Eclipse Thrills Vermonters As Skies Cooperate For The Spectacle

 That. Was. Awesome.   

The view from my St. Albans, Vermont house during today's
total eclipse of the sum. The light in the distance is far
to our northwest, just outside the path of totality. 

Throngs of people watched gobsmacked as the total eclipse of the sun passed over northern Vermont. My husband and I were two of those gobsmacked people. 

Video of the experience is at the bottom of this post.   

Judging from news reports, large parts of the eclipse path had fewer clouds than many expected, which is definitely nice. The more people who could participate the better, as far as I'm concerned. 

As my husband and I settled into our  chairs on the back deck, our silly looking eclipse glasses on, we quickly discovered -  much to our delight - that the high clouds that had moved in did not mess with the spectacle at all. 

 Through the eclipse glasses, one could clearly see the moon eating up the sun. At totality, the edges of the sun could clearly be seen the darkness peeking out through the edges of the moon's shadow. 

The broken wisps of thin clouds actually seemed to enhance the show.  Before and during most of the time the sun slowly disappeared, the high clouds created a ring around the sun. That's typical when there's a veil of cirrus overhead. . As the sun slowly slipped behind the moon, the ring seemed to expand, and the orange color in the ring became dominant.

The sunlight slowly faded into a sort of sick orange yellow. Daffodil plants poking out of the ground turned a strange sort of unnatural dark green.   The blue sky to the northeast was a deeper, darker blue than I've ever seen in the sky. 

As the light dimmed here in St. Albans, Vermont, birds made their evening calls. Two hawks circled overhead for some reason. A few crows, part of a large murder of them that roost nightly up on the hill behind our house, seemed confused and flew low and slowly and cautiously just above the shed. 

Mosquitoes also came out. 

We live on a southwest facing hill in St. Albans, Vermont, so the view was perfect. Just before totality, a band of blue skies to the southwest suddenly turned black, making it look as if a storm was approaching. 

At the moment we plunged into darkness we could hear a cheer go up in Taylor Park, a little over a mile away, from the throng that had gathered there. Streetlights blinked on.  I could see somebody's flashlight  at a neighbor's house. 

During totality we could see the zone outside the total eclipse far to the west. The high clouds there took on sunset colors. 

Four minutes before totality in St. Albans, Vermont,
the ring around the sun created by the high clouds
became more noticeable, and seemed to expand. 

It seemed like a frozen moment during totality. Everything grew quiet after that initial cheer from the park. There were no cars on the road. 

 The woods, the yard everything was silent. Even Jackson the Weather Dog, who was constantly seeking our attention as the light faded, grew quiet and lay down quietly by our feet in the sudden darkness.  

Just before totality ended, the sky that had turned black to the southwest turned blue again, and that blue sky, flecked with those high clouds, raced northeastward toward us. 

In the moment the sun emerged, there was just a tiny, but brilliant bright spot - the famous diamond ring effect.  (I think a cloud partly obscured that feature as we went into totality. 

As the light returned, I heard a couple robins make that happy chirp they usually make at dawn. The slight breeze that went calm during the eclipse returned. 

The temperature outside the house dropped from 59 degrees a few minutes before the moon's shadow started to cross the sun at around 2:15 to 47 degrees just after the sun re-emerged. That's a 12 degree drop. I think I was right. The humidity today was very low, and that allowed the temperature to fluctuate a lotl

By 5:15 p.m. the temperature was back up to 58 degrees. 

I so hope everyone in the path of the eclipse had as wonderful an experience as my husband and I did.  It was a once and a life time experience, and I'm so lucky I spent it alone with the person I love the most 

And of course our unimpressed Jackson the Weather Dog. 

Video:  What it looked like from my house in St. Albans, Vermont. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

BREAKING: St. Albans Vermont Reeling From Wind Storm: Houses Suffer Severe Damage

This house on Pearl Street in St. Albans, Vermont when
a huge tree fell on it during last night's windstorm

 I had a good look around my home town of St. Albans, Vermont this morning and early afternoon, and geez, Louise!  

I'm sure St. Albans will come in as perhaps the worst hit community from last night's severe windstorm. 

Two large houses on Pearl Street in St. Albans City are either extensive damaged or destroyed. Each house had a large tree fall  on it. In a separate case just off Pearl Street, a mobile home was crushed by a falling tree. 

One of the two large houses appears to have the back half of its roof and second floor crushed by the immense fallen poplar tree.  

Parts of the tree shattered, flinging branches onto an adjacent home, which appears to have minor damage.

A tree trimmer at the severely damaged house said all occupants escaped unharmed. It is unclear how many people were inside at the time. 

Just up the street, The back end of what appears to be an apartment building had his back end smashed in by another immense poplar. Behind a separate parking lot a mobile home was crushed beneath a tree,

The back end of this apartment building on Pearl
Street in St. Albans Vermont was crushed by
a falling tree during last night's wind storm

On Barlow Street, a large, uprooted spruce tree rested against a two story home. That structure appears to have only minor damage. 

Along High Street, several large trees toppled, but appeared to either miss homes in the neighborhood or just brush past them. 

Tree trimmers, Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas were on the street as of noon, making safety inspections, repairing electrical lines and cutting up the trees. 

Trees are down all over town. It appears mostly large poplars, spruces and maple trees fell. Side streets are littered with branches. As of 12:30 the traffic lights downtown at the intersection of Main and Fairfield streets were not working. 

Green Mountain Power crews were also on Upper Newton Street near the Franklin County Senior Center repairing lines after an immense spruce street fell on them. The spruce appears to have caused minor damage to a house on the way down. 

Vermont Snowstorm And Pretty Aftermath, Videos Included

Morning sun shines on snow-laden trees Sunday in St. Albans,
Vermont after a beautiful storm the day before. 

 The snowstorm that hit Vermont a few days ago was much more mellow in northwestern Vermont than in the most of the rest of the state. 

We had somewhat less snow. We had some power outages, but they were fewer and further between than elsewhere. And the outages were quickly repaired up in my neck of the woods.

Of course I took plenty of photos and created videos of the storm and aftermath. 

In Video #1, scroll down in this post to view it,  you can see the storm got off to a fairly good start, but sputtered during the day Friday as temperatures rose above freezing and the wet snow turned to glorified rain. Some of the snow melted.

But, just as forecasters told us, the snow returned in earnest overnight, and we woke up to a winter wonderland.  It was still overcast, with kind of a blue/gray light all day, but it was gorgeous.

Just before sunset at St. Albans Bay Vermont on Sunday,
the day after a picturesque snowstorm hit the area.

The day after, Sunday, brings us to the aftermath. As you can see in Video #2, the sun came out, and it was glorious. The sun unburdened the trees of some of the weight of the snow.  People enjoyed going for snowy walks in the park, or sliding down Hardack Hill in St. Albans.

The view from St. Albans hill showed a big, gloriously clean and white landscape. The day was topped off by a beautiful winter sunset at St. Albans Bay. 

I'm generally not a big fan of winter. But weekends like the one we just had in northwestern Vermont really does make one really appreciate the season. 

So, first here's the video of the actual snowfall this past Friday and Saturday around my house in St. Albans, Vermont. Click on this link if you don't see the image of the YouTube video just below.  

Next up, the even prettier storm aftermath around St. Albans, Vermont. Click on this link if you don't see the image, otherwise click on that image

Video: Warm, Dreary, Rainy, Foggy: Not The Christmas Themed Weather We Want

Christmas lights and car head lights try to cut through
the gloom in downtown St. Albans, Vermont on Wednesday.
Dark and dreary has been the theme lately.

 As is often the case, I take videos of the weather and nature of my surroundings. So of course I was out on a wet, warm, gloomy misty December Wednesday in St. Albans, Vermont grabbing a few scenes of the day. 

This time of year, we're really getting into the Christmas spirit and Ma Nature usually helps. We very often have at least dustings of snow in the first week of December, if not bonafide snowstorms. 

So far, at least, not this year. Wednesday was early November redux, if we ever have a normal November and December again.

Temperatures were in the mid-50s, close to 20 degrees on the warm side. It was damn dark all day, with a thick overcast, plenty of mist and fog, and occasional rain, which sometimes came down pretty hard. 

We never actually had daylight on Wednesday. It was more like a dreary dusk all day. As you can see in the video, the Christmas lights of downtown St. Albans struggled mightily to cut through the gloom. 

Next in our video, we take a trip on some local roads, to enjoy plowing through the puddles and and enjoying the gray sky, gray landscape and gray fog.

The last part of the video is when I retreated home to my very muddy yard. The piddling little stream we call the Woof River that goes past my property looked pretty healthy too.

To be honest, there is a subtle, quiet beauty in all this rainy darkness, as you can see in the video.

The dark, rainy misty landscape in northwestern Vermont
Wednesday didn't exactly scream "Christmas season."

Look on the bright side, and there are a few. The ground is still unfrozen, and all this extra moisture is seeping into the ground. 

That's plenty of water for winter snowmaking. It also sets us up for a good start in the spring, and gives us a bit of a reserve in case April and May are dry, as they often have been in recent years. 

The forecast is looking up, sort of, if you're a fan of more normal and wintry December weather.  We  Temperatures will sink to levels that are much closer to normal for this time of year.  We should even see some sun come out occasionally over the next few days. 

There's not really any snow to speak of in the forecast for the upcoming week. At least according to current forecasts. A few places might get a snowflake or two Sunday, but that's about it. However, there's plenty of time for the weather patterns to change, and provide us with a nice traditional white Christmas.

To view this moody video, you can either click on this link. Or iv the image of the video is visible below on your device, click on that. 

Once Again, Snow Over-Performs In Parts Of Vermont Again Today

A spring snowfall surprised me in St. Albans, Vermont this
afternoon. As you can see, accumulation wasn't much, but
I'm still hoping this is the last snow until November.

Parts of Vermont once again today got more snow than forecast, but it was a pretty localized event. 

It snowed all afternoon here at my hacienda in St. Albans, Vermont, perched part way up St. Albans Hill at an elevation of about 630 feet above sea level. Light rain showers had been expected here, and that was the state of affairs until shortly before 1 p.m. when I began to notice snowflakes. 

Snow then came down rather heavily at times through the afternoon. There's a slushy coating on the ground as I write this. So far, I'm calling it 0.3 inches of new snow. I thought we were done with this! But Vermont weather always surprises.

Meanwhile, just a little south in Milton, Colchester and Burlington, people wondered what all the fuss was about. It didn't even start raining there until late afternoon, never mind snow. 

In northern New York and northwestern Vermont, it appears a pocket of deeper moisture swung around down from Quebec across this area. That meant heavier precipitation in this little corner of the North Country. This heavier precipitation helped cool the air, so snow aloft made it down to the surface. 

For much of the afternoon, many relatively high elevations of the Green Mountains were still getting rain, mixed with a little snow. Although it was consistently snowing across the mountain peaks. Vermont Agency of Transportation web cams showed just rain along high elevation Route 17 in Buels Gore.  Route 302 up high in Topsham was just changing to snow as of 4:15 p.m.

Route 105 in Jay was solidly in the snow, though, and it looked like at least an inch of accumulation there by 4 p.m. 

The expectation, or at least the hope, is the precipitation in northwest Vermont will gradually become more oriented to higher elevations as the night goes on. That would be good, because another late season heavy snow will cause more damage to my gardens. If the precipitation lightens up in low elevations, as expected, it might actually go back to rain briefly before turning back to flurries. 

As I wrote this at 5 p.m. it was still snowing in St. Albans, but it had pretty much tapered down to flurries by then.  Radar trends seemed to be indicating the snow was indeed starting to become more focused toward the mountains, and was trending a little lighter in northern New York and the northern Champlain Valley  

A surprise spring snowfall dusts a perennial garden in
St. Albans, Vermont in a most unwelcome way.

That the snow was beginning to spread into the central and northern Green Mountains pretty well by late afternoon. 

That part was expected. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the summits of the central and northern Green Mountains have storm totals of four to six inches, maybe even more, by tomorrow morning. 

The stalled storm that is causing this wintry weather will pretty much stick around through Saturday, but luckily, things won't stay as bad as they were today, at least in some parts of Vermont. 

Snow showers will go on every day through Saturday in the Green Mountains, but they will be relatively light and won't add much to the accumulation  up there.  Valleys, especially in the northern half of Vermont ,stand the chance of a few rain drops or snowflakes daily into Saturday. But that's about it. 

Still, there will be quite a few clouds around temperatures will stay well below normal and gusty northwest winds through Saturday will make it seem even colder. 

Forecasts still call for weather more in keeping with the season starting Sunday.