Deluge Tuesday In Western Vermont, Surprisingly Few Reports Of Flooding

UPDATE 7 AM THURSDAY

 

Some even more spectacular rainfall reports have come in since I wrote this yesterday.

Cars splash through a flooded section of Williston Road
in South Burlington during heavy rain Tuesday. 

Jericho Center reported a whopping 4.49 inches of rain. Underhill Center reported 4. 25 inches. I had a report of 4.19 inches from Williston.  

I see two remarkable aspects of this heavy rain. One is the lack of serious flooding. I was in eastern Chittenden County Tuesday.

I did see some relatively minor washouts on steep driveways and a little erosion on the edge of some gravel roads. I wasn't everywhere that could have suffered damage. But I also haven't heard any media reports of major damage to back roads or culverts. 

Another wild thing about this heavy rain is storm totals like that this time of year are almost exclusively associated with tropical storms or hurricanes. The remnants of hurricanes sometimes pass through Vermont this time of year, often dumping a few inches of rain.

But this storm has absolutely nothing to do with any tropical storms. It was just a powerful storm and cold front.

Tuesday's storm also dumped up to four inches of rain on Montreal, causing flooding that stalled cars, blocked roads and damaged some residences.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

As expected, parts of Vermont really got slammed by torrential downpours on Tuesday.

Despite reports of up to 3.5 inches of rain in just a few hours, I have not seen much in the way of flooding reports. 

Thunderstorms spend a little time "training" over the Champlain Valley and the western slopes of the Green Mountains in Addison and Chittenden counties Tuesday afternoon. 

 Training refers to one thunderstorm after another going over the same area, like boxcars on train tracks. 

Some of the rainfall totals along the western slopes were pretty impressive. Underhill reported 3.5 inches of rain. Williston had 3.39 inches. Monkton was close behind at 3.24 inches.

I'm sure there were some washouts along the sides of gravel roads and driveways in that hilly terrain, but it doesn't look like the damage was super extensive. At least that's my early read on this. I think if there were another inch or so of rain, we would have been talking about real damage.

At the National Weather Service reporting site in South Burlington, 2.56 inches of rain was reported. That broke the record for rainfall for September 13 of 1.88 inches.  I believe it was also the wettest day at the NWS offices since October 31, 2019 when 3.3 inches fell. That 2019 storm caused serious flooding across swaths of northern Vermont. 

Heavy rain reduces visibility Tuesday in South 
Burlington, Vermont. The city had nearly two inches
of rain in just two hours. 

At the NWS office, 1.84 inches of Tuesday's rain came within two hours. That's half of the normal entire September's worth of rain in just a couple hours. This was enough to cause some street flooding and poor visibility on roads, as you'll see in the video at the bottom of this post. 

Much less rain fell in other areas of Vermont Tuesday outside of the Champlain Valley. Most reports I've seen fall into the one half to 1.5 inches of rain. 

In the northern Champlain Valley, my unofficial rain gauge in St. Albans collected a respectable but not incredible 1.1 inches of rain. 

We did see a few pockets of heavier rain in southern Vermont. Townsend, for instance, reported 2.13 inches.

There had also been some fears of severe thunderstorms with damaging winds. No reports of severe storms came in from Vermont, though trees and wires were reported down in parts of Washington and Saratoga counties in New York, just west of the Vermont border. 

Aside from a few widely scattered, light showers today, the rain is over. We're still expecting a dramatic cool down, with highs still forecast in the 55 to 65 degree range on Thursday. I still think there might be instances of scattered frost in the cold hollows Thursday and Friday nights, but most places will escape. 

The weekend forecast has become questionable, as a weather front is forecast to stall nearby. Where and when it stalls will dictate both temperatures and whether we receive addition rain. It's a tossup right  now. 

Video: Heavy rains Tuesday in the Champlain Valley interferes with traffic, soaks people. Click on this link to view if you don't see an image below, otherwise, click on the image to view: