Vermont Dodges Worst Of Storm, But Gets Interesting Weather Nonetheless

A downpour mixed with pea-sized hail drenches my
St. Albans gardens late Monday afternoon as the 
sun began to reappear at the tail end of the shower.

 Some wild weather happened Sunday and Monday in much of the eastern United States and Great Lakes region. But Vermont was spared the worst of it. The weather, however, did get interesting.

I'll have highlights of the weather extremes in other parts of the nation in another post later this morning or this afternoon. Some wild and weird things happened in a lot of places. But I figured I should give the Green Mountain State update first. 

Vermont got part of the heavy rain Monday morning that New Hampshire and Maine received, but by the time it got here, it was not quite as torrential. 

More than two inches of rain fell in parts of southeastern Vermont, which caused some flooding Little Ascutney Road near Route 106, and near Rockingham.  Throughout the rest of Vermont, rivers are running high and fast, so are best avoided.

Burlington had its wettest May 1 on record, with 0.88 inches of rain. That beat the old record of 0.76 inches in 2017. This wasn't exactly the wettest day ever, but still fairly impressive. 

The main weather front with this storm system swept by to our north by Monday afternoon. The sun tried to come out, but very cold air associated with this storm lurked several thousand feet above us. 

The result was kind of a weird Monday late afternoon and evening for many Vermonters, including here in St. Albans. The sun and cold upper air caused clouds to billow upward and tower into some pretty strong showers. A downpour would sweep in, mixed with quite a bit of pea-sized hail. Then the sun would return and it would become pleasantly warm. 

Then, soon enough, dark clouds would return, the temperature would drop precipitously, and more downpours and hail would blow through.  The hail wasn't nearly big enough to cause any damage. The event just made for interesting weather and skies. 

To be honest, it really was beautiful, if inclement. 

We're kind of doing it again today. 

Between the storms: One downpour mixed with hail
had departed, giving St. Albans an interval of warm
sun early Monday evening. Then, as seen here,
another storm approached, eventually giving us
another downpour mixed with small hail. 

Weather disturbances are pinwheeling around the main stalled low pressure system to our northwest. One strongish disturbance was moving north and northeastward through Vermont today. 

As this happens, peeks of morning sun are succumbing to dark clouds and rain. As this happened dramatic rainbows appeared in the northwestern skies in Rutland County. 

It was raining pretty heavily in parts of west-central Vermont and adjacent eastern New York as of around 8 a.m. That band was gradually creeping northward as of 8:30 this morning. 

So, we have a cool day ahead of us with showers. Some might be briefly heavy. We could easily also see some small hail again, as it's still cold overhead. That would allow any hail stones that form to make it to the ground.

None of the hail will be big enough to harm your garden or anything like that. It will be more of another conversation piece. 

It's rinse and repeat tomorrow. However, the rain showers won't be quite as widespread, long-lasting or as relatively heavy as today. Still, the strongest cells could create a rumble of thunder and a bit of hail.

The trend line is good. Thursday will also bring the risk of showers, and it will remain cool, but those showers will continue to decrease.

As we head into the weekend, Friday through Sunday and into early next week, the sunshine will increase day by day, chances of showers become small and temperatures will warm up nicely. 

Early signs point to highs in the pleasant 60s by Saturday and into the low 70s possibly by Sunday an next week. Such temperatures aren't odd for May, but they will still be quite welcome after this cool, showery and odd week of weather.