Wild Vermont Weather Day Is Over; We Still Face A Few Issues With Wind, Snow Showers

View from St. Albas, of the sharp squall line
approaching from New York State shortly
before noon today. 

Well, that was quite a weather day here in Vermont, wasn't it? 

Between the damaging wind gusts. the torrents of rain, the record high temperatures, then the big temperature crash, there was a lot going on. .

WIND/POWER OUTAGES

I'll hit some of the highlights in this update, here on this (much calmer) late Friday afternoon. 

The number of customers across Vermont that lost electricity to the gales reached as high as nearly 21,700 at a little before noon. That reportedly represents a bit over 20 percent of all Vermont electricity customers

As of 5 p.m. the number of people still without electricity was still at nearly 8.500.

The wind this morning was the obvious culprit. Those high speed winds a few thousand feet aloft mixed down to the surface in some places, while it wasn't all that windy in others.

The places that did get windy really had their hats blown off. Top winds reported included 73 mph in South Lincoln and  67 mph in Pleasant Valley. That's the area between Underhill and Cambridge in the shadow of Mount Mansfield.

Other reports include 66 mph in Jay, 63 mph at the Morrisville/Stowe Airport, and in West Enosburg. Sections of some roads in Vermont closed temporarily because fallen trees and power lines were draped across them. 

Radar image of today's squall line approaching
from NewYork showed in really meant business. 

.The Green Mountain summits poked up into that layer of high speed air overhead. A gust on Mount Mansfield reached 106 mph.  Most ski areas in Vermont either shut down or had lift holds today. 

RECORD HIGHS

The big surprise today were the record highs. We knew it would be really warm, but it got pretty crazy. Burlington got up to 63 degrees,  roaring past that old record of 49 set in 1895. 

We now have no December daily record highs in the 40s. December record high in the 60s are increasing fast. Climate change again. 

Burlington's high today was a tie for eighth hottest December day on record. Pretty impressive considering the rest of the month so far has been decidedly on the cold side.

Other record highs today include, the following, with the old record in parentheses; Plattsburgh, NY, 59 (49 in 1967); Bennington, 57, (47 in 20-17); Newport, 53, (49 in 1949) and Montpelier, 53 (49 in 1949).

One piece of good news is so far, despite the midday deluge, there's been no reports of flooding.

REST OF THE STORM

Technically the storm isn't done with us yet. A brief slot of dry, rather calm air came in late this afternoon. There was even a decent sunset around Burlington. 

But as the evening goes on, you'll feel the west winds increase. All of Vermont except the Champlain Valley is still under a wind advisory.  That advisory goes until 7 a.m. Saturday and calls for peak gusts in a few spots to 50 mph. That's enough to trigger a few more power outages. Yay! 

It'll be blustery overnight in the Champlain Valley, with the strongest gusts in the 40 to 45 mph range. 

Snow showers were just beginning to make their way back into Vermont as of 5 p.m. A few of them will actually come in the form of a few raindrops in the valleys early this evening before the cold air solidly arrives overnight. 

The snow won't amount to much. Most of us will get somewhere between a few flakes and a little under an inch. But that bit of snow, combined with all that water freezing, will create icy spots on the roads overnight and Saturday morning. 

The weather pattern is still active, and I'll get into that my Saturday morning post.