which would have been more fun and probably less dangerous. 

Videos:

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby got some amazing shots of the Arizona haboob. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

 
Another video from the Associated Press, shows what it was like to be in a car during the haboob, then a timelapse of the haboob, followed by torrential rain, sweeping into downtown Phoenix. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

After Being Mostly Cheated On Monday Rain, Vermont Faces Autumnal Week In One Of Its Driest Augusts On Record

Last evening had a bit of an autumnal look and feel
to it here in St. Albans, Vermont, and this week
will definitely be pre-autumn in Vermont. But
rain faltered Monday, and not much is in the 
forecast. This will likely be one of the driest
Augusts on record in the Green Mountain State., 

As always with summer rains, there were winners and losers with showers on Monday.

Things usually even out, but with our Vermont drought deepening, the stakes are much higher now. Yesterday's misses make the situation for many much more dire for many of us. 

It turns out a small area around where I live in northwest Vermont was the big winner. 

The more than three quarters of an inch of rain that fell around St. Albans and Georgia early Monday was more than anyone else in the Green Mountain State received by a pretty large margin. 

A patch of showers that passed through early this morning slightly added to the wet bonus in the Champlain Valley. 

My place in St. Albans received another 0.1 inches of rain early this morning, for a three day total of 0.95.   That's better than almost all the rest of Vermont. 

So I'm damn lucky. And gloating,

Elsewhere,  most places received a third of an inch of rain or less. Widely scattered showers and thunderstorms Monday afternoon provided a bit of additional help in a handful of places, but most of us stayed dry.   

August now stands an excellent chance of becoming one of Vermont's top 10 driest Augusts. In some towns, it might well be the driest August on record. 

So far this month, Montpelier has only had 0.31 inches of rain. They should have receive about 3..2 inches by now.. St. Johnsbury has logged only a half inch of rain so far in August. By now 3.3 inches should  have accumulated this month.  

If no more rain falls in Burlington this month, it'll be the second driest August on record with just 0.93 inches. (The driest August was in 1957 with just 0.72 inches.) The tenth driest August in Burlington was 1.49 inches in 1894, so we should make the list.  

It would take a big surprise this coming weekend for this August to become one of the ten driest. 

RAIN PROSPECTS

We do have a remote, outside chance of a decent rain this weekend, but I'm to holding my breath. Still, it seems increasingly likely that at least some parts of Vermont will get a little bit of rain Thursday night and Friday. And maybe continuing a bit on Saturday. really doubting it. 

We're in what I would guess pre-autumn now, and weather conditions will be classic September. 

Last evening, I really did feel start to feel the cool autumnal aspect of autumn, even if in reality it really wasn't all that cool. Just seasonable, but it's been mostly a hot summer until now. 

For the rest of the week, we'll have a pretty typical regime for autumn or even winter. A northwest flow with embedded weak disturbances will continue today and tomorrow. 

That means cool air and party cloudy skies with a risk of a few light showers, mostly in the mountains. It'll be sunniest in the southeast with virtually no chance of showers down there. Which is bad, because that part of the state really missed out on the rain Sunday and Monday. 

Today's showers won't amount to much, so in general, we'll either start drying out, or continue drying out. The drought lives on.  

On Thursday night a stronger cold front will approach. It also looks like an upper level storm will want to get going overhead or nearby, with a small corresponding small storm down where we live.

The front itself will have some oomph to it. So we might briefly get some moderate intensity showers and maybe a little rumble of thunder with it toward Friday. 

The upper level low will have a pocket of pretty chilly air with it, so highs Friday and Saturday probably won't get out of the 60s. Or even 50s in some colder, higher northern spots. Burlington on Friday will probably have its first sub-70 high temperature since June 13. 

Showers, mostly along the west slopes of the northern Green Mountains should continue into Saturday. That's a very typical winter pattern. At least it's going to be rain, not snow, right?  

Some - but not all - forecasts have the chilly upper level low lingering through the Labor Day weekend, If that chill remains, it won't be much of a farewell to summer. Too cold for the beach, and possibly too showery to enjoy hiking to the mountain summits. 

The late week storm and cold front are coming in from the north, so it won't be able to scoop up a lot of humid air from the south. So even though the front and storm might have a lot of energy, it probably won't be able to generate a huge amount of rain. 

But, as I keep saying, we'll take anything. We'll have a better idea of how much rain as we draw closer to the event. 

Longer range forecasts have high pressure stalling over us starting around Monday and continuing much of the following week. That will keep us dry with a bit of a warming trend. 

After this thing we're getting at the start of Labor Day weekend, the next chance of decent rains wouldn't come along until around September 5 or 6, as it looks now.  

Dead Pools And Toxic Dust: Great Salt Lake, And Lake Powell Drying Up, And Causing Real Problems.

Satellite view of Great Salt Lake in Utah. The 
lighter areas around the lake used to be under
water, but now are dry lakebed areas that 
blow potentially toxic dust into
populated areas east of the lake. 

Here in Vermont, we might be complaining about brown lawns, low water in our rivers and worries about our wells as our drought settles in. 

But a mega-drought out west is creating challenges far worse than ours.  

We have two examples, both involving large but badly shrinking lakes.

The Great Salt Lake is so low that dust blowing off now dry lakebeds are creating health hazards for those living nearby. 

And Lake Powell, an immense reservoir in the Southwest is getting so low that some worry it might not be able to provide crucial water supplies and hydroelectric power to millions.

GREAT SALT LAKE

The Great Salt Lake is at near record lows, exposing expanses of flat, formerly submerged lake beds which were once part of this lake. 

An area encompassing 120 square miles that was once under salty water is now dusty playa, which is a word for dry lake bed. 

Gusty winds stir up the dust and blow it into fast-growing neighborhoods near Salt Lake City.  The Wasatch Front, which encompasses the city's metropolitan area, has a population of about 2.6 million.

The dust blowing into many of those neighborhoods likely contains dangerous substances, such as arsenic and lead. 

Studies have shown these and other substances in the Great Salt Lake dust can cause cancer or cardiovascular disease, but no comprehensive research has been done on how all this is affecting people who live in the region.

Similar salt lakes that have largely dried up in other locations in the world, like the Aral Sea in central Asia and Lake Urmia in Iran have resulted in health problems in populations nearby that have been exposed to dust blowing off those lakes. 

The Great Salt Lake has no outlet. How deep it gets depends on how much water flows into it, and how much evaporates in Utah's hot summers. The lake has always gone up and down, but since the 1980s the trend has been downward. 

Part of the decline is due to the rising population and increased water usage for industry, farming, construction and people moving to the area. Utah is one of the fastest growing states.

Climate change has a role, too. Big droughts have allowed the lake to slip to such low levels.  Some scientists say this is regions worst drought in 1,200 years.

As the Washington Post explains, the state legislature passed several laws aimed at conserving water. Public opinion polls indicate Utahans firmly back those conservation efforts. 

But the lake won't turn around anytime soon, if at all. So the dust will keep blowing into populated areas. 

There's not a significant monitoring program along the Great Salt Lake to assess what's in the dust blowing off the playa and how dangerous it is. 

WaPo again:

"The counties near the lake have six federally regulated air quality monitors that track lake dust. The monitors don't routinely look at the composition of the dust.

While the EPA said it has no plans to monitor the lake dust on a federal level, Marisa Lubeck, an agency spokesperson, added that it 'supports Utah's leadership in actively monitoring and conducting research to understand dust from the Great Salt Lake and its potential impacts."

So for now, nobody in Utah knows how much bad stuff their breathing from the now- Not As Great Salt Lake blows dust into some of Utah's fastest growing cities, towns and neighborhoods.

LAKE POWELL 

This lake on the Utah-Arizona border has been plagued by low water levels for a number of years now, thanks to that mega-drought in the West and pressure from increased water usage by a growing population.

It's now at its lowest level in three years, which is forcing boat launches to close and raising fears about water supplies and hydroelectric power. generation.  

Per USA Today

Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border remains very
low, and if it continues dropping, water and electrical 
supplies could be at risk for millions of people.

 "There's a chance that Lake Powell's water level could fall to an elevation that would force the stoppage of power generation at the Glen Canyon Dam, which would affect electricity supply to millions of people in many states."  

Things could get extremely dire for millions of people if the water level gets too much lower. USA Today again:

".....another concern is the chance that Lake Powell could reach so-called 'dead pool' status by December, 2026. That is the level at which a dam can no longer release water downstream.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of the Interior, if dead pool is reached at Lake Powell, residents of seven western states,  - Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California, - could see power blackouts and water shortages."

Both Lake Powell and Lake Mead, another critical reservoir in the West are only at one third of their capacity.

We've been here before. In 2022, the reservoirs were only 25 percent full, but a couple of wet winters allowed water levels in both lakes to rise slightly, preventing an immediate crisis.

But the lake levels are falling again, and there's no guarantee a wet winter will save things again.  Climate change, with its drought and added heat, are evaporating water faster than it can go into the reservoirs.  

Recent research suggests that climate change has altered a complex relationship between the atmosphere and the Pacific Ocean. This reconfigured atmospheric dance between air and ocean encourages drought in the Southwest. 

That's only part of the problem. Even if the region miraculously cooled off and got wetter, overuse and a rising population are keeping the Lakes Powell and Mead from stabilizing and adding capacity. 

Opinion is mixed as to whether Lake Powell will hit "dead pool" within the next year or two or not. But now is the time to start thinking about alternatives in the region, in case water and power supplies are eventually disrupted.  

Missouri Sunflower Man Battles City For Years For Inexplicable Reasons

The city of St. Peters, Missouri has been battling for
four years to force homeowner Chris Bank to get
rid of the annual sunflower display in his yard.

OK, I admit this post is only tangentially related to climate and weather, but it is about nature, so close enough.   

It's also one of the most inexplicable, infuriating legal battles I've ever seen.

Chris Bank of St. Peters, Missouri has grown a whole bunch of sunflowers in his yard since 2020.  And why not? They're pretty, pollinators love them, birds probably do, too, and it's a nice alternative from a boring lawn. 

The city of St. Peters doesn't feel the same way. All this hysteria against Bank and his sunflowers originated in 2021 as complaints from a homeowner's association. 

(Pro tip: NEVER buy a house in a neighborhood with an HOA.)

St. Peters officials enthusiastically joined the fray on the side of the HOA. Bank keeps finding loopholes that allow him to keep the sunflowers. The city also keeps changing the rules to coerce Bank into getting rid of all this sunny blooms,  but he won't budge.

I don't blame him. I don't know about you, but a sunflower always puts me in a better mood. The more sunflowers, the better the mood. 

The first year of the battle was in 2022.  St. Peters officials said he violated a rule in which the property need to have at least 50 percent grass coverage. But the property did have that much grass. It was just that sunflowers were also growing up through the grass.

Talk about micromanaging! A city telling people exactly how much lawn they should have?  Do they dictate which flowers, trees must be planted? What color car is parked in the garage? Where does it end? 

In 2023, Bank said the city revised the ordinance to allow enforcement via interpretation rather than measurement. A municipal judge find him. Bank appeared and the case was going to go to a jury in St. Charles County, Missouri. 

The city then withdrew its charges, probably because no sane jury would object to Bank's sunflowers, though St. Peters officials said they withdrew because the sunflowers had been removed. By the time they got around to the jury trial, it was November, so the sunflowers were gone for the season. 

Last year, a miserable woman trespassed and cut down at least 600 of the sunflowers in Bank's yard. She was caught on surveillance tape. He contacted police but prosecutors refused to take action, even though the identity of the vandal is known. She got away with it scot free. 

Because I'm sure some cranks in town thought the woman was a hero not the villain she was. 

This year, the city tried again by classifying sunflowers as a crop and limiting them to 10 percent of a  front yard. He's refused to remove his plants and is scheduled for another court appearance in September.  

Bank is the kind of rebel I can really get behind. He told Fox 2 in St. Louis that he won't give up, no matter how many times the city of St. Peters tries to change the ordinances. "I'm not going to quit this fight until this gets settled - at least settled the correct way," he said.