Isaias Gone, Vermont Is Left (Mostly) Intact

It's not often you see a tropical storm right
over the middle of Vermont on official
National Hurricane Center maps.
This is from the NHC 8 p.m. 
Tuesday Tropical Storm Isaias update

Tropical Storm Isaias roared right over Vermont last evening, but many of us were treated to just a heavy rain storm.    

Which of course is good news.  

Isaias caused its share of problems in Vermont, but nowhere near to the extent of states further south down the Eastern Seaboard.

There were still 3,000 Vermont homes and businesses without power early this morning, mostly in southern Vermont. That's down from at least 19,000 at the height of the storm.

The rainfall was as torrential as expected, but Isaias raced through here so fast it didn't have time to lay down that much water. The most I've seen so far is 3.42 inches in Randolph and 3.01 inches in Waitsfield.

Lots of places in Vermont had at least two inches. That includes the 2.5 inches of rain in Burlington, which broke the record of 1.74 inches in 1995.

As an aside, Burlington was on the edge of a serious flash flood event during that 1995 storm.  There was lots and lots of flood damage on the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains and in the Lamoille Valley during that storm 25 years ago.

Not so this time. The rain with Isaias was just short of being enough to cause widespread flooding. The fact that it was dry before the storm helped, too. There are some relatively minor road and driveway washouts all over the place in the Green Mountain State, but this is much easier than say, the big flood we had last Halloween. 

There were a couple tornado warnings in far southern Vermont yesterday in association with Isaias.  One storm near Jacksonsville, in far southern Vermont, briefly really had a tight rotation, so it will be interesting to see if anything touched down there. 

It was pretty cool to see the official 8 p.m. update on Isaias from the National Hurricane Center last evening, that put the center of the tropical storm at five miles north-northwest of Rutland, Vermont. 

It's not that often you see a tropical storm situated right over Vermont.  But it's the year 2020. Everything is weird. 

WORSE ELSEWHERE

There was widespread wind damage from Isaias from North Carolina to Massachusetts.  Connecticut had more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power, which is on par with huge storms like Sandy in 2012.   

Hurricane Isaias in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Along the East Coast, at least 3 million homes and businesses had lost power.  Winds gusted to 78 mph  in Battery Park in New York City and many trees were down across the NYC metro area. The storm caused one building to collapse in Brooklyn. A contractor in Queens died when a massive tree fell on his van. 

There were several reports of tornadoes associated with Isaias in North Carolina, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. 

I'm sure the number of confirmed tornadoes will go up as investigators comb through the damage this week. 

In Pennsylvania, some rivers and creeks reached near record levels, or the highest levels since devastating Hurricane Agnes in 1972. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

That soaking rain we got from Isaias is going to really come in handy. Aside from scattered showers and thunderstorms between now and mid-afternoon, we're entering a new, long dry spell.

It will be cool at first, as the remains of Isaias has pulled down some slightly cooler air from Canada. Burlington will end its record long streak of being continuously above 60 degrees either tonight or tomorrow night. Forecast lows both nights are expected to be in the 50s. 

As of yesterday, we were at 40 consecutive days at 60 degrees or above.  The old record was 37 days. 

This "coolish" air does NOT mean this hot summer is over.  It's going to turn quite warm and humid again.  It'll be in the low 80s but with rather dry air Friday and Saturday, but it will turn more sticky starting Sunday with highs well into the 80s. There might even be a spot 90 degree reading or two Sunday or Monday. 

We might not have to deal with any more tropical storms or hurricanes for a little while.  Forecasts for a very busy Atlantic hurricane season seem to have come true.

The current weather pattern over the Atlantic Ocean means there's probably going to be lull in tropical storm or hurricane activity for the next week or two.  A lot of hurricane experts are telling us that activity in the Atlantic will ramp up again in late August.  

We'll see what happens with that.