Late Afternoon Vermont Storm Update. Severe Threat Is Over, But It Will Stay Showery For Days

Weather radar in Vermont looks really busy shortly 
before 1 p.m. as a line of thunderstorms was passing 
through. The irregular yellow rectangles are severe
storm warnings, and there has been reports of wind
damage these storms across various parts of Vermont.

That line of storms blasted through Vermont as expected. One tornado might have touched down in Woodstock. That's being investigated.  

Some of the stronger storms did put up a spin, so they got close.  The storm in Woodstock particularly showed rotation.  

The severe thunderstorm warnings were mostly in central and southern Vermont. Many of the warnings had enhanced wording that mentioned that tornadoes can form quickly out of severe thunderstorms. 

The wording was added because radar indicated some rotation in the storms, but National Weather  Service meteorologists didn't think a tornado seemed imminent. 

There were some reports of damage. A tree fell on some power lines along Pond Road on the Fairfield/Swanton town line, early this afternoon, but the road was soon reopened. 

In Woodstock, where the possible tornado touched down, numerous trees were sheared off on a hillside and part of a small barn was ripped away. 

Elsewhere, a large tree snapped off and several other tree were damaged in East Pittsford, not far north of Rutland. Power lines and at least one tree was reported down in East Barre. Numerous trees, branches and wires were down in Hartford, Vermont. 

Trees and power lines were also reported down in Williamstown, Lincoln, Middlebury and Danby.

The number of Vermont power outages zoomed upward to over 21,000, mostly in southern and eastern parts of the state, as that's where the thunderstorms were most intense.  

I'm sure more reports of storm damage will come in as the storms depart.  If any damage reports pique the interest of the National Weather Service, they'll send personnel over to determine whether it was a tornado or straight line winds. I suspect a meteorologist might pay a visit to Woodstock, but that has not been established yet. 

The tornado watch that was in effect across Vermont has expired.as o 3 p.m. A tornado watch continued in far southern Vermont as of 3:45, but that probably will have expired by the tine you read this.  The threat of severe weather is over in Vermont.

A tornado watch remained in effect across New Hampshire and western Maine as the line of severe storms continued on thorough that area. 

One flash flood warning was issued in Vermont, in northwestern Bennington County. That area got a ton of rain Sunday, and another one to there inches fell in a short period of time today. So I'm sure some gravel roads and driveways suffered some damage in that area.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The wind advisory is still in effect.  The gusts weren't as bad as expected ahead of the thunderstorms, though Bennington did gust to 44 mph this morning. Strong southwest winds were blowing in central and western New York, gusting over 50 mph in spots. 

Some of those southwest winds are coming  into Vermont but they shouldn't be as bad as in New York. Still, some gusts over 30 mph might happen. A few areas in the eastern slopes of the Green mountains especially in southern Vermont could see gust to 40 or 45 mph. We'll have some isolated additional cases of trees blowing over and widely scattered power outages because of this. 

As of 3:30 p.m, there was an odd line of thunderstorms in northwestern New York on up into Montreal. They were heading east. If they hold together, they'll make it into northern Vermont late this afternoon and this evening. They might contain lightning and brief downpours if the hold together, but I don't expect anything severe out of them. 

Also, a new downpour was developing for some reason over the middle of Lake Champlain and was headed into Chittenden County as of 4 p.m. 

We'll have cool, showery weather through the weekend, but it won't rain all the time. Best chances of showers are north and mountains. Some areas of southeast Vermont might only get a sprinkle or two out of this. 

 

44 mph gust Bennington 11 a.m.