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| Strong winds early this morning collapsed tents and scattered art and craft booths at the Stowe Foliage Arts Festival, forcing its cancelation for the rest of the weekend. |
Most notably, the wind caused extensive damage at - and force the closure - of the popular Stowe Foliage Arts Festival.
Strong winds around 6 this morning swept and collared a large tent onto display booths, which were themselves toppled and in some cases blown around.
The festival is working to refund ticket holders and to salvage as much artwork as they can.
As terrible as this situation is, it's fortunate the wind came through when nobody was in the tents. Had it come through later, the tents would have collapsed on dozens, perhaps even a few hundred people.
There's no estimate yet on the dollar amount of damage. The Arts Festival is normally a huge draw, and this weekend is likely the peak weekend both for Vermont fall foliage and for the annual influx of leaf peepers.
Traffic is reportedly backed up on Route 100 between Waterbury and Stowe, and on Interstate 89 in Waterbury. The traffic appears to be caused by the influx of tourist and not from wind damage.
The number of power outages in Vermont peaked at more than 12,000 at around 8:30 this morning. That number had declined to about 4,700 as of 1 p.m. today.
Reported wind gusts were reported as high as 58 mph at Lowell and Brookfield, Vermont and 52 mph at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington.
The winds were caused by a rather dry, but strong cold front that passed through Vermont this morning. There were some strong winds aloft that the front dragged down toward the surface, which created the hefty wind gusts.
It was still quite breezy out there as of early afternoon, but the winds have diminished below the point where they could cause more damage.
Vermont has sailed along peacefully with remarkably benign weather since late August.
Sure, it's been mostly much warmer than average, but we haven't had extreme heat, but we have had an incredible amount of sun.
There's been no floods, no severe thunderstorms, the wind has consisted of just pleasant breezes, and for most of us, the first frosts and freezes of the season have been running late. Even spells of high humidity have been absent.
We needed the break, after the rough summer of floods we had.
Well, this long break is over.
The great news is there is no new disaster looming over Vermont that I can see. But the placid weather is over, at least for now, and things are getting active. And we're back to the wait a minute it will change type weather.
Expect. wind, frost, rain and cold temperatures. And snow. Don't forget snow.
It started early this morning.
GUSTY WINDS
I feel like an idiot. We have some cold-sensitive potted trees out in the back deck, including a sort of tall palm type tree, a hibiscus and an orange tree. I was going to take them in Friday evening, but I had a rough day, so I blew it off.
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| This large umbrella, which was anchored to our deck floor in St. Albans, Vermont, was toppled by strong winds this morning and narrowly missed shattering a large window on our house. The strong winds cost power to more than 10,000 Vermont customer early today. |
The plan was to take them in tonight, given forecasts of a possible Saturday night frost. More on that in a moment.
Problem was, I didn't pay attention to the forecast. After a balmy night, a strong cold front passed through around 5 a.m up here in St. Albans.
The forecast had called for some rather strong wind gusts with and just after the cold front and sure enough. They gusted to at least 50 mph at my place before dawn today.
The wind knocked down two of those trees. Both look somewhat damaged. I'm a moron. I think I can save them, though. Gusts have so far reached 45 mph in Burlington and 49 mph in Montpelier. I'm sure a few spots have gusted to maybe 55 mph. The wind over-performed somewhat
Those winds have been causing some scattered issues out there. Some tree limbs and a few power lines are coming down here and there. As of 6:45 a.m today, vtoutages.org reported 8,000 homes and businesses mostly in central and northern Vermont without power. That number was rising rapidly, and reached 10,000 by 7:15 a.m.
The gusty winds should continue for a few hours this morning before diminishing somewhat that afternoon.
Today's near-normal high temperatures in the low 60s happened early this morning. They'll be falling all day. In anticipation of a chilly night
FROST SUNDAY MORNING?
Depending on how fast clouds come in tonight, we might have the most widespread frost of the season so far overnight. That's not saying much, given we haven't had any really cold weather to speak of so far.
The cold front will slow down south of us to hook up with a developing storm (which I'm getting to). Clouds should start streaming back north overnight, which could put a halt to the frost threat in southern and central Vermont. The best chances of a frost are in the northern half of Vermont away from Lake Champlain. If you still have some tender plants out there are garden veggies that need harvesting, do it today.
COLD STORM
Most of the rain we have managed to receive since late August has come amid mild weather storms. This one will be more akin to a winter storm. But don't worry, unless you live way up in the higher elevation, there's no need to dig out your snow shovels just yet.
But this will be a damp, cold drenching nonetheless. Rain will start to break out Sunday afternoon. Highs should probably make it to near 50 and that's about it.
Rain should continue Sunday night and into Monday. Lows Sunday night could get into the upper 30s - perilously close to snow temperatures. But some lame amounts of warmish air coming in aloft should keep snow and sleet limited to the highest elevations. At least that's how it looks now.
Amid the light rain and clouds Monday, it will be November like, with highs only in the 40s.
The rainfall won't cause any flooding, but it might be something of a soaker. Predicted rainfall with this in Vermont is somewhere a little either side of one inch.
MORE HIGH ELEVATION SNOW?
The November weather should continue Tuesday and Wednesday. That storm system we're getting will stall briefly in eastern Canada, sending chilly, gusty winds and moisture through Vermont. That means more rain and snow showers.
Some flakes could well make it onto valley floors at times during this period, but shouldn't accumulate. Such flurries are not weird for mid-October, but they'll be a shock to the system if they do happen.
Very high Green Mountain elevations - above 2,500 feet - could see several inches of snow out of this if the moisture in the cold northwest winds is adequate. Ski areas will love this, not because they'll open right away, but because the snow might spur season ticket sales.
TEMPORARY?
There are signs that this spell of active well is just a pre-winter tease. I'm still seeing signs we'll go back to generally benign, calm and often sunny weather starting Thursday and Friday. A noticeable warming trend should set in by Friday as well and continue at least into next weekend.
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