Delightful, Tranquil Weather Continues Here In Vermont, No So Much Elsewhere

Unique photo of a hail storm aftermath in
Nebraska Saturday. In the foreground, little or
no hail fell, in the background,
you suddenly hit an area where a LOT of
hail fell. Photo via Twitter by 
@tractorjockey

 The weather here in Vermont is uneventful, but beautiful!  As mentioned yesterday, this will be a lovely week of spring weather in the Green Mountain State.

Since there's not much to talk about here, we'll look at some of the somewhat less happy moments going on in other parts of the nation. 

SEVERE WEATHER

We're into the month of May, so we're at the peak of severe weather season for the United States.

So of course, there's some to report. Luckily we're not having any kind of super outbreak of tornadoes, but there's plenty of rough moments to go around. There were 13 preliminary reports of tornadoes in the Midwest Saturday and five more on Sunday. 

The big story was big hail. Hail up to the size of baseballs pummeled some parts of Iowa, causing damage to siding, windows and cars. Video out of Grinnell, Iowa from Live Storms Media shows hail up to the size of baseballs driven by winds of up to 80 mph.  As you can imagine, the side of any house or building facing the direction of the incoming hail was trashed. 

Another video shows an Iowa rangeland fire apparently started by lightning under dramatic storm clouds. The video goes on to show firefighters responding to the scene, only to be pelted by large hail and intense winds.  A pretty wild video worth the watch! 

Although more severe weather is in the forecast this week in the middle of the nation, this still doesn't look like it will be an enormous outbreak, at least by historical standards. 

WESTERN FLOOD RISK

After an incredibly snowy winter in the high elevations of the West, there's still a lot of snow in them thar hills.  We have seen damage in Utah and California from snow melt floods already, and it will probably get worse. 

A couple of houses in Utah have already been swept away by a mudslide, and numerous buildings have been flooded. 

Little Bear Creek is already beginning to flood in Utah
because of snow melt. You can see a lot of snow still
left in the mountains in the background. 

Utah officials said they're only a third of the way through the spring thaw in the mountains, so there's a lot of water left to come down. 

Very warm temperatures are in the forecast for the western U.S., including the mountains of Utah and eastern California in the coming days. That will surely send lots of water downhill into populated valleys. 

In Morgan County, Utah, officials are basically guaranteeing a reservoir will overflow, causing a flood crisis in nearby communities. 

In California, Lake Tulare is back.  It used to be one of the largest freshwater lakes in the United States, but it was drained to make room for agriculture. 

Now, it has re-appeared because of all the rain and snow melt California has seen.  It has already submerged about 100 square miles of crop land. 

But the bulk of the snow is yet to melt from the mountains. This will create a crisis in the coming days and weeks as Lake Tulare butts up against levees, and potentially busts through them. 

This is a long term problem, too. Once the snow melt ends, it will take forever for Lake Tulare to drain again. The last time this, happened, in 1973, it was two years before the lake was gone and agriculture could resume. 

I guess this is a good reason not to drain lakes to build farms or anything else. 

In any event, you will be hearing a lot about flooding in the western U.S. in the coming days.