Horror Movie Plot Summer Creates More Vermont Flood Chaos

Rutland,Vermont Alderman Michael Talbot posted this
photo of water rescues Friday on Clover Street in
Rutland. That region was hit hard by the latest of
many rounds of flash flooding in Vermont this summer.

This summer in Vermont is playing out like a very bad horror movie. 

You know the tired, cliched plot of these things: The monster keeps attacking, but finally it's vanquished and killed. Or so everybody thinks.

 Just when the movie's characters start to relax, the monster strikes again. 

So it's been in Vermont. Through July, the monster in the form of flash floods keeps striking.  It did its biggest attack on July 10 and 11, which really blew the special effects budget, so to speak.

Then the monster kept up its campaign, picking off victims one by one, taking out bridges, roads and buildings in one, town, then another, then another, then yet one more pretty much through July

A week ago, we thought the monster had finally been taken down. The weather pattern changed, and we didn't have to worry about these intense rains any more. 

Or so everybody thought. 

Thursday night, it was Middlebury's turn.  The attack in the form of torrential downpours was extreme and brutal.  Six inches of rain in that one spot in just three hours. An inch of it came in just 10 minutes. Middlebury was sunk.

RUTLAND HIT HARD

Unfortunately, things continued on Friday. The flood monster seemed to make Rutland and Springfield its next victims. 

Several Rutland streets were inundated. Swift water teams rescued at least 20 people from flooded houses, mostly around Clover Street near Route 7.  An emergency shelter for flood victims was being set up at Rutland High School, VTDigger reported.

Water blocked Route 7 just north of the intersection with Strongs Avenue, at Clover Street.  Route 7 is the main North/South highway in western Vermont  Parts of busy West Street were also closed. 

A large sink hole reportedly opened up near the Rutland Regional Medical Center, and Stratton Road nearby was closed. Several  basements along Church and Center streets in Rutland flooded. Houses were also surrounded by water on Spruce, Granger and some other areas of the city.  Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges declared a state of emergency as the flooding worsened Friday afternoon.

Heavy rain fell in the morning, then an intense afternoon storm positioned itself perfectly to create the most serious flooding possible in Rutland. The heaviest rain - three to as much as 4.37 inches - was centered over and just east of Rutland. That allowed water to rush down the hills near Mendon and Rutland Town into the city. 

To add insult to injury, hail and damaging winds were reported in Middletown Springs, Wallingford, West Rutland and Clarendon. 

In Springfield, torrential rains flooded roads and at least one business. 

Meanwhile, new details emerged about the seriousness in Thursday evening's flooding in Middlebury 

On Thursday, floodwater invaded the Middlebury Police Department, forcing them to temporarily relocate, the Addison Independent reported. 

Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said as much as four inches of water was in the building, and dispatchers were taking emergency calls with their pant legs rolled up and barefoot to avoid the water. 

The Addison Independent also received reports of flood damage and Davis Family Library, the Axinn Center and Weybridge, Sunderland and Allen halls at Middlebury College.  Water also flooded parts of the Marble Works complex and at least one house on Court Street was severely damaged by the flooding. 

UP NEXT

Though it's not definite yet, as this map indicates
there's at least a slight chance of renewed
flooding in northern New England, including
Vermont on Tuesday. This forecast will
almost certainly change a little one 
way or another, however. 

Believe it or not, there could be even more trouble on the horizon, but of course we're not sure yet. That's the style of horror movies, right? Keep 'em in suspense.

 We are in for a nice, dry, sunny weekend, which will help temporarily ease the tension. 

However, a strong, dynamic storm for this time of year is taking shape in the Midwest and will head toward the Northeaster U.S. by early in the week. 

The storm will very likely cause a big outbreak of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the Midwest and East Coast between now and Monday. 

The sort of good news is Vermont appears to be a little too far north to share in the severe storms and tornadoes, The very bad news is we could be in for some more heavy rain, possibly enough to cause renewed flooding.  

Details are still slim on this potential storm, so we don't know for sure whether Vermont will see more flooding, never mind how bad any high water might be or where in the state it might set up. 

Even the long range forecasts are discouraging. Sure, they're often not accurate, but still, they do call for above normal temperatures and rainfall well into the middle of August. That's a recipe for humid weather with torrential downpours - if individual weather systems set up the wrong way for us. 

This Vermont Summer Movie of 2023 is way too long and needs some serious editing. 

Parts Of Vermont AGAIN Hit With Flooding; New Flood Threat Today

Lightning in Ferrisburgh, Vermont Thursday evening
on the northern side of the storm that caused 
severe flash flooding in and near Middlebury.

UPDATE: 11:00  am. FRIDAY

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center says they will soon issue a severe thunderstorm warning for likely a large swath of the Northeast.

That area includes central and southern Vermont. 

Stuff is already boiling up in central, northern and western New York, and that will only continue to develop as we head into the afternoon. 

A few spots in this region could see wind gusts to 60 mph and hail the size of quarters or in one or two cases, up to ping pong ball sized.

Most of us won't get it that bad, but a few people will. 

Note that any storms can produce heavy rain and a flash flood watch remains in effect.

Spots of relatively heavy rain this morning didn't help, as that soaked the soil further before any more rains arrive.

Middlebury was really in the bullseye with Thursday's storms. Official measuring sites at two locations in Middlebury measured 6.12 inches and 5.85 inches. One site in Middlebury recorded 5.75 inches in just two hours and 20 minutes, which is incredible!

No wonder there was so much damage in that neck of the woods.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

More flash flooding surprised Vermont Thursday, mostly slamming parts of Addison County with two to as much as six inches of rain in just three hours or less.  

Note that five inches of rain is a LOT, more than you should expect in the entire month of August.  

This rainfall sets the stage for more possible flooding later. today. More on that below.

The new flooding in Addison County Thursday was intense and at some times scary. Three people pulled from a car that had been swept into trees and had water up to the roof in a swift water rescue just south of Middlebury. 

Several washouts closed a section of Route 116 in East Middlebury. A section of heavily traveled Route 7 near the intersections of Route 125 and 116 were closed for a time due to high water. That's the second time this summer that part of Route 7 had to be shut down due to high water. 

In Middlebury, video showed part of Seymour Street inundated with what looked like up to two feet of muddy water. 

Fire and Ice Restaurant in Middlebury posted a Facebook video of an underpass on another section of Seymour Street with several feet of water collecting under the span. A car uphill from the deepest water was stuck in rushing water.   Another video showed Abbey Pond Road looking like a rushing river. 

Even though Addison County did not get the worst of the epic floods of July 10-11, since then, that region has been repeatedly targeted this summer by damaging storms. 

The storm extended into the central Green Mountains. A mud slide closed part of Route 125 in Hancock near the Route 100 intersection. A piece of Route 100 in Rochester was closed by high water. 

WHAT HAPPENED

The storm in Addison, and parts of Windsor Counties was much more intense than many forecasters had expected. 

Torrential rains hammer down in Ferrisburgh, Vermont
Thursday evening from a storm that caused a 
significant flash flood a few miles south around
Middlebury, Vermont. 

As we noted yesterday, the weather pattern was destined to yield surprises.

It had been hoped that a band of light rain that passed through central  Vermont in the late morning and early afternoon Thursday would stabilize the air and prevent many new storms from forming. 

But, in a few cases, they did form.  The one that hit Addison County moved fairly slowly as it emerged from the Adirondacks, where it caused a few problems with high water wind damage and hail.

The Addison County storm was also back building as it moved into Vermont. Back building means that new downpours kept forming on the tail end of the storm as it moved east and southeast.  

Instead of a storm that creates a fairly harmless downpour that lasts less than an hour, you instead got a torrent from the sky that lasted three hours.  So we had another flood with those several inches of rain.  

It was a pretty remarkable storm, as you can see above. I was in Ferrisburgh, on the northern edge of the storm and was impressed by how much lightning there was, and how the torrential downpours would persist just when you thought the sky was brightening and the storm was over. 

The storm was also isolated, limiting itself to its path through Addison and Windsor counties. 

More storms fired up later and swept through most of Vermont overnight, but they were not nearly as intense as the Addison County mess.

MORE FLOODING?

A flood watch is up today for all of Vermont except Grand Isle County. 

Another round of heavy showers and storms will sweep through the state starting by around noon and ending this evening. 

We had the pre-soak last night, so the ground is more saturated, so we could have some local flash flood problems again. 

The good news is most of the storms should zip right along, dumping a half inch or a little more of rain then departing.  That scenario would limit the flash flood potential.

The very bad news is that, in a few spots, we could have some of that dreaded "back building" again that we saw in Addison County last evening. Or multiple storms could hit the same spot during the day. Either way, you'd have a local flash flood issue.

We are of course paying close attention to central Vermont, notably the places in Addison and Windsor counties that got nailed last night. They can't really take on any more water, so if a persistent storm hits there again today, they're screwed. 

There was already an area of fairly heavy rain in the Adirondacks as of 7:30 a.m. heading toward Addison County. Don't know if that will hold together, but it was making me nervous. 

Although everyone in Vermont should be on alert for potential flash flood or severe storm warnings, those of you near and east of Middlebury should really be on your toes. 

Most of us will not see any flash flooding today.  It'll be another scenario that if anything bad develops, it would only be in handful of towns, like last evening. 

The problem is, as always, we don't know in advance which towns. 

In addition to the flooding questions today, some storms could contain damaging winds and/or hail. 

Although an isolated severe thunderstorm could  happen pretty much anywhere in Vermont today, the best chance is from Route 4 south. Once again, there's even a very, very, very low, but not zero chance of a brief spin up tornado in southern Vermont. 

This all gets out of our hair this evening, and we have a pleasant weather weekend shaping up.  Although there might be a little wildfire smoke in the air again. (I know, I know, I'm sick of it, too), the sun will be out most of the time during the day, the humidity will be reasonable and temperatures comfortable. 

 

 

More Vermont Flooding Sunday. Slightly Better This Week, But Risks Remain

National Weather Service office in South Burlington 
released this map of Sunday's rainfall. The Northeast 
Kingdom was hit hardest, with over four inches of 
rain in spots. A secondary area of flooding was
in southern and eastern Chittenden County. 

It was another destructive day Sunday in New England with new flooding throughout most of the region.  

There was definitely new damage in Vermont, but we didn't bear the full brunt of the storm this time. 

Southern and central New England were really hit hard with two waves of torrential rain, with the first wave Sunday  morning accompanied by a few confirmed or suspected tornadoes. Some parts of New Hampshire had five inches of rain, with many road washouts reported.

In Vermont, most of the new damage  Sunday was in the Northeast Kingdom, with a secondary area of problems in southern and eastern Chittenden County. 

Up in the NEK, Wheelock reported 4.45 inches of rain, with 3.89 inches in West Burke. Reports are just trickling in, but I'm sure it's really nasty up there.  That amount of rain with how wet the ground is would be a recipe for chaos. 

I do know several Northeast Kingdom roads closed because of high water or washes, including several sections of Route 105.

In West Charleston, a mudslide also blocked Route 105. If many more details come out of the Northeast Kingdom from Sunday, I'll provide updates. 

In Chittenden County, Route 2 in Richmond between Interstate Exit 11 and the village was closed by flooding. Part of Huntington Road in Richmond was also washed out.  Flooding was also noted around Hinesburg and St. George. Water was even reported gushing across a section of Interstate 89 in Richmond for a time. 

Some roads in Bolton, like Notch Road, are reportedly washed out and closed, too,

A huge trouble spot today might be Middlebury.

The flood-prone Otter Creek usually does not cause many problems around Middlebury. Today looks like it will be a sad exception.

Heavy rainfall has focused on the Otter Creek basin almost daily since Thursday.  Today, the water in Middlebury is likely to flood businesses on Bakery Lane and homes on Seymour Street.  WCAX-TV says swift water rescue teams are standing by in Middlebury, with the help of a team from Michigan.

The town's fire chief told people in flood prone areas of town to have a to-go bag ready for a quick evacuation. 

The rain ended late last night, and waters are receding again, or will soon, except for the Otter Creek.  Now, we're in for another week of flood risks, but - fingers crossed - it might not be too bad. But you never know.

THE OUTLOOK

Today

After torrential rains caused flooding around Hinesburg,
Vermont Sunday evening, the departing storm provided
this cheerful, hopeful goodbye. 

Surprise!  A dry day in Vermont. I suppose there could be an isolated shower, but it won't be anything to worry about.  

Almost all of us will get through the day without seeing a single, annoying rain drop.  

This summer in Vermont, though, there's a price for everything. The wildfire smoke is back. It was already a little hazy out there this morning, and it will get worse. The smoke will probably peak this afternoon.

An air quality alert is in effect today. 

Those of you in flood cleanup ought to be careful with that today. Between the smoke and the dust generated by all that mud left over that's drying in the sun, that's a lot of stuff to breathe. Plus, there's the mold that's surely forming in this humidity in basements and formerly flooded rooms. 

Probably best to wear an N-95 mask today while cleaning up.  Those with asthma and other lung issues also ought to try to take it easy today. Especially since once again, it's going to be on the humid side.

Tuesday

Here we go again with the risk of flooding. Another weather system is coming in, packing more showers and thunderstorms. Although it will be very humid, there won't be quite as much moisture for this upcoming cold front to tap into, at least compared to Sunday. 

Still, anything that falls now goes right to runoff. The soils can't absorb much of anything. Local instances of flash flooding are definitely on the table for Tuesday.  

That could happen anywhere in Vermont, but the best chances are from the Green Mountains east.  My guess is there will be some spots of trouble and more damage, but it will be isolated.  Not as scary as Sunday was.  And definitely no comparison to the catastrophic flood we had a week ago.

Wednesday

Another dry day! Yay!!!  Another big bonus is the high humidity, which has been an incredibly remarkable consistence presence in our lives since late June, will take an ever so brief break.

You won't be able to call Wednesday bone dry, but dew points could drop below 60 degrees, putting us in the comfortable range. It'll still be warm out there, with highs in the low 80s

Late Week

Another threat of some flooding from showers and thunderstorms. It's too soon to say exactly when in the period Thursday through Saturday is riskiest, but there could be some problems. 

Again, no way will it be as bad as the peak of our historic floods. But showers and storms could cause some local flash floods during that period.  We'll get more details as we get closer.

After that, no promises, but there's a hint we could actually see some dry, cool weather toward Sunday. That's uncertain, but it's a potential prize for us that might be dangling out there. 

Actually, That Middlebury, Tornado WAS The FIrst March Vermont Tornado On Record

Contrary to databases, this weather map and newspaper 
article unearthed by meteorologist Peter Banacos shows
there could not have been a tornado in Bennington
County, Vermont on March 22, 1955. This means
that the tornado in Middlebury, Vermont last month
was the first confirmed tornado in Vermont on record
during the month of March

 Many of you surely remember that EF-1 tornado in Middlebury, Vermont about a week ago that injured two people and seriously damaged a house.  

At the time, we all said it was only the second March tornado on record in Vermont.  Databases showed another tornado near Shaftsbury, Vermont on March 22, 1955.

Frankly, I was suspicious.  I wondered if there was really a tornado in Shaftsbury in Bennington County back in 1955.  I looked at some sparse weather records from that date and those doubts grew. 

Clearly, there was a storm system affecting Vermont and adjacent New York on March 22, 1955.  

I looked at something called NOW data on National Weather Service pages.  I couldn't find data from very close to Shaftsbury, but the general weather conditions that day regional did not suggest tornadoes.

One ingredient necessary for tornadoes is relatively warm, humid air. It doesn't have to be super warm, but certainly way, way above freezing. In Middlebury just before the tornado, the temperatures was near 70 degrees and dew points were above 50.  That's sufficient for tornadoes, assuming all the other weather ingredients come together correctly, as they did there.

Data from Rutland, Vermont and Glens Falls, New York from March 22, 1955 suggest a raw, stormy day. Temperatures were in the 30s, and melted precipitation from the storm ranged from near a half inch in Rutland to an inch in Glens Falls. Rutland also reported a couple inches of snow, and Glens Falls had 2.4 inches. I bet it was one of those awful schmutzy kind of March days. 

It clear wasn't tornado weather that day in March, 1955.  But something must have happened in Shaftsbury to suggest a tornado.

Meteorologist Peter Banacos solved the mystery.  He found a weather map from that storm in March, 1955, and an article from the Bennington Banner describing a nasty wind storm. 

The weather map from 7 a.m. March 22, 1955 showed a strong storm system centered over the southern Great Lakes. The storm's warm front - really a stationary front in this case - was draped from western Pennsylvania to eastern Virginia.

That placed Vermont on a colder sector of the storm. Which is why temperatures were only in the 30s that day.  Not an environment for tornadoes. The weather map suggest there might have been tornadoes in the southeastern U.S. on that blustery March day in 1955.  But no twisters anywhere close to the Northeast. 

But the relatively intense storm and its fronts were perfectly positioned to create a downslope windstorm on the western slopes of the Green Mountains. Winds from the southeast went up and over the Green Mountains, then gained momentum as they swept downhill into Bennington County

The Bennington Banner article Banacos uncovered described a 35-hour period of mixed precipitation and winds gusting to 60 mph causing widespread damage to power lines, trees, and even some buildings. 

I should have been a forensic meteorologist, I tell ya. I love solving mysteries like this. 

The bottom line: The Middlebury tornado on March 26, 2021 is the first confirmed March tornado on record for Vermont.

Details On That Rare Vermont Tornado Friday, More Violent Storms Southern U.S. This Weekend

Funnel cloud over Middlebury, Vermont
as viewed from the Marble Works. An
EF-1 tornado is confirmed to have
touched down yesterday to the northeast
of downtown.

As I updated on this here blog thingy last night, the National Weather Service in South Burlington confirmed that yes, a tornado DID touch down in Middlebury Friday. 

DETAILS:

The details on this tornado:

The tornado was only 75 yards wide and traveled just a mile and was probably on the ground for not much longer than five minutes.  

In the grand scheme of American tornadoes, this one was weak. Top winds, though, reached 110 mph and hit with destructive force. 

The tornado threw a barrel through the window of one house before doing its worse damage to a single family home on Painter Road. 

The garage was pulled off the house and thrown a few dozen feet down the driveway and destroyed.  A car was overturned and debris from the structure was thrown hundreds of yards. 

Before the tornado dissipated, it snapped off a bunch of pine trees at mid-trunk. This was clearly a dangerous storm.

Interestingly, after the big outbreak of tornadoes in the South Thursday, the Middlebury storm was the only tornado reported anywhere in the United States on Friday. 

VERMONT TORNADO COMPARISONS

As most of us Vermonters know, tornadoes are rare in Vermont.  We average roughly one every year. They're super rare this early in the season.  Tornadoes and their parent thunderstorms almost always need warm, humid air as one ingredient to sustain themselves. We actually had that yesterday, which again, is unusual in March. 

There was only one other March tornado recorded in Vermont. It hit Bennington County on March 22, 1955. That record is suspect as weather data from that day in Vermont and adjacent eastern New York show that rain and snow fell that day and temperatures stayed in the mid and upper 30s. That does not sound conducive toward tornadoes. I'm not buying it. 

Friday's Middlebury tornado, was obvious. 

By Vermont standards, Friday's storm in Middlebury was actually a fairly strong tornado. Most of the recorded twisters in the Green Mountain State were actually weaker than yesterday's storm.

Tornadoes are rated on a zero to five scale called the Enhanced Fujita scale or EF.  This was a high end EF-1, with top winds estimated at 110 mph. EF-1 tornadoes have winds of 86 to 110 mph and EF-2 twisters are 111-135 mph, so you can see we were close to EF-2 with this one. 

I could only find a record of one EF-3 tornado in Vermont h and no known EF-4s or EF-5s.   Even that EF-3 is suspect.  It was that strong when it was in New York on May 31, 1998, but I believe it had weakened to an EF-1 by the time it reached Bennington County. 

Two people were injured in the Middlebury tornado, but fortunately the injuries were relatively minor and not life-threatening.  Injures are exceedingly rare in Vermont tornadoes, because Green Mountain twisters tend to be so weak. 

In tornado databases, I could only find 10 injuries from tornadoes in Vermont since 1950 prior to Friday.  (Of those, seven were injured in a single tornado in St. Albans in August, 1970).

There are no known deaths for tornadoes in Vermont.  I'm certainly happy that zero Vermont tornado death toll stands after Friday! 

FORECAST AND RADAR

One takeaway from this tornado is how good some of the computer models are at picking up on tornado threats. On Wednesday, as WPTZ meteorologist Ben Frechette noted on Twitter, a tornado parameters model focused on the possibility of this happening in western Vermont, with a bullseye on Addison County, where Middlebury is.

The day before the storm, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center began advertising a very low, but not zero chance of tornadoes in and around Vermont.  

Two days before the Middlebury tornado, computer
models picked up on the possibility of a twister in
western Vermont, with a bullseye on Addison County.
This forecast proved amazingly accurate.

As the line of thunderstorms advanced across New York toward Vermont, you could see brief moments of rotation on radar images, but the threat from the storms was mostly from straight line winds. 

I'm not at all surprised - nor am I at all dismayed - that the National Weather Service in South Burlington did not issue a tornado warning in advance of the Middlebury twister. 

In this kind of set up, with quick spin ups on a squall line, the signs of a tornado on radar are fleeting - you get a quick hint of rotation, then it disappears. In just a moment, a tornado threat appears and disappears.  There's no chance to issue a tornado warning.

However, NWS South Burlington knew the thunderstorms were strong and potentially dangerous. Middlebury, and much of the Champlain Valley for that matter, was under a severe thunderstorm warning at the time. 

In retrospect - and this became apparent only after the brief tornado had touched down and then lifted - radar had what is known as a tornado debris signature, which is a fancy way of saying radar detected stuff that had been blown into the air by the tornado.

Other severe and damaging thunderstorms hit parts of the Champlain Valley and central Vermont Friday, toppling numerous trees and power lines.  There were signs of rotation in the storms near Montpelier, but there's no concrete evidence - at least not yet - of any tornadoes elsewhere in Vermont. 

Of course, I imagine some tornadoes go undetected in Vermont.  A weak, rain wrapped tornado that hits some forest with nobody nearby would almost surely go unnoticed. 

There's no  trend line that indicates tornadoes are getting any more common or rare in Vermont.  However, there has been an increase in the number of times Vermont is under conditions favorable for the formation of tornadoes. 

This is part of a national trend. In the United States,  there has been a tendency for tornado activity to move east over the years. They are more common in the eastern United States than they used to be. That's especially true in the Southeast, where Thursday's tornado outbreak caused so much destruction. And where new tornadoes are possible today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, tornadoes are relatively less common in "tornado alley" - the Great Plains.  Scientists are studying why this eastward shift is occurring, but climate change probably has a hand in it.

With climate change, drier air is able to punch further east across the Plains. Meanwhile, even more warm and humid air flows northward off the Gulf of Mexico than previously. The clash of dry and warm air is one ingredient for tornadoes, and this pattern shift can also concentrate tornadoes further east than they once did. 

Possible Tornado In Middlebury, Vermont; Other Storm Damage In State

This house in Middlebury, Vermont was severely damaged
by a possible tornado Friday. Photo via Twitter from
Tyler Jankowski/WPTZ-TV News.

UPDATE

The National Weather Service in South Burlington had determined the storm in Middlebury was indeed a tornado.

The EF-1 tornado had top winds of 110 mph, traveled for one mile and was 75 yards wide.

I'll have more on this in tomorrow morning's post

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

A tornado might have touched down in Middlebury, Vermont today.  Whether it was a tornado or not, there's reports of quite a lot of damage. 

The most extensive damage in Middlebury was around Painter Road.  

Photos from television station WPTZ show a collapsed garage with a car trapped beneath it, turned over on its side. The adjacent house had a wall torn off along with roof, window and siding damage. 

 Fire officials told WPTZ the house is uninhabitable. 

There are reports of at least two non-life-threatening injuries from this storm. Other houses in the neighborhood appeared in photos to have minor damage. Numerous trees and wires are down. 

Wood, insulation and other material from that most seriously damaged house were scattered hundreds of feet away.  Numerous trees were sheared off and some trees fell in opposing directions, which would suggest a tornado.  

Radar images of the Middlebury storm showed what appeared to be a tornado debris signature, a very good sign that this was, in fact a twister. 

However, we don't know for sure yet. As of late afternoon, I don't yet know whether the National Weather Service in South Burlington will head to Middlebury to investigate. If they go, NWS meteorologists will look at the damage patterns to help determine whether this was a tornado or straight line winds. 

According to the Tornado Project, if confirmed, this would only be the second March tornado on record. A twister caused damage in Bennington County on March 22, 1955. 

Elsewhere in Vermont, storms also caused damage, especially in central Vermont. Numerous trees and wires were down in Montpelier, East Montpelier, Plainfield, Waitsfield and other towns.  I'm guessing most of the damage was from straight line winds. I didn't happen to see any clear radar images of the storms. (I was busy at work).

However, a time lapse video of the storm taken by Charlie Hohn does show some rotation in the storm clouds over Montpelier. 

The severe storm threat in Vermont is over. Temperatures will be crashing down from the unseasonable warmth down to something close to average overnight. It'll get into the 30s, with maybe a dusting of snow in the mountains 

The next storm, Sunday and Sunday night, will not cause any severe thunderstorms or tornadoes in Vermont. That storm will probably case such severe weather in the South, but not here.

Instead, we'll just get rain, ending as a little snow, especially in the mountains, Sunday night.