Flash Flood In Southern Vermont; Nearby NY/NH Also Hit

Significant flash flooding last night in southwestern New
Hampshire. Photo from New Hampshire State Police.

 As per usual, southern Vermont got nailed last night, while we in northern Vermont were largely just bystanders.

Flash flood warnings rang out last evening as torrential rains ran in a band from Saratoga and Washington County near the southwest Vermont border, then through the southern third of the Green Mountain State and into New Hampshire.  

This was part of a severe weather outbreak that spun off destructive tornadoes in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  

Up in northern Vermont, relatively little rain fell, as the seemingly permanent drought rolls on.  I've become convinced it will never truly rain up north of Route 2 ever again.  A friend recently gifted me with a lovely cactus plant.  She knows what's up. 

It's not that we stayed completely dry.  Just after I measured about a quarter inch of rain from overnight at my place in St. Albans, Vermont, a brief downpour passed through, adding a bit more. So there's that. I'll take anything I can get at this pont. 

But enough of my whining, as things got serious last night in southwestern Vermont and adjacent New York State in particular.

Flooding in Bellows Falls, Vermont last night. Photo from

Bellows Falls Fire Department via WCAX

It's been very soggy down that way over the past month and some of the storms yesterday dumped over three inches of rain in just a short time in the late afternoon and early evening. Flash flooding hit much of southern Vermont. 

Numerous roads were closed due to flooding around Manchester, Vermont, according to storm reports collected by the National Weather Service office in Albany, New York.  

Arlington, Vermont, where part of Route 313 was closed by flooding, received 3.57 inches of rain poured down.  Westminster reported a whopping five inches of rain. 

Several roads and culverts in Putney were washed out. Part of Interstate 91, both north and southbound, were closed by flooding near Putney for a time early this morning, but the highway is now open. 

In southeastern Vermont, the Saxtons River went from three feet deep to just under 14 feet deep in a couple of hours, almost reaching major flood stage. (Flood stage is 10 feet). 

WCAX-TV is reporting that serious flooding struck Bellows Falls, with waist deep water in some streets.  The Bellows Falls Fire Department pumped water from at least a half dozen home basements. 

Just over the border in New York, several streets and roads in and around Saratoga went under water. What is described as a significant mudslide occurred in Moreau, New York. Some towns in Washington and Saratoga counties in New York received nearly four inches of rain. 

A brief downpour in St. Albans, Vermont this morning. This

was needed rain for northern Vermont, in contrast to southern areas

of the state, which saw flash flooding last evening. 

The torrents in New York and Vermont continued on into New Hampshire, where serious flash flooding was reported around Newport and Goshen, New Hampshire.

Several roads washed out in Alstead, New Hampshire as well. Alstead is just east of Rockingham, Vermont.  

Further south, what appear to be significant tornadoes roared through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

 A car dealership in Bensalem, Pennsylvania was ripped apart by one tornado, and a nearby mobile home park was trashed.  At least five people were injured. 

The big blast of "Pre-Autumn" weather is blowing in now, and today will probably be the coldest in Vermont since July 3 at least, when we had another very chilly summer day. 

The showers and quick downpours that are around early this morning will move away by afternoon.  the scattered downpours will be a bit alarming for those trying to clean up after the overnight floods at the southern end of the state, but I don't think they'll be enough to cause renewed flooding.  

We'll be just left this afternoon  gusty, autumnal and mostly to partly cloudy skies. 

It will stay very cool for the season through Monday. The only chance of significant rain in the forecast is Sunday, when there maybe will be a half inch of rain.  Sunday's rain at this point does not look super heavy, but we'll have to watch any embedded thunderstorms with downpours in southern Vermont.  It won't take huge amounts of rain to set off new flooding.  

NOAA's Weather Prediction Center has a marginal risk of flooding in Vermont Sunday, with a zone of a second level "slight risk" in a sliver of southern Vermont. 

We're still thinking temperatures will be back up to fairly close to normal early August levels by the middle of next week.