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| Umbrellas closed on our St. Albans, Vermont deck this morning in anticipation of gusty winds in the Green Mountain State later today. Thunderstorms and downpours are also in the forecast, mostly later today and tonight |
Nearly 100 tornadoes have been reported in the United States since last Thursday.
There might be a few more today mostly in the Mid-Atlantic States as the pretty potent storm moves from the Great Lakes into Quebec. It's dragging its cold front into the East, which explains the continued rough weather.
Here in Vermont, we're in for by late May standards a stormy day and night, with gusty winds, the risk of a couple strong storms mostly in western sections and some bursts of heavy rain.
WIND
It'll be pretty windy for most of us today, especially in the Champlain Valley and the western slopes of the Green Mountains.
Winds could gust to 40 mph in some parts of the western slopes and Champlain Valley and 20 to 35 mph elsewhere.
If you haven't already, you should probably take down deck umbrellas and make sure light weight stuff doesn't blow around. Also, today is not the day to take your boat out on the lake, despite the temptation of enjoying the Memorial Day holiday. Maybe just remember our fallen soldiers instead, in keeping with the day?
Leaves on the trees are new, and you'd be surprised at how heavy a tree full of leaves are.
Trees that had been weakened by storms over the winter, or are just not in good shape are suddenly heavier with those leaves. That makes them more prone to toppling over in today's wind, if they're no longer sturdy.
Nothing widespread, but I think we might see an isolated power outage or two out of this. After all, we had some minor outages last Friday, when winds gusted to 35 mph amid bright sunshine.
STORMS
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| Our irises enjoyed a nice sunny Sunday, but they'll endure wind and possible downpours today. |
The National Weather Service office in South Burlington says they'll need to keep an eye out for a rotating storm or two over the St. Lawrence Valley today.
A marginal risk (lowest of a five point alert scale) of a severe storm now extends as far east as Route 7 in Vermont. So western Vermont might (or might not!) see isolated cases of strong winds with thunderstorms or small hail.
A wave of scattered showers might come through this morning, with perhaps a rumble of thunder west. The threat for the real thunderstorms comes mostly after 3 p.m. today and extending well into the evening. Again, hit and miss stuff
DOWNPOURS
The air coming in from the south ahead of the cold front is humid, with plenty of water in it. That sets us up for the risk of local downpours embedded in the rain we've got coming.
NOAA's Weather Prediction Center actually has us solidly in a marginal risk zone for flash flooding. That's the lowest in a four-level risk scale. It means there's a chance that there could be an isolated instance of flash flooding here or there later today and tonight.
If we do see any kind of flash flooding around Vermont, which is iffy, it won't be anything catastrophic. We're not going to do what we did last summer in this instance. Otherwise, chances are you'll hear the roar of a quick downpour on your roof later today or tonight.
We could use the rain, actually. Gardens are getting sort of dry.
OUTLOOK
The storm causing all this will linger nearby for a few days, opening us up for the chance of showers daily through Thursday, perhaps into Friday if the system overstays its welcome.
There's a low risk of showers Tuesday, as it looks now with temperatures remaining mild in the 70s. We have a better chance of hit and miss showers Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures a little on the cool side for this time of year.
There's hints that a drier, warmer period mighty start next weekend.
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