Vermont Storms Caused Scattered Damage; New Damage Coming From Frost?

A big, tall thunderstorm looms over Vermont Wednesday,
as viewed from Colchester.  Severe, damaging storms
struck parts of central and Northeast Vermont.

 The thunderstorms and pockets of severe weather pretty much worked out as expected on Wednesday. 

Most of us got either a mild thunderstorm or in a few cases, got nothing at all. 

It seems like the main, worst thunderstorm trekked from Addison County to the Northeast Kingdom near Danville and Peacham in the afternoon and early evening.

Basically, it was a bowing segment that was the culprit, and this type of storm often leads to damage.  

A bowing segment is a relatively short line of storms, shaped like a backwards "C".  The apex of that "C" s where the strongest winds are.  Yesterday, that was on a line from around Middlebury to Danville.

The whole Northeast shared in the severe weather. And the Central Great Plains were busy. Overall, there were 28 reports of tornadoes yesterday, mostly in Kansas, Nebraska and Texas. There were a whopping 381 wind damage reports, mostly in the Northeast, including here in Vermont. 

Trees were down in many parts of Middlebury, then a few more reports of tree damage around Waitsfield. This was followed by quite a few power outages in and around Barre. Then a trail of new scattered damage was reported along Route 2 from Marshfield to Danville.  

Several thousand homes and businesses also lost power along this path. 

Only a few lucky people got some decent rains, which we still need. Those in the path of the severe thunderstorm got more than a half inch of rain. Most of the rest of us got a tenth of an inch of rain or less.

Northern areas of Vermont look to get almost no rain for the next week, unless some storminess to our south pulls some surprises.  

CHILLY: FROSTY AND SNOWY?

Up next, though, we're temporarily going back in time to April. That means the risk of a late season frost, a cold rain in southern Vermont and yes, the dirty four-letter word is back: Maybe some snow in the highest elevations. 

After a few morning sprinkles, it will clear up rapidly today, and be breezy and cool.  That sets us up for the frost risk tonight. 

It'll be a race between cold air coming in from the north and high clouds coming in from the southwest. If the clouds come in more quickly than expected, most of us, except those in the Northeast Kingdom, will escape the frost. If the clouds stay away, many more of us will worry about a frost and freeze.

I'd play it safe tonight anywhere in Vermont except right near Lake Champlain.  Cover those tender annuals you just planted, or if possible, bring them indoors.  If you already planted your tomatoes outside, well it sucks for you. Cover those up, too, and hope for the best. 

Tomorrow, Friday, will be remarkably raw for the end of May.  Highs everywhere will only make it into the 50s.  Northern areas might be warmest as they could see a little sun.  Southern areas of Vermont will cloud right up and temperatures will stay in the low 50s. Some mid and high elevations there won't even make it out of the 40s for highs. Brrrr!

There's a lot of questions about how far north the rain will get Friday and Friday night.  Most forecasts keep the far north dry, but even there, there's a slight chance of sprinkles or light rain.  South of Route 4, there could be a good half inch of rain, which would be good for them. 

Bad for them will be the mountains. There could be some snow at least on the mountain peaks Friday night.

Saturday looks chilly,  too, with southern Vermont being the coolest.   Some clearing is expected to break out Saturday afternoon in the north, and the strong May sun would "heat" those areas into the low 60s, which is still quite chilly for this time of  year. Southern areas might stay in the 50s.

We'll also have to watch for scattered night time frost again in the north, too.

Don't worry. This throwback to early spring won't last forever.   A warming trend will start Sunday and continue well into next week.  Long range forecasts  call for above normal temperatures through the first 10 days or so of June 

Nation Is Remarkably Windy Today, Including Here In Vermont

Gusty winds and a dusting of snow greeting us in 
St. Albans, Vermont this morning.  It's quite windy
today in vast areas of the nation, including here in Vermont.

For some reason, today is windy in more than half the nation. March winds indeed!  

Wind advisories and high wind warnings are up from The northern and central Rockies, almost the entire Great Plains, the western Great Lakes, New England and New York.

The remarkable thing about this is that none of these areas have actual gigantic storms battering them, like you usually do when there's high winds. 

WHY ITS GUSTY

All this wind is why you keep hearing about March winds.  Even when there's no particularly intense storms, the atmosphere is energetic this time of year.  Large high pressure systems come down from Canada, or drift eastward across the country. 

Meanwhile low pressure areas some of which, like today, don't have much moisture with them also cross the nation. The differences in pressure between these systems creates a lot of the wind.

The strengthening spring sun plays a role, too.  The higher sun angle has gotten more efficient at heating the ground than the weak winter sunlight would have. This warms the air near the surface, and since warm air is lighter than cold air, it rises. 

These updrafts displace colder air up above us.  Remember how I said that the atmosphere is energetic this time of year.  That means it's particularly windy several thousand feet overhead. The displaced colder air has to go somewhere, so it dives down toward the surface, grabbing some of those strong higher elevation winds and bringing them to the surface. You end up with a gusty day like today. 

PLAINS FIRES

In the Great Plains, the winds are dry and the ground is dry from drought.  In many areas, it's too early in the spring for things to green up with any modest rain the area has gotten. 

The result is a remarkably huge zone of high fire danger from Texas to North Dakota and beyond into the southern Canadian prairies.

Already, fast-moving rangeland fires in southern Alberta forced the evacuation of a small town and closed large stretches of highways.  

Lots of wind on the National Weather Service map today.
Brown and brownish orange areas are wind advisories
and high wind warnings. That big read area in the middle
of the country is a Red Flag Warming for wildfires due
in large part to expected high winds today. 

The same situation could easily befall areas of the Plains today. Everyone in those areas are being warned to be careful with any outdoor flames or sparks that can ignite fast moving fires.  

These fires can invade small towns and burn homes and businesses, like they did in Oklahoma in 2018 when two people died and dozens of buildings, including homes, were destroyed. 

NEW ENGLAND WIND

When I got up at 5:30 a.m. to take the dogs out to do their business, the woods behind my St. Albans house were roaring in strong northwest winds. Yes, it was snowing too.

Wind advisories and high wind warnings are up for much of New England. The advisories cover most of Vermont as winds are expected to gust as high as 55 mph today. 

Us Vermonters will see scattered tree damage and power outages today, as this windstorm is a little stronger than many we see when intensifying storms depart into the Canadian Maritimes, as is happening today.  Most of Vermont is under a wind advisory today. 

As the winds increased early this morning the Vermont power outages had already started to ramp up. At 4 p.m., there were practically no outages, but by 6 p.m., that increased to 900, and then to nearly 1,900 by 7:30 a.m. and rising fast, according to VTOutages.org.

The wind, if anything will probably get worse later this morning. Wrap around moisture was causing light snow in parts of Vermont early this morning, including here in St. Albans.

That moisture and snow will depart as the morning goes by, allowing some sun to peek through.  Remember what I said above about the sun's heat causing those updrafts and subsequent gusty downdrafts. 

That'll increase later this morning.  (Though the wind will taper off later this afternoon as the Canadian storm moves further away, diminishing the pressure contrast between that and high pressure moving in).

Northwest winds will gain momentum flowing down the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains, so that's probably where the strongest winds will hit today.  But hang on to your hat everywhere in Vermont today. 

There's more wind in our future this week.

That disturbance helping create the strong winds today across the Plains will move east.  Warm south winds will take over Tuesday and Wednesday, but they won't be nearly as strong as today. 

Then that disturbance will consolidate and grab lots of Atlantic Ocean moisture as a new storm develops in New England. 

This will trigger another round of gusty north winds Thursday and Friday.  We're also looking  at the potential for accumulating snow late Wednesday night and Thursday, especially in the mountains.  Very cold weather with, yes, a lot of wind, is likely Friday before temperatures moderate some over the weekend