Fri. Evening Update: Flash Flooding Ongoing In Parts Of Vermont. Today's Threat Not Over. More Sunday/Monday..

The Killington, Vermont Police Department
posted this photo of a mud slide that
closed part of Route 4 in Killington today. 

 Flash flooding has been a persistent issue for two weeks now in many parts of the Northeast.

Aside from a few incidents, like a local flash flood in East Hardwick on the Fourth of July, Vermont had been for the most part spared. 

That changed today. 

Numerous reports of flash flooding have come in. Like most Vermont flash flood events, this one is hit and miss.  So far, the worst damage appears to have been in and around Worcester, Vermont, where numerous roads are closed and/or damaged by washouts. 

One report out of Worcester indicated 3.4 inches of rain in just three hours.

Other areas of drama include heavily traveled Route 4 in Killington, where a mud slide blocked the road this afternoon.  Parts of Route 14 in Royalton and Williamstown are closed due to flooding, too.

Early on in today's outbreak, a severe thunderstorm swept through parts of the Northeast Kingdom, flinging down numerous trees and power lines. Nearly 4,000 Vermont homes and businesses were without power as of late this afternoon. 

I'm sure more reports will come in. 

NOT OVER

I think the threat of severe wind damage from thunderstorms is over, except in the far south. However, flash flooding will continue to be an issue well into the evening. 

I earlier thought the threat might be ending in northwestern Vermont by now. But in fact the newest flash flood warning is pretty far west, in northeastern New York in a stripe of Clinton County northwest of Plattsburgh.

Starting around 4 p.m. radar generally showed a slight weakening of most of the downpours, but it's still raining quite hard under some areas still receiving storms.  Since some areas that avoided flash flooding today still got soaked, only a few more downpours could trigger flooding.

As always, a few places got very little rain, including here in St. Albans and in Burlington. Through 5 p.m., Burlington had only gotten 0.04 inches of rain today. Unlike most of soggy Vermont, Burlington through late afternoon was running 0.84 inches below normal for first week of July rainfall. 

But that could still change this evening. It was starting to rain again at 5:45 p.m. in St. Albans, and more downpours could make it into Burlington, we'll see. 

EARLY WEEK WORRIES

Today's downpours and flash floods primed the pump for what could be a far worse problem Sunday night through Monday. Though this could change, forecasts call for even more intense downpours than we got today, and through a more widespread area of Vermont. 

A worst case scenario would be flash flood rivaling what we saw in 1998 and 2013.  A best case scenario would be just a few scattered incidents of flash flooding. 

I'll have a lot more on all of this in tomorrow morning's post.