Severe Weather Once Again Evades Vermont, Many Others Aren't So Lucky

Storm damage near Pittsburgh, PA on Tuesday.
Severe storms caused lots of damage from Texas
to New York, but spared us in Vermont. 

 Tuesday was another wild day for weather across much of the United States.

Sure enough, as expected, destructive weather struck in a broad band from Texas to New York.  

Vermont once again escaped the rough storms, but the weather nonetheless got a little interesting in the Green Mountain state. 

More on that in a bit.

NATIONAL STORMS

It seemed like the bad weather had plenty of targets on Tuesday. 

Tornadoes and straight line winds of up to 100 mph, mixed with baseball sized hail in parts of central Texas, That must have been fun.

 Winds were almost as strong near Springfield and Branson, Missouri with  straight line winds of 91 mph, along with embedded tornadoes. 

Lots of property damaged there, too. 

A particularly intense band of storms originated in eastern Indiana, crossed southern Ohio and then through western and central Pennsylvania, causing all sorts of damage, with trees into homes and buildings, on cars and across roads and power lines. 

The storm was particularly intense around Pittsburgh, with two storm-related deaths reported in the region. Winds gusted to 71.3 mph at the Pittsburgh airport, the third strongest wind gust on record there. 

Roofs were torn off some Pittsburgh businesses and dozens of homes suffered damage when trees fell on them. 

The storms blustered all the way into central and northern New York. Winds gusted to 77 mph in Rome, New York. Severe thunderstorm warnings blared as far north as Massena, in the northwest tip of the state.

Today, it looks like north Texas, including Dallas-Fort Worth, and parts of Oklahoma are at risk for tornadoes, severe storms and huge hailstones today. 

Though severe storms and possible tornadoes are expected over the next few days over scattered parts of the U.S., any kind of immense new outbreak of tornadoes will likely wait until at least next week.

However, serious flooding, which has been a scourge since winter in parts of the Midwest, seems to be making a comeback this week. 

Flooding has been hitting Oklahoma for days, and that will continue through today and at least tomorrow. At least two people have died in recent days in the flooding. A section of a major interstate highway in Oklahoma City was closed by flooding.  Flash flood warnings were flashing through much of the state this morning. 

Oklahoma City has had 11 inches of rain this month, compared to a normal of 3.5 inches. 

Neighboring Arkansas, which has had severe floods this spring, is bracing for more. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

The sky looked volatile as showers and thunderstorms
approached St. Albans, Vermont Tuesday evening,
but the storms were not severe. 

The weather played out in Vermont just as expected Tuesday, except many spots ended up a little warmer than forecast. We had our first true taste of summer. 

Burlington got to 83 degrees, just two degrees shy of the record for the date. 

It was the first 80 degree reading of the year and the warmest it's been since September 18, 2024.  Montpelier reached 82 degrees and Springfield, Vermont got to a toasty 86 degree. 

As expected, the storms that eventually arrived from New York and into Vermont last evening weakened, though a few managed to stay fairly strong in northern Vermont, which again, was predicted.

A gusty storm with a torrential downpour blasted through St. Albans shortly after 10 p.m.  The National Weather Service had warned that this storm could contain 50 mph winds. I don't see any reports of damage, though, so this wasn't severe. 

The storms are over, skies are clearing and are temporary summer is definitely over. At least for awhile. 

Today will feel completely different than Tuesday.  The air will be fresh and cool, maybe even downright chilly in spots.  A steady north wind will make it feel nippier, too.

The growing season has started in the Champlain Valley, so a frost advisory is up overnight and early Thursday in the Champlain Valley. Elsewhere in Vermont, it will be even colder than the Champlain Valley, with lows in the 20s in many spots far north. But the growing season isn't officially underway there, so no advisories. 

The next storm system comes along Friday and, of course, Saturday. It's actually two storms. Neither will be that strong, but will spread showers our way. 

The first one will arrive Thursday night and Friday.  Friday will be warm and a bit humid, which means a couple thunderstorms might get thrown in. But they won't be severe. 

It looks like a cold front will come through later Friday and a second storm will form along it and move northward for Saturday, which would give us our seventh rainy Saturday in a row.  It's a little early to figure out exactly how Saturday will turn out, but the rain then looks more likely the further south and east you go in Vermont. 

A potentially drier weather pattern could start next week. But that will be complicated by a stalled weather pattern.   This stuck weather pattern looks like it will keep a storm spinning off the New England coast. It's unclear how close it will get to us.   

Depending on what happens, next week could prove mild and sunny, or cool and showery. So that's no help. Stay tuned, I guess!

Red States Learning How Callous Trump Can Be In Disasters

Wreckage left behind by one of the tornadoes that 
hit Arkansas in March. The Trump administration 
has turned down disaster assistance that 
would have helped with the tornado destruction. 

 The state of Arkansas has had a rough spring, beset by tornadoes, intense floods and severe weather. 

As is customary in these situations, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee has asked the federal government for help. For good reason. 

As Huffington Post reports:

"Last month, 14 tornadoes struck Arkansas over the course of two days, killing three people and leaving 32 more injured. The deadly outbreak damaged or destroyed 500 homes, cars and businesses, leaving behind more than $8.8 million in storm damage."

Customarily, U.S presidents respond to request like Huckabee's to issue a disaster declaration and that starts the process in which the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin organizing funds to help the state with its emergency.

In this case it didn't happen. As HuffPost reports:

"But President Donald Trump said no. In a letter from April 11, the federal government said it had 'determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies."

To be fair, as bad as the March storm was in Arkansas, it's possible it might not have risen to the level of  a declared disaster in any administration. It's honestly kind of borderline. For instance, half of the destroyed homes were insured, so that might have been a mitigating factor. 

Still, Trump has talked about punishing blue states where voters aren't all that enthusiastic about him. Arkansas is a deep red state, and Gov. Huckabee is Trump's former press secretary, so maybe some Arkansas thought they would get the federal aid. 

The Arkansas Congressional delegation is asking Trump to reconsider the denial of aid, but we'll see where that goes.

The Arkansas tornado aid denial might be the beginning of a harsh new policy from FEMA.

Trump has long said he thinks states should pretty much handle their own disasters, though in many cases they don't have the resources to do that. That shift in tone is starting to make its way into official policy. 

As CNN reports:

"A memo from acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton, a Trump appointee, obtained by CNN, outlines a long list of recommendations for Trump to follow that could drastically reduce the number of emergency declarations the president approves and the amount of federal assistance doled out to cities and states hit by natural disasters."

CNN says the proposal dramatically raised the threshold for states to quality for public assistance, basically quadrupling the amount of damage a community must suffer to receive federal aid. 

The proposal also reduces the share of recovery costs the federal government will pay, limit the types of facilities eligible for assistance and denying all major disaster declarations for snowstorms. 

To us Vermonters, a snowstorm doesn't sound all that expensive, and they often do more good than harm, given our winter sports industry. 

But in other states, especially those in the South and with a lot of urban areas, large snowstorms can be extremely expensive and disruptive.  

Like so much in the Trump administration, it's next to impossible to figure out if they will follow through with these recommendations, abandon them or make them even worse. It'll change every day, I'm sure. 

Moving quickly on this will be particularly harmful to states, Michael Coen, a former FEMA chief of staff under the Obama and Biden administrations told CNN. "If they were given notice and they could work with their state legislatures, they could prepare and budget to be able to handle the risks they know they have. But doing this without giving states any advance notice would leave them in dire straights."

Even with advance notice, I'm not sure how states would cope.  Here in Vermont, we're already dealing with cutbacks in federal funding that are messing up the state budget.  Property taxes are sky high and getting worse, so increased state budgets would make that crisis worse. We have an aging population in Vermont, which also reduces tax revenue as the relative number of wage earners shrinks. 

If we get hit by another massive flood like we did in 2023 and 2024, and we're screwed.  

It's not just Vermont, of course. Every state that faces a disaster will have so much  more trouble recovering because of Trump.  

Disasters are bad enough. It'll be even worse if the federal government compounds those calamities. 

Monday's Severe Weather Outbreak Tempered, More Severe Storms Northeast Today, Vermont On The Margins

Big area in yellow and especially orange have a risk
of severe storms and maybe a couple of tornadoes
today. Areas in dark green, including much of
Vermont, just have a marginal risk of an 
isolated severe storm or two. 

 Monday's anticipated tornado outbreak in the upper Midwest left a trail of damage, but doesn't appear to be nearly as bad as it could have been.  

That's a rare bit of good news in what has been an active, deadly tornado, severe storm and flood season in the United States.

Through April 27, there has been a preliminary count of 668 tornadoes this year in the United States. The average count for that point in the year is 475.   

So far, 2025 has had more tornadoes through April 27 than all but one year since 2010. (The year 2011 was insane, with 1,262 tornadoes through April 27).

At least a couple tornadoes touched down in southern Minnesota and in Wisconsin, leading to trails of damage but no serious injuries. 

It's not done, of course, as today is still forecast to be an active severe weather day. Today's threat extends in a long line from northern and central New York southwestward all the way to western Texas.

In the line, the highest risk of damaging storms, large hail and a few tornadoes are in central and western New York, northwest Pennsylvania, Ohio, and in northern Texas.

New York is the weird one. It's a new tornado alley in the Northeast. The state had a record number of tornadoes in 2024.  New York has already had a couple tornado warnings this year, though I don't have any information on whether any touched down. 

I give decent odds that at least a brief twister could touch down today in western New York 

VERMONT THREAT

The expected weather in New York today might make you wonder if that severe weather will sweep over into the Green Mountain State. 

Turns out, here in Vermont, we're in the margins of the severe weather threat. 

New York State, all the way from Buffalo to the Adirondacks, should be in a relatively sweet spot for severe storms today.  Dew points, a measure of how humid it is, should get into at least the low 60s, which would be fuel for strong storms. 

The right combination of strong upper level winds with direction changing with height will come during the afternoon. That's when the sun's peak heating hits. Those winds and the instability the sun's heat creates also improves chances of severe storms.

Here in Vermont, the conditions won't be quite as good. 

It'll get plenty warm, with some towns possibly touching 80 degrees for the first time this year.  At least early in the day, sunshine will further destabilize the atmosphere. But the humidity won't be quite a high in Vermont as it will be in New York. 

Also, the strong and veering winds in the atmosphere we'll see in New York won't be quite as strong or organized over Vermont.  Plus, most of the storms would arrive here after the peak heating of the day, so the instability in the air will have been starting to decrease by the time the weather system makes it into Vermont. 

The result will be likely a broken line, or broken lines of storms migrating in from New York late this afternoon and this evening weakening as they do so. 

Some of those storms might still have some oomph left to them when they make it to western Vermont.  

The northwestern half of Vermont is in a marginal risk zone for severe storms, or level one out of five on the threat scale, with five being the scariest.  Marginal risk means there might be isolated instances of damaging thunderstorm winds, but nothing widespread. 

Unlike in New York, there's no threat for any tornadoes today or this evening in Vermont. 

Of course, lightning is always dangerous, so you'll want to get indoors when and if you hear thunder. Some of the storms might have some briefly heavy downpours and small hail, too, but this won't be nearly enough to cause damage or create flooding problems. 

LOOKING AHEAD

Wednesday is looking bright and breezy and quite cool, with highs barely in the 50s for many of us. 

In warmer Vermont valleys, the growing season, at least in the opinion of the National Weather Service,, starts Thursday, May 1. 

As a result, the frosty weather Wednesday night will likely prompt a smattering of frost advisories for parts of Vermont Thursday morning.  Thursday afternoon will warm up nicely, though. 

The next storm is due Friday with likely showers and maybe some thunderstorms. 

Severe Weather/Tornado Outbreak Upper Midwest Today, We In Vermont Could See Severe Storms Later Tuesday

Widespread severe storms and likely tornadoes are 
likely today, especially in red and orange areas 
on this map. 

The Upper Midwest if bracing for a rough day today of potentially strong tornadoes, giant hail and destructive winds as the weather set up is almost ideal for a severe weather outbreak in that neck of the woods. 

That severe weather is forecast to some extent migrate toward the Northeast, maybe affecting Vermont later tomorrow. More on that in a bit. First, today's Midwest threats.

TORNADO RISK DETAILS

Even before our storm really got going, things were looking ominous Sunday evening. Some supercells spit out a handful of large tornadoes in western and central Nebraska.

Some pretty strong storms were ongoing early this morning in eastern South Dakota and southwest Minnesota.

These are just a preview. The main show will get going this afternoon

The area under the biggest threat for dangerous weather today includes most of Wisconsin and Iowa, southern and central Minnesota and northwest Illinois.  

Major cities most likely to be under the gun are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Madison, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa and Rockford, Illinois.

A somewhat lesser but real threat extends southwestward all the way down to Texas.  

We know we'll see severe storms and tornadoes in the Upper Midwest today, but we don't 100 percent know exactly how they'll evolve.

If supercells manage to form and maintain themselves ahead of the main line of storms later today, then we end up with the risk of strong, long-lasting tornadoes plowing through Iowa, southeastern Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

That scenario is a maybe/maybe not. But if these dangerous supercells erupt, they'll go from nothingburgers to extremely dangerous monsters in minutes. The National Weather Service office in the Minneapolis area is not mincing words in their forecast discussion:

"The takeaway from today's severe storm potential is to remain vigilant of the potential for storms to go up quickly. This may mean checking your phone more often or keeping an eye to the sky, but don't let your guard down in this environment."

 If, instead, the main line of storms exerts itself more, there might not necessarily be those supercells out ahead of the storm  This second scenario is still bad news, as there will be zones of destructive straight line winds and quite a few embedded tornadoes in this mess.

The most likely outcome  today is a combination of what I described above. The main question will be how many supercells form ahead of the main blast of storms. 

TUESDAY'S STORM ADVANCE

Tuesday's severe storm risk area is in yellow, with the
orange area at a somewhat higher risk. Note how the
yellow risk area extends into parts of Vermont, 

By Tuesday, the main threat from this dynamic storm heads east. The storm center itself will race up into central Quebec, but its powerful cold front will press east into the Great Lakes. 

Tuesday's threat area runs from southern Quebec and Ontario, then southwestward through northwest New England, the eastern Great Lakes, northern Ohio Valley then all the way down to central Texas. 

The greatest threat looks go from central Ohio, through northwest Pennsylvania and on into western and central New York.  

While there might be a couple tornadoes in this area, the main threat is damaging winds and large, destructive hail.

As noted, the severe threat extend into Quebec and northwest New England, so that puts Vermont in play. Details next:

VERMONT THREAT

This daffodil looks completely defeated and possibly 
dead after Sunday's snow in St. Albans, but....

Before we get into the severe storm threat, a final word or two on Sunday's snow.

A couple places got an impressive amount of snow. A high elevation spot in Greensboro reported .1 inches of snow. Brownington reported 3.5 inches.  

Here in St. Albans, it was striking how snowy and miserable it was in the early afternoon.

 By evening, it was a downright pleasant spring evening, with sunshine and relatively mild air. Go figure.

Today, by the way, will be gorgeous, with sunshine and temperatures in the 60s to near 70. Enjoy!

Now onto our next threat. 

But same daffodil three hours after above photo was taken
shows a nice recovery. This daffodil, and the rest of
them in the gardens, might have to endure some
severe thunderstorms Tuesday evening in northwest Vermont.

South winds ahead of that approaching cold front will throw a squirt of warm, somewhat humid air into Vermont. 

 Most of the day will actually be nice with highs reaching well into the 70s, with maybe an 80 degree reading or two in a couple of Vermont's more "tropical" towns. 

Dew points - a measure of how humid it will get - should reach the mid 50s to around 60. That's kinda humid for this time of year but not oppressive. 

Thunderstorms thrive on humid air, so the more muggy the air is, the more fuel for these storms. 

So the outlook for the thunderstorms in the humidity category is so-so.  

However, there will be strong winds aloft. Storms that do form can grab that high altitude air and shove it down to the surface, where we are. That's why there's the risk of severe storms.  A few of these could have wind gusts to 60 mph or even a little more. 

The heat from sunshine created instability, which is part of the reason why the thunderstorms are likely to be so strong over New York, since they'll hit there in the afternoon.

Timing is such that the storms look like they'll come in very late in the afternoon and evening. For instance, current forecasts have the best chance for thunderstorms in Burlington between 6 and 8 p.m. Tuesday,

By the time they reach Vermont, the storms will be beginning to diminish. At this point, it looks like a few storms still might have enough oomph to be severe generally in an area north and west of a line running from roughly Rutland to Montpelier to east of Newport. 

As the storms head toward southeastern Vermont later in the evening they'll diminish to nothing scary. 

Note that not everyone will get a severe storm. Northwest Vermont is in a level two of a five point risk scale, five being the hair-on-fire top scary alert. Our level two "slight risk" means scattered severe storms are possible, but they'll tend to be relatively short-lived and not terribly widespread.

So, just keep your eye to the sky Tuesday evening if you're in northwest Vermont and head inside if you receive a severe thunderstorm warning or see ominous skies to the west and north. 

The cold front might also produce some fairly strong winds after the thunderstorms go by.  These winds won't be associated with any thunderstorms, but they could cause very isolated power outages in a  few spots.

Unlike the cold front we saw this past weekend, it won't get nearly cold enough for snow.  Instead, Wednesday looks bright, refreshingly cool and breezy.  

Vermont Snow Over-Performed Today. So Did The Evening Return To Spring

A wintry spring scene today in St. Albans, Vermont. 

 I was on to something Saturday evening and I should have stuck with it even more.

I said in an afternoon post that sometimes, the weather situation we were finding ourselves in could surprise with the extent of the snow we could face today.  

Sure enough, the snow in northern Vermont today was more widespread and briefly heavier than many had forecasted. 

It snowed for more than three hours here at my roughly 675 foot elevation here in St. Albans, Vermont. It occasionally snowed hard, accumulating to a total of 0.3 inches and at least temporarily smushing down my daffodils. 

All the flowers recovered when the snow quickly melted by mid-afternoon and the sun made an early evening appearance. 

Snowflakes made their way as far south as Burlington. Web cams in mid and high elevations of Vermont showed heavy snow with perhaps a good two or three inches of snow. It looked like some of the heavier snow bands produced rates of an inch per hours, which is pretty good. 

Looks like the Sunday snow killed this patch of 
daffodils in St. Albans, Vermont, but when the 
snow melted and the sun came out late in the day
these flowers recovered very nicely.

By late afternoon and early evening today, the contrast in weather across Vermont and eastern New York is stunning. 

As of 5 p.m. it was still snowing and raining with temperatures in the 30s in most of northern east of the Green Mountains and north of Route 2. 

In Highgate, one of the first weather stations to see the late date clearing, the temperature went from a chilly 38 degrees at noon to a reasonable 52 degrees at 5 p.m. 

Usually, the high temperatures for the day is in the late afternoon, but at least in western Vermont out highs will come just before sunset. I wouldn't be surprised if the northwests tip of the state reaches 60 degrees.

Sunday's snow was by no means the biggest snow on record for so late in the season. Not even close.  

The most memorable in recent memory was on April 27-28, 2010, when more  when 10 to 20 inches of wet snow hit many areas north of Route 2.  Spring leaf out was much more advanced that year than it is this year.

So leafed out trees collapsed under the weight of the heavy snow, causing widespread power outages and tree damage. Glad we didn't have to put up with that today!

Historically, huge snowstorms have occurred much later than today's trifling snow. On May 20, 1892, high elevations of south central Vermont had up to 30 inches of snow with nearly a foot in the valleys. 

As we said in previous forecast, as of this evening, the snow is ending and we're back to our regularly scheduled spring. 

Will It Snow In Vermont Today? For Many It Will Be Close

Soggy daffodils this morning in St. Albans, Vermont.
I wonder if a few snowflakes will land on them today.

 As expected, it's damp and drizzly and chilly and showery out there this Sunday morning in Vermont. 

Yesterday's cold front has passed through. It gave all of Vermont a soaking rain Saturday. Which was actually a good thing, since rainfall has been spotty this month. Some places were doing OK, others were a little on the dry side. Saturday's rain evened things up a little. 

As of around 7 a.m., a cold upper level low looks like it was centered roughly over far northwest Vermont. 

Moisture and rain was curling around the north side of this low, moving eastward across southern Quebec and then southward across northern New York. At higher elevations, some of that was snow.  Even low elevations were close to snow. 

At 7 a.m. Montreal, Quebec reported moderate intensity rain with a temperature of 36 degrees.  At higher elevations, precipitation hadn't quite started in Saranac Lake, New York, yet, but it was only 34 degrees there. 

As of 7:30 a.m, traffic cameras on high elevation roads, like Route 17 in Buels Gore and Route 242 in Westfield, were showing light rain, not snow. 

TODAY'S RAIN/SNOW

Clouds from the storm that is causing rain and snow
in Vermont today cover New England. Those
clear skies you see in far western New York
and adjacent Ontario could reach western
sections of Vermont toward sunset. 

As the upper low continues to trudge east today, that southward moving precipitation that was over New York will cross Vermont. For the most part, valleys will just see cold rain showers. With the onset of precipitation, temperatures will fall slightly, so you'll see more snow at mid and high elevations. 

With the upper low overhead, high elevations will chill further during this morning and early afternoon, so that's when the snow in some areas should start. 

If you're in Vermont and at an elevation of 1,000 feet or more, I'm guessing you'll see at least a few wet snowflakes today. The Green Mountain summits still look like they're in for one to as much as four inches of new snow. 

Lower elevations are iffy. It's so late in the season for snow, so it's hard to come by.

Plus, this is hitting during the day, not at night. Despite the thick clouds, very strong late April sunshine can still send some meager heat through the clouds, keeping temperatures just high enough to avoid snow in the valleys.

Still, if a patch of heavy precipitation passes over a particular spot, it might be enough to briefly drag snowflakes down to the ground, even in the northern Champlain Valley. 

Overall, the atmosphere over Vermont is just a smidge warmer than the forecasts I saw later Saturday. That could limit the extent of any snow today, which I'm sure most of you won't mind. 

There's also going to be quite a gradient in precipitation amounts to day in Vermont. Far southern Vermont should see only a few hundredths of an inch. By the time you get to Route 2, it'll be roughly quarter inch. Up by the Canadian border towns like Highgate, Montgomery, Newport and Island Pons will see a half inch or so of rain (or if you're high up, melted snow).

If you're driving through the mountains today, I don't think the roads will get too bad. Pavement temperatures are warm, and that weak heat from the sun should keep pavement wet, not white. 

ABRUPT SPRING RETURN

Late this afternoon, a sharp line of clearing - and warmer air - will start to work eastward from northern New York. This clearing should reach western Vermont toward sunset or maybe even a little before.

This should belatedly bring temperatures west of the Green Mountains upward from the low 40s in the early afternoon to low and mid 50s toward sunset. 

The clearing will probably  hit eastern Vermont too late to have much of an effect on temperatures. But at least in parts of Vermont, the sunset should be interesting with bright sun blasting in from the western horizon with dark clouds to the east. 

With the balmier air moving in, it won't get all that cold tonight. Monday is still looking like it will turn into a full force return to spring.  Under strong April sun, high temperatures should easily get into the 60s most places.

SEVERE WEATHER?

The heat should continue to build Tuesday as highs get well into the 70s.  A few banana belt towns could touch 80 degrees.

We're still watching what will be a big outbreak of severe storm and tornadoes Monday in the Midwest.

The slowly dying remnants of that severe storm blast will come at us Tuesday night.  There's still a chance a few storms could be strong when they reach Vermont later Tuesday.  The chances of that were low, with the best chance in northwest parts of the state. 

Still, it's the first time this season that we even have to question the risk of severe storms.  Another sign that summer is fast approaching, despite today's Sunday chill.

We'll keep an eye on all that for updates. 

Say It Ain't Snow! Parts Of Vermont To Be Dusted With It Sunday, Believe It Or Not!

Yep! We have to do another snow prediction map from
the National Weather Service. This is for tomorrow.
Although accumulations should be limited to the
mountains snowflakes could reach valley floors 

 It might be very hard to believe, given the rainy, sort of warmish and muggy day we had here in Vermont on our Saturday, but a (hopefully!) last dash of winter weather (Read: Snow) is coming to parts of the Green Mountain State on Sunday. 

Only the high elevations will see any real accumulation, but some snowflakes could easily make it down to valley floors, especially along and north of Route 2.  

Elevations about 1,000 feet might well see some brief slushy accumulations on grassy surfaces.

This latest forecast update hints at more snow that was expected in earlier predications. 

It just goes to show how capricious a Vermont spring can be. 

The culprit is the same storm we dealt with today. We were on the eastern, warm side of the storm Saturday,  so we had that mild spring rains that helped boost all our spring green beauty out there. 

The storm's cold front was coming in late this afternoon and this evening, and that will quickly change the character of the air. As of 5 p.m., it was 64 degrees in Burlington with a dew point of 61, which is really the most humid it's been so far this spring.  

Not far to the west, in northwestern New York, it was already in the low 40s as of 5 p.m. That's the first hint that Sunday is going to be a March-like throwback to us Vermonters.

SUNDAY

Our storm will slow down temporarily  as it reaches Maine and the far southeast corner of Quebec by tomorrow. 

The storm will push a slug of moisture down from the north, making showers blossom and increase in intensity tomorrow morning. That will continue into the afternoon. 

This system is also carrying a pocket of very cold air with it, especially aloft.  That'll ensure that it snows on Sunday at elevations about 2,500 feet. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the summits of mountains like Jay Peak, Mount Mansfield and Camels Hump see three or four inches out of this.

The real interesting part on Sunday will be when heavier showers pass through a particular location. Those heavier showers will drag down some of the cold air aloft, changing the rain to snow when the precipitation is heavy. 

That's most likely at elevations above 1,000 feet.  But I think that some snowflakes might make it down as low as the northern Champlain Valley. 

These kinds of storm scenarios are tricky. In the past, I've been surprised by a dusting to an inch of snow in this kind of weather situation even in low elevations. You never know.

SMALL SIZED COLD SNAP

The pocket to frigid air with this storm system is very small in size.  As the storm slowly moves east, the skies will clear in northern New York, and warmer air will move in to those places. So Sunday afternoon, we'll have the opposite situation we had late this afternoon

While it will be snowing in Vermont, temperatures could rise to close to 60 in northwestern New York. 

The nasty cold pocket of air associated with our storm will continue moving east. That'll take the rain and snow with it and out of Vermont toward the end of Sunday. 

If clearing starts early enough in the evening, the temperature could spike up to the low to mid 50s in western Vermont in the evening, after spending the midday in the upper 30s to low 40s. 

You'd think that after such a cold Sunday, we'd have a nasty freeze Sunday night. But the warm air will continue to flood in, so most of us will stay above freezing overnight Sunday. Parts of eastern Vermont might get near or a little below freezing,  but that's not so odd for this time of year.

BIG WARMUP

By Monday, all will be forgotten. Under sunny skies, temperatures will soar back up into the 60s, maybe near 70 in some of the banana belt towns in the Champlain Valley and in in far southwest and southeast Vermont. That's all actually is a smidge warmer than normal for late April. 

On Tuesday, it's looking like we might have the warmest day of the year so far.  Many of us will get well into the 70s, and a few towns could get to 80 if the sun stays out long enough. 

A storm that is expected to create a nasty severe weather and tornado outbreak in the Midwest Monday will arrive in the form of a cold front later Tuesday and Tuesday night. 

This system might still have enough oomph to set off some thunderstorms in Vermont Tuesday night. It's very iffy, but there's a chance that a couple of the storms might actually turn out to be on the strong side.

But otherwise, don't worry about that next cold front. Instead of bringing snow, it should bring a seasonable cool, fresh spring day for us on Wednesday 

In Many Areas, Dangerous Summer Heat Waves Now Hit In The Spring

Springtime heat waves are growing more frequent,
widespread and deadly worldwide, 
thanks to climate change 

It's a relatively cool, rainy day here in Vermont, but something weird is happening with spring around the world. 

In many cases across the Northern Hemisphere, it's no longer that pleasant, mild time of year in which everything blooms. 

Instead, increasingly, many locations are getting blasted by strangely torrid weather. 

In many other areas of the world, where extreme summer heat is now a springtime thing, too, thanks to climate change. 

It's been going on pretty much yearly in the past decade, and the phenomenon is becoming more frequent and widespread. It's not just that these spring heat waves are weird. They're dangerous. 

As Vox reports:

"Cities like Phoenix and Palm Springs, California, closed in on triple digits in March; Phoenix usually doesn't reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit until May. This month, hundreds of millions of people across India and Pakistan, experienced temperatures as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit, triggering power outages and protests. The heat has also created conditions for thousands of wildfires in the region."

It's not just this year in which spring heat waves are popping up all over the place. 

Vox continues:

"It's part of a pattern. Last year, heat waves coursed through Africa and Europe during the spring, setting new temperature records in more than a dozen countries. Mexico experienced a series of heat waves beginning in April. A heat wave in Texas in May sent power demand to a record high for the month."

Heat waves are very often deadly, killing thousands of people every year. In some ways, these new spring heat waves might be even deadlier that ones that hit in July or August in the northern hemisphere. 

People are not acclimatized yet to hot weather and then a heat wave arrives prematurely.  The shock to the system can kill in some cases.

The spring heat waves also just make summer seemingly last forever.  The longer a heat wave goes on, the more punishing they are on the human body, unless people have access to cool rooms and plenty of water. Perhaps billions of people around the world have little or no access to air conditioning.

And spring heat - especially when they keep  going into the summer -   can cause droughts, contribute to wildfires and strain electrical grids. 

LATEST HEAT WAVES

 In the past few days, unprecedented early season heat has hit a broad area of North Africa, the Mideast, and adjacent parts of Asia. 

Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who carefully tracks heat waves around the world is calling this huge heat wave an extraordinary event. "Thousands of stations will pulverize their records in the next days... with the hugest margins seen in climatic history," he wrote on X. 

Some examples in the past few days include 113 degrees in Gaya, Niger, the hottest temperature on record for any month in that area. 

 It was also 113 degrees in Hazeva, Israel. At Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel,  it was 104 degrees.

Kuwait gets incredibly hot in the summer, but not quite so much in the spring. Until now. It was 120 degrees in Kuwait this week, their hottest April temperatures on record. 

Saudi Arabia also saw its hottest April weather on record with temperatures as high as 115 degrees. 

In war-torn Sudan temperatures in the past week have gotten as hot as 112 during the day and failed to drop below the mid-80s at night.  Heat waves are more dangerous when it does not cool off at night, as the unrelenting temperatures never give the human body to recover from the extreme heat of the day. 

Other incredible heat examples this week include 108 in Turkmenistan, 104 in Uzbekistan, and 100 degrees in Kazakhstan.  

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned residents of that nation to expect more unprecedented April heat through the end of the month before cooler storms arrive in early May. 

VERMONT SPRING HEAT

Dangerous heat waves are of course less likely here in Vermont than in many other parts of the world. But heat waves have been known to kill even here.  Six Vermonters lost their lives in an intense July, 2018 heat wave for instance

Vermont, too, has been experience weird spring hot spells in recent years and decades. So far, this spring has mostly been an exception to the hot early season weather. Though we did have three days in March this year that got into the 70s, which is pretty strange.

Temperatures reaching 90 degrees in May used to be relatively rare in Vermont. But half the Mays since 2010 have gotten to 90 degrees or more in Burlington, Vermont. 

Some specific spring heat waves recently have been really something.  

On April 13 2023, the temperature in Burlington reached 88 degrees, by far the earliest on record it's been that hot. It was 89 degrees that day in Springfield, Vermont. 

On May 27, 2020, the temperature in Burlington reached a torrid 95 degrees, breaking the old record for hottest day in May by two degrees. On June 1, 2023, it was 96 in Burlington, the hottest for so early in the season. 

More Videos: Wildfires, Floods, Tornadoes Continue To Plague U.S.

Flooding in Omaha, Nebraska Thursday after 
severe thunderstorms swept through. 
Note the patches of hail floating in the water.

 Another week another, another period of weird, scary weather across the United States. Part of New Jersey burned in an enormous wildfire. Omaha, Nebraska, for the second time this month, endured intense thunderstorms and hail. 

And as usual for this time of year, Texas has been producing tornadoes. 

Those tornadoes on Thursday are setting the stage for what will probably be a big severe tornado and severe weather outbreak that will bubble along tonight and tomorrow, intensify some on Sunday, then really kick into high gear next Monday and Tuesday.

Here are some video highlights from our recent wild weather. 

Scenes from the New Jersey wildfire.  In terms of extreme wildfires, I swear New Jersey is the new California. They've had some nasty ones over the past six months. As always click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

The area around Omaha, Nebraska has not had a good time lately with severe storms and tornadoes. Last week, tornadoes swirled near the city, damaging and destroying houses in eastern Nebraska and Iowa. Those storms last week including that epic hailstorm in Fremont, Nebraska I posted about recently

Another round of intense storms struck Omaha Thursday, prompting tornado warnings, dumping a lot more hail, and flooding parts of the city.  Here's a video of a car being pushed down a hill be water and dumped into a hail-encrusted lake that formed  at the bottom of the hill. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that 

Earlier this month, intense flooding hit some Midwestern and southern states, including Arkansas. In this video, water tore through Spring River, Arkansas, ripping homes from their foundations and causing extreme destruction. Brian Emfinger documented the aftermath in the following stunning video. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

This time of year, western and central Texas can be the scene of some powerful and picturesque tornadoes. This one occurred Thursday near Matador, Texas, which is northeast of Lubbock.  It looks powerful, but luckily passed over a sparsely populated area. As usual, click on this link to view the video from Texas Storm Chasers, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Yet Another Wet Saturday In Vermont. And Did Someone Say Snow?

The sun appears amid a downpour Thursday evening at the
tail end of a thunderstorm that hit far northern Vermont.
Speaking of rain, yet another rainy Saturday is 
in the cards for the Green Mountain State

If you think you've been dodging rain drops every Saturday lately,  you're right 

This Saturday will be the sixth consecutive one with at least some precipitation.  This one will be a real soaker, but still, it probably won't rain all day. We hope. 

THURSDAY THUNDER

We'll get to the forecast details in a second, but I want to acknowledge Thursday's weather in Vermont, which in some places proved kind of interesting. 

During a nice long interval of sunshine Thursday afternoon, Burlington topped 70 degrees for the first time this month and for the first time since March 20.

That sunshine helped destabilize the air ahead of a disturbance coming in from west and northwest late in the afternoon. 

The result was the expected hit and miss showers and rumbles of thunder. In Franklin County, Vermont, here in St Albans, we got a solid thunderstorm with a good downpour, several lightning strikes and peals of thunder and wind gusts to 25 mph or so.

Definitely not severe, but it was a nice brief spring storm for this fan of thunderstorms. 

Many places did miss out. Burlington only saw a trace of rain and no thunder. 

WET FORECAST

Up next, our next storm, which will be a decent soaker, as mentioned. 

Aside from perhaps a few sprinkles, we should be OK today at least until late afternoon or early evening, when a few showers might arrive. 

The main show is tonight and a good chunk of Saturday. That's when most of the steady rain will come through. You might hear an occasional heavier downpour on the roof and maybe even a rumble of thunder later tonight and the first half of Saturday. 

Showers will probably continue all day, but in the afternoon, there might be gaps here and there in which it stops raining or a time.  So, maybe not a complete washout, but close. 

Rainfall with this thing will amount to anywhere from a half inch to an inch of rain.  That's not nearly enough to cause any flooding worries whatsoever, but it will make things a bit muddy underfoot. 

The rain and clouds will hold temperatures down into the 55 to 65 degree range for most of us. So kinda seasonable, really. 

This will be the sixth Saturday in a row with at least some rain and/or snow in Vermont. Also, at least a trace of rain or snow has fallen each weekend since mid-December.  I guess things really do go in regular patterns, sometime. 

COLD DAMP SHOT AND SNOW?

The storm's cold front will come through later in the day and it will cool off quickly during the evening as a result. The original hope was that the storm would move right along, leaving us with a bright, breezy and cool Sunday.

But nope!

The damn thing is going to linger near Maine and Nova Scotia during the day, throwing back clouds, cold winds and rain showers back into Vermont for a good chunk of Sunday. And it will get cold enough for snow up in the mountains. 

Granted, it's the end of April, so we can't expect much out of this. But the Green Mountain summits should see one to three inches of snow. A few snowflakes might even make it down into valley floors Sunday morning, but we won't see any accumulation. 

It will be a raw, gusty day, with many of us not even making it to 50 degrees for a high. Some places over 1,500 feet of elevation in northern Vermont could stay in the 30s all day.  

QUICK TURNAROUND

Sunday's chill does not mean spring is pre-empted. It will just be an annoying interruption.  We're still expecting highs back to near 70 Monday and in the 70s Tuesday. 

The overall trend for the first half of May is beginning to trend toward the cool side, but we don't know for sure it that's entire accurate quite yet.  We also don't know yet if "cool" means just "not quite summer" or whether it means "whatever happened to spring."

We'll keep you posted as always. 

 

Pope Francis Was A Climate Activist

Pope Francis, who died Monday at the age of 88, 
was a climate activist who frequently spoke of 
the dangers it poses to humanity. 

Much is obviously being written this week about Pope Francis, who died Monday at the age of 88.

Many aspects of his life and his role as Pope stood out, and one of them was the fact he was a climate activist. 

"Over his 12 years as head of the Catholic Church, Francis repeatedly raised the problem of human-caused global heating from burning fossil fuels and he encouraged people - including world leaders  - to do something about it."

It wasn't surprising from the very beginning that Pope Francis was an environmentalist. He was the first pontiff to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology. 

It's also no surprise that the MAGA crowd in the United States was no fan of Pope Francis, given how it's a drill, baby drill crowd who thinks climate change is a hoax.  Our buddy Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Crazy, Georgia responded to the pontiff's death (without naming him directly)  by writing on X:

"Today there were major shifts in global leadership. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God."

If Greene detested the pope for his climate activism, she's got plenty of evidence, so I'll give her that much. 

NPR again: 

"In 2015, Pope Francis issued a papal letter - or encyclical - titled Laudato Si.  It recognized climate change as a global problem with significant consequences, especially for the poor. He criticized developed countries like the United States and China, which have contributed the most planet heating pollution. Francis reserved the most severe criticism for the 'wealthier sectors of society, where the habit of wasting and discarding has reached unprecedented levels.'"

Francis had said poorer nations, which contributed the least to climate change, should get more aid from developed counties that had caused a larger share of climate change. 

That thought was a key element of the Paris Climate Agreement, which then-President Obama and other world leaders agreed to later in 2015. 

NPR notes that the 2015 Pope Francis encyclical inspired a number of Catholic climate activism groups.

In recent years, the Pope stepped up his climate rhetoric and activity.

In 2018, according to the Washington Post, he even gathered oil executives - including leaders from BP and Royal Dutch Shell - at a 16th century villa, urging them to transition from planet-warming fossil fuels to clean energy sources.

In a 2021 BBC broadcast, he listed climate change as among the top crises facing the world, right up there with the then-raging COVID-19 pandemic and deep economic difficulties around the world.  

Pope Francis in 2023  released another document that focused almost exclusively on climate change. He wrote,  "....with the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point."

The pope's words on climate basically were preaching to the choir.  For all his work on climate, 'I'm not sure he moved the needle much on climate attitudes.  But the Pope's efforts surely did affect some hearts and minds, and inspired climate activism among certain groups of Catholics who agreed with his stance. 

Catholicism  is essentially a conservative religion, but at least here in America, climate change does not resonate with conservatives at all, be they Catholic or of some other religious persuasion. 

As the Washington Post explains:

"There is little indiction that Francis's activism shifted attitudes among American Catholics, In a 2023 Pew Research Center poll, 44 percent of U.S, Catholics said the Earth was warming because of human activity, compared with 46 percent of all U.S. adults. 

There was a sharp political divide. 82 percent of Catholics who identified leaned Democrat called climate change a major problem, compared with 25 percent for Republicans." 

Of course, we don't know how the next Pope will deal with climate change, if at all, since we don't know who that will be quite yet. 

But Pope Francis's calls to action on climate were one of many indications he was truly a man of the people, not just the elite. That's an increasingly rare trait among world leaders these days. 

"Boring" Vermont Spring Weather A Welcome Change From The Usual Chaos

Daffodils enjoying another mild spring morning today
in their St. Albans, Vermont garden plot.

This spring in Vermont - pretty much this year so far actually - has been remarkably mellow, at least in terms of weather. 

Sure, we had a big February snowstorm, some weird mid-March warmth and a damaging ice storm at the end of March, but - knock on wood - we have not had a chaotic weather year so far in Vermont. 

No epic spring snowstorms, no record summer-like heat waves, no floods to speak of, and few wild swings from hot to cold. 

That's a nice contrast to the extremes and disasters we've seen in Vermont in recent years, and the many dangerous, deadly tornadoes, floods and wildfires many other parts of the U.S. have endured so far this year. 

April so far has been especially quiet in the Green Mountain State. 

Conditions in the past couple of weeks have plodded along with extraordinary ordinariness, if that makes sense. Temperatures and precipitation this month have been close to normal. Temperatures have never really gotten that hot or that cold. 

We've had only one day in Burlington so far this month that was more than ten degrees above or below normal. We sometimes have several April days that are 20 degrees warmer or colder than the average for the date

I know I've probably jinxed it with this post and we'll now face months of scary weather. But for now, I'm not seeing any big weirdness coming our way.

However, things in the weather department are about to shake up from the doldrums just a little. 

On the agenda is a low risk of thunderstorms today, a likely soaking weekend rain, and - perhaps - the first summer like day of the season in northern Vermont. (Southern parts of the state already had one summery day a little over a week ago).

TODAY

A little disturbance racing through late this afternoon and early tonight might be enough to set off some showers and maybe even a couple weak thunderstorms. Anything that develops will be hit and miss and if storms do get going, they not even be close to severe. It's just another reminder that we're getting into that warm season showery regime.

So far this month, when it has rained, for the most part each episode has featured only pretty light showers. There's been a couple of exceptions, but there's been no "wow" factor to any storms.

WEEKEND SOAKER THEN WARMTH?

Friday night and Saturday, it looks like we are in for a pretty good wetting. This one won't be extreme, either, but early indications are most of us should see a half inch of rain at least, with a few places getting an inch.

That amount won't break any records and absolutely won't cause any flooding worries, but it could be the wettest storm of the month for many of us. The gardens could use a good soaking, so that's OK. 

In northern Vermont, temperatures have not gotten above 70 degrees since mid-March. In the past decade or two, it's gotten rare to have an April without any 70 or even 80 degree weather, so this month is so far an oddity.

But as the month draws to a close, it looks like we might finally get a brief squirt of summer-like air. If the showers hold off long enough next Tuesday, places like Burlington could make a run at 80 degrees.

We shall see.

The only disconcerting thing I see in the extended forecast is the possibility of a cold storm stalling overhead or nearby around May 7. If that happened, we'd have a big interruption in spring and maybe even some snow.

I would rate this as highly unlikely, though. Such long range forecasts are seldom accurate, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.    

Getting Ready To Enter The Last Vermont Spring Frost Countdown

Leaves on a white ash tree in Huntington, Vermont were
left wilted and black after a late season freeze on
May 18, 2023.  However, most recent years in
Vermont have featured earlier and earlier
last spring freezes of the season. 

 It's possible -though unlikely - that warmer spots in Vermont like parts of the Champlain Valley, have seen their last spring frost of the season. 

I say unlikely, because the average date of the last spring frost in Burlington is May 6.  We're defining frost here as a temperature of 32 degrees or lower.

You can still get light frosts at temperatures above 32 degrees, but it's easiest to compare and contrast using that 32 degree reading. 

In Burlington, the latest frost on record was an epic one on May 31, 1961 which sent the temperature all the way down to 25 degrees at the airport in South Burlington.

That 1961 brought temperatures into the low and 20s statewide, with a couple upper teens reported causing exceptionally bad crop damage and turning early summer foliage a depressing brown. That historic freeze caused $500,000 in Vermont crop damage, which corrected for inflation would be more than $5.3 million in today's dollars.

 On the other hand, way back in 1898, the last frost in Burlington was on April 7, the earliest final frost of they season on record. 

If Burlington ended up having its last freeze of the season on April 21 this year (a big if), that would be the earliest last freeze since April 17, 2019.   

The last frost of the spring has been trending earlier than the long term average in recent years and decades, thanks at least in part to climate change. In the last two decades, Burlington's final frost of the spring has come later than the May 6  only five times. 

EARLIER SPRING DANGERS

The fact that we are having earlier springs because of that climate change is making what used to be nearly harmless early to mid-May frosts and freezes more dangerous and damaging. That's because the more intense spring warmth of recent years and decades causes plants to sprout much earlier than they used to. 

A harsh May 18, 2023 freeze caused damage similar to that of that end of May freeze back in 1961, In the 2023 freeze, Vermont suffered extensive damage and losses to crops of apples, grapes, strawberries and other produce. Damage in the Green Mountain State was estimated at a whopping $10 million. 

This year, spring plant growth is running on the early side once again, but not as early as it did in 2023 and several other recent years. That could well save us from damaging freezes this year, unless we get an errant harsh freeze, say, after May 10 or 15.  

Which is always possible. Because generally, we've gotten warmer, but extremes have gotten more, well, extreme, so we could be prone to major temperatures gyrations. 

For the record, there are no hard freezes in the forecast at least through the next week and likely beyond. 

ELSEWHERE IN VERMONT

Elsewhere in Vermont, spring freezes of course come later than in the Banana Belt Champlain Valley. 

Up in St. Johnsbury, the average date of the last spring frost is May 20. But it has gotten to 32 degrees there as late as June 20, 1918.

June, 1918 was remarkably cold in Vermont in a remarkably chilly year. It was 35 degrees in Burlington that June 20, and the city endured 11 days in a row between June 13 and 23 in which the low temperature was below 50 degrees. 

Most other areas of Vermont have had June frosts in the past. Even Burlington has come close, with temperatures of 33 degrees in the Junes of 1924 and 1986. 

Montpelier has had a freeze as late as June 6, 1964. 

Other areas of Vermont tend to have much later spring frosts than the Champlain Valley, The coldest hollows of the Northeast Kingdom have had frost every month of the year. 

In the cold valley of Island Pond, deep in the Northeast Kingdom, the latest "spring" frost was on July 2, 1992. Yep, right before the Fourth of July weekend. 

There was a teeny-tiny ice age of sorts going on in 1992. Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in June, 1991, spewing so much sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere that it temporarily interrupted global warming and cooled the Earth by almost a full degree for a little over a year. 

That does't sound like much, but such a drop is impressive.

So unless there's another enormous volcanic eruption somewhere on Earth, the chances of summer or late spring frosts in Vermont are becoming more and more remote. 

Overall, even though the last spring freezes of the season are tending to come later and later, I'd still obey those old rules about planting your gardens outside. I'd still wait until around Memorial Day or so to put the tomato plants outdoors, for instance. 

Ominous Real World Effects Of NOAA/NWS Cutbacks Beginning To Show

Real effects of Trump administration cutbacks at 
NOAA are now starting to be felt, and it's going
to keep getting worse and worse. 

 At this point, I'd be willing to wager that the forecasts issued by the National Weather Service are now less accurate and less thorough then they were before Donald Trump took office. 

Between the firings, the slashing of funding, and the voluntary buyouts - another 300 National Weather Service employees were expected to take the latest buyout this past week - the NWS is already crippled. 

I fear the short staffing is already leading to missed forecasts during spells of dangerous weather. And this will only keep getting worse

Eight of the 122 NWS local offices across the nation will have seven or fewer meteorologists doing the work of 12 to 15 people, reports the Washington Post. 

Some of the worst staff shortages are in places where fast-developing and fast-evolving tornadoes, severe storms and flash floods are most common, especially this time of year. These offices include Kansas City, Louisville, Des Moines, Grand Rapids and Omaha. 

The Omaha National Weather Service just recently had to deal with an outbreak of tornadoes and exceptionally destructive hail storms. Those storms required careful monitoring of a complex set of severe storms and quick warnings to the public.  

The Omaha office still managed to do an excellent job of warning residents. However, a tornado that did not have a National Weather Service warning hit Storm Lake, Iowa, which is Omaha's coverage zone.  Sometimes developing tornadoes are missed by even the most conscientious meteorologist, but I still have to wonder if staffing shortages created the environment to miss signs the Storm Lake tornado was forming. 

Here's how things can get missed, as John Sokich, a recently retired director of congressional affairs for the NWS, explained to USA Today. 

Meteorologists are under particular stress during severe weather, when lives are at stake. '"'You're talking 12-hour shifts and you constantly have to be on point,' he said. 'It's physically draining to keep going like that and something will break. Working through high impact weather events for multiple days presents physical limitations is stressful and mentally draining.'

Even more draining when some of the tools you need to monitor the severe weather are no longer available.  

We've already reported on the reduction of weather balloon launches, which help forecasters understand the complexities in the atmosphere that can tell them when and where dangerous storms will hit. 

The Sacramento, California National Weather Service office will do almost all of its forecasting during days shifts, as the night will be minimally staffed unless severe weather is present. This change means that such things as fire weather watches and winter storm warnings will mostly only be issued during the day. 

If these warnings are not issued in a timely manner, that could give emergency managers left time to prepare for hazardous conditions. 

As I've previously reported, the research arm is taking the biggest hit, as the Trump administration thinks anything remotely related to climate change is off limits, because in Trump's addled mind, climate change doesn't exist.

The Pensacola News Journal sums up the effects of the NOAA research cuts just in Florida: 

"If the proposed budget cuts to NOAA are enacted as is, it would have wide-ranging impacts on climate research, significantly decrease the accuracy of hurricane forecasting, end climate monitoring for farmers reliant on the service and ultimately leave coastal communities, like the entire state of Florida, to fend for themselves during hurricane season."

On an even more macro level, the American Meteorological Association and National Weather Association, released a detailed, grim statement about the cutbacks. 

The statement said in part: 

"Without NOAA research, National Weather Service weather models and products will stagnate, observational data collection will be reduced, public outreach will decrease, undergraduate and graduate student support will drop, and NOAA funding for universities will plummet. 

In effect, the scientific backbone and workforce needed to keep weather forecasts, alerts, and warnings accurate and effective will be drastically undercut with unknown - and yet almost certainly disastrous - consequences for public safety and economic health."

This excellent joint statement between the AMA and NWA give us examples of how this all will affect you:

"Imagine what will  happen to tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings if we don't have a robust national weather radar network? What will happen to reservoir management when critical information on rainfall and runoff goes missing? What will happen when Hurricane Hunter aircraft are delayed or data from their instruments are not available to improve hurricane track and landfall forecasts?

NOAA research affects the lives of American taxpayers every day. It is vital to the work of the National Weather Service and the NOAA mission to predict the environment and share that information with businesses, communities, state and local government, and citizens."

 National Weather Service outreach to the public is being cutback too. The National Weather Service office in Sacramento said it would reduce overnight staffing, stop directly answering its publicly listed phone lines, post less often on social media and delay responses to media requests. 

That's fine I'm sure with the Trump administration, as transparence is anathema to them. 

The Trump administration is trying like hell to keep the effects of the cutbacks secret, as if it somehow won't become obvious to the public.

As evidence, here's a excerpt from the Washington Post:

"The Post spoke with 10 employees across the Weather Service and its parent agencies, NOAA and the Commerce Department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. Concerned with leaks to the media, the administration is installing monitoring software on NOAA employees' devices to track their communications, two current employees said."

 It seems the Trump administration has particular enmity toward the heroes in our American story. This administration is screwing over veterans, farmers, health care workers and aid organizations and National Weather Service meteorologists. 

And they are our heroes. 

On most days, the weather is routine and mundane, and we rely on these federal meteorologists just to let us know whether we should take an umbrella or our sunglasses to work with us tomorrow morning. 

Nice, but not critical.

But when the weather gets dangerous, these National Weather Service meteorologists save lives. I'd love to know how many over the years, but it's many, many thousands. How many people saved their own lives over the years because the fled to basements and storm shelters because the National Weather Service told them a tornado was coming?

How many of those people would have died had they not received the tornado warnings? Or not fled the coast because there was no hurricane warning saying you'd better get out or else?  . Or a flash flood was menacing their town?

I was eternally grateful to our meteorologists at the National Weather Service office here in South Burlington during our summer flood disasters in 2023 and 2024. 

The flood of 2023 killed two people in Vermont. The floods of 2024 did exactly the same. But how many people would have been killed or injured had the dire warnings the NWS released not happened? 

Neither the July. 10, 2023 nor the July 11, 2024 flood was a surprise because National Weather Service meteorologists bombarded us with warnings, detailed, accurate forecasts and great advice.

Surprises and inaccurate information are what kill people. Gutting the National Weather Service, and NOAA as a whole will greatly increase the likelihood that these inevitable, scary storms will take us by surprise.

Just more evidence that - false campaign rhetoric to the contrary - Donald Trump and his minions do NOT care about people like you and me. At all.  

Videos: Nebraska, Iowa Hail, Tornadoes Wreck Towns

Gigantic hail propelled by high winds smashed out
the windows of this Fremont, Nebraska hotel and
pockmarked the exterior walls 

Last Thursday, a cluster of intense thunderstorms unleashed tornadoes, intense winds and gigantic hail on areas of eastern Nebraska and western and central Iowa.

There were at least 23 reports of tornadoes near Omaha, Nebraska.  One tornado in Iowa was 1.8 miles wide, which would hold the record for the widest tornado in Iowa history. 

Communities that avoided the tornadoes were instead bombarded by gigantic hail propelled by winds that gusted to hurricane force. 

The National  Weather Service said the storm in Fremont features hail up to the size of baseball accompanied with wind gusts to 82 mph. 

Some of the videos are wild, so we'll give you some samples in this post. 

Here's a Facebook reel of the chaos inside a home as hail stones crashed through windows, spreading ice and debris through the home's interior. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below click on that. 

Next video shows heavy amounts of hail pummeling Raymond, Nebraska. Click on this link to view or if you see image below, click on that:

Taken just after the storm, video shows the metal exterior of Mel's Diner battered, and a Rodeway Inn in Fremont, Nebraska with all the windows on one side busted out and its stucco walls pockmarked with hail damage as if shelled in a war. Parking lot is full of hail-smashed cars, too. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 We're always wowed by the drama of storm videos, but we can't forget there are real victims. To bring you back down to Earth, here's a news video where a woman whose southwest Iowa house was damaged in one of the tornadoes notes it hit on the anniversary of her husband's death, and the same week her beloved dog died. 

I do hope things get much better for this lady. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.