Believe It Or Not, Wet Start To August Parts Of Vermont, But Dry Times Returning

Burlington, Vermont got socked with quite a thunderstorm last evening, which contributed to what is a surprisingly wet start to August.  

The thunderstorm that passed through St. Albans, Vermont
last evening glows in the post-sunset dusk as it continued
to move east toward the Northeast Kingdom.

It appears a microburst rolled through Winooski, a good chunk of Burlington and through South Burlington last evening, downing trees and power lines and causing a kind of havoc-strewn evening around there. 

A huge tree fell on Burlington's Intervale Avenue, and a gust of 51 mph was recorded at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington.

Microbursts tend to produce really big gushes of rain, and this storm was no exception. It dumped 1.15 inches of rain at the NWS office.

The result of this, Tropical Storm Isaias last week and another strong thunderstorm a couple days before that very wet beginning of August, at least in Burlington. So far this month, 5.25 inches of rain has fallen on Burlington. 

Even if not one more drop of rain comes down this month, Burlington will end August with rainfall of 1.3 inches more than average.

Elsewhere in Vermont it hasn't been as wet.  Up here in St. Albans, we had more of a garden variety thunderstorm last evening.  It produced about two thirds of an inch of rain, and winds gusted to perhaps 30 mph during the height of the storm. 

Also, rainfall from Isaias wasn't as heavy in eastern Vermont as it was west of the Green Mountains. 

The weather is about to take a decided turn toward much drier weather, possibly lasting a couple weeks, so I don't think we're going to set any rainfall records this month. There will be more rain, but I doubt it will be as intense as the first half of the month has been.

A cold front is suppressing moisture well to our south.  But that moisture is pooling in the Mid-Atlantic States today. That's bringing a big flash flood risk, especially in a roughly 100-mile diameter circle centered around Washington DC.

This makes me worried about flood-prone Ellicott City, Maryland, which has suffered two extreme flash floods in the past few years. 

Already, early this morning, there were some swift water rescues ongoing in northern Virginia with people trapped in cars on a flooded thoroughfare.

Back up here in Vermont, high pressure that will linger in southern Quebec will probably keep us dry and warm through the upcoming weekend.  But the humidity will be much lower, and it won't be torrid by any stretch of the imagination.

Daytimes will be in the low 80s for the most part and nights will be relatively comfortable for sleeping through the end of the week