Vermont Escapes The Danger Weather, But It Has Gotten A Little Weird Out There

SO close to  having daffodils in St. Albans, Vermont.
Perhaps some mild temperatures and more showers
will open some of them up today.

While watching the storminess in the United States this week, yesterday could have been an awful day. 

It turns out there were plenty of reports of wind damage across the South and some tornadoes, but the severe outbreak wasn't as ghastly as it could have been, which is nice.  

Meanwhile the huge blizzard in North Dakota is forecast to slowly wind down, finally today after three days of impossible weather. 

This being mid-April, there remains daily chances of severe weather and possibly a couple tornadoes somewhere in the nation for the next week at least, but for now, no new blockbuster outbreaks are expected, so that's also good. 

Here in Vermont, we're escaping anything dangerous, as expected, but the weather has gotten a little weird. 

For one thing, a nearly stalled warm front set up shop over Vermont yesterday, leading to some big temperature contrasts. 

Late Wednesday afternoon, northern Vermont was stuck in the upper 40s to near 50. Meanwhile, it warmed dramatically in the Green Mountain State as you headed southward. 

Let's take that trip down through western Vermont Wednesday.  At 5 p.m. it was 49 degrees in Burlington under gloomy skies, Middlebury was 53 degrees, Rutland was 63 degrees and Bennington was a lovely, almost summer-like 75 degrees. 

To me, this whole setup yesterday and last night was a benign, much calmer version of what happened on April 26, 2011.  On that date eleven years ago, an incredibly dynamic storm was just starting to create one of the worst tornado outbreaks in United States history. 

That storm system had a warm front that was approaching Vermont on the evening of April 26 2011. The warm front turned into a powerhouse, with borderline severe thunderstorms with torrential rain riding west to east along it. 

This, combined with a lot of snowmelt and water from what was already an incredibly wet month to cause severe flash flooding in northern and central Vermont, causing more than $9 million in damage.That storm also greatly contributed to the worst flood on record on Lake Champlain. 

The situation that unfolded Wednesday afternoon and evening was much, much milder than that, but still similar.  A storm, not as bad as the April, 2011 calamity, was unleashing severe weather and tornadoes on the South on Thursday.

Similar to 2011, a surprisingly dynamic warm front was oriented across Vermont, which explains the huge temperature difference between Bennington and Burlington. 

Such a huge difference can surprise forecasters with unexpected heavier rain and thunderstorms that computer weather models thought impossible. That's what happened Wednesday. 

Obviously, this wee's version was safe.  Rainfall was much, much, much less than in 2011, even if it was more than forecast. The thunderstorms scattered across northern Vermont late Thursday afternoon and evening were a surprise, too. But they fell well short of being severe. Which meant, for many of us, it was just the novelty of hearing thunder for the first time in months. 

For those few of us where the thunderstorms hit directly, you might have noticed the thunder sounded much deeper, perhaps louder and had more of a rolling sound than you might be used to.

Blame a temperature inversion. When there's a warm front coming in, the milder air comes in aloft before it hits the surface. That balmy air in Bennington was basically in northern Vermont, but it was several thousand feet overhead.

As the Weather Channel explains:

"When the air is cold at the surface, the warmer air higher in the atmosphere acts almost like a ceiling, trapping the sound and then refracting it back toward the ground. This refraction can amplify the sound of thunder. It can also make the sound linger. Sound waves also move slower in cold air and faster in warmer air, amplifying these sound effects."

Today, we can expect more weirdness in temperature contrasts in Vermont and New England in general. 

This was already apparent at dawn today.  Most of Vermont was stuck in the 40s early today but Bennington was hanging in there with a summer-like 64 degrees. Another batch of showers, a few briefly heavy, passed through northern Vermont along this stalled front. 

The National Weather Service thinks the warm air should eventually win out west of the Green Mountains, but might struggle to get to the east, especially Northeast Kingdom. 

This weather dichotomy will be even more pronounced in southern New England. Today's high temperature in Hartford, Connecticut is expected to be around 80 degrees. But just 90 miles to the east, highs will only  make it into the mid-50s. 

As a cold front approaches today, it will be able to take advantage of the warmer air west of the Green Mountains such that we could have a few rumbles of thunder with the showers.  It doesn't look like there will be anything severe, though there could be a few areas of gusty winds and again, briefly heavy downpours. 

Those downpours will be quick movers and there won't be enough rain to set off any flooding.  This sure ain't 2011, thank goodness.

That's not to say in the clear for rain. After a mild-ish, windy Friday, we're in for frequent bouts of showers from Saturday onward through next week.  It won't rain all the time, and there might be a couple entire days thrown in without much of anything. 

But to expect wet weather. Snowy, too, in spots. It'll be cold enough at night during some of these showery episodes to bring snow to the high elevations. And maybe some wet snowflakes in the valleys too. It's only April, after all.