Climate And Environmental Pessimism In Vermont/U.S: Heat, Smoke, Floods, Invasives And More

This gloomy thunderstorm cloud, photographed Sunday
matched my mood Monday evening as I contemplated
bad weather, climate change, and environmental threats

I fell into a negative mood last evening. 

I was sitting outside, sweating in the tropical Vermont humidity, a few hours after an alleged "cold front" had passed through town where I am, not far from the Canadian border. 

I'd tried to do some needed yard work, but it was too sultry to get much done. I figured I should just sit down and enjoy the day lilies blooming around me. 

 Mid-summer flowers usually improve my mood. Last evening, those flowers, bright as they are, weren't lifting my spirits as much as I'd like. 

Sure, Vermont was lucky with the weather once again on Monday. A few places around the state saw some strong storms, but there wasn't really any damage, no real flooding this time. That was good news.  

But as usual these days, my social media feed last evening was filled with news of new weather emergencies, probably fueled in large parts by climate change. 

A tropical system was brewing near Florida. But once again, it produced news of another one in 1,000 year rainfall event. This time it was around Plant City, Florida, which managed to receive 10 inches of rain in just three hours. Funny how those one in one thousand year flood events keep happening like, every hour. 

I continued on, doom scrolling with my iPhone, coughing a bit in the Vermont air that had once again become smoky from giant, distant wildfires in Canada. I saw we're under another air quality alert. So much for pristine Green Mountain air. 

That air quality alert will stay in effect through at least today.  It's going to be another hot, humid one, too. Health officials are telling us that the combination of sultry, tropical air, the smoke and all that means we should once again limit outdoor activity, especially if you have pre-existing health issues. 

More weather updates on my phone. New York City just had its second wettest hour on record, with 2.07 inches, half its normal monthly installment of rain.  The Central Park downpour was second only to the mega-former Hurricane Ida floods in the Big Apple in 2021.  

Subway service was suspended, roads were under water, cars were trapped, flights were delayed, What a mess!

In neighboring New Jersey, as much as six inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. Flash flood warnings were blaring in most of the Mid-Atlantic states. Parts of the New Jersey Turnpike were really rivers. Fast flowing water raced through homes and businesses in Plainfield, New Jersey, and other towns.  The governor of New Jersey declared a state of emergency. 

Emergency? Yeah, no kidding. 

Climate change is really turbocharging summer downpours. As I've written previously, it's the summer of floods in the U.S.. and that shows no signs of change.  

Day lilies glow in the hazy morning sun today in St
Albans, Vermont. Despite worries like climate change
and the environment, there's lots to be grateful for, 

I gazed up my phone at the yard as it was growing dark.  A couple fireflies blinked half-heartedly in the humid dusk. 

There used to be a lot more fireflies. I don't know whether this is a one-summer lull at my house or something else. But I do know firefly  numbers are declining. 

I used to enjoy the bats that once swooped around my deck at dusk in the summer. They're gone, too, decimated by something called white nose syndrome, a fungus that kills them, 

My crowded perennial gardens used to buzz with bees. This summer, only a few have been buzzing around. Was it this year's rainy weather or something else? I know bee populations are crashing, mostly because of our use of pesticides and a disease spreading mite that came from overseas in the 1980s. 

Global trade is great on our pocketbooks, but not on the environment.  All kinds of invasive are killing things we love.  Giant chestnut trees were lost at the turn of the 20th century Our big gracious big elms in the mid-century to dutch elm disease.

I glanced upward last night in the gathering dusk around my house at the nearby dead trees. They were deceased white ash trees, decimated by the emerald ash borer. Those dead ash trees are everywhere now, giving a winter look in spots to our oppressively hot, smoky Vermont summer. 

Next on the list potentially is our beloved sugar maples, central to Vermont's identity. Asian longhorn beetles are spreading in the U.S., and could eventually create real, disheartening trouble to our maple syrup industry.

I turned again to the weather forecast before giving up for the evening. We'll have a couple days that reach at least 90 degrees in many locations today and tomorrow.  Great beach days, right? Despite the smoke?

Well, some beaches are closed due to algae blooms. And Burlington has an unfortunate mishap at the sewage treatment plant, and that closed beaches around that city. 

By Thursday, the risk of showers and thunderstorms returns with the approach of a cold front. 

That might be a reason to lift my spirits.   The next cold front looks like it means business. We could actually have some delightfully dry and seasonably cool air by later Friday and Saturday.  A reason to go on living! 

I've always been fascinated and embrace the weather, the outdoors, nature. Sure, I get gloomy sometimes thinking about what's going on.  With climate change. Environment trouble. Invasives.  

The solution, of course, is to not let the negativity that I was experiencing last evening to linger. Do something about climate change and the environment to the best of your ability. There's only so much we can contribute, of course. 

Most importantly we need to love what we still have. And if you think about it, that's still plenty. 

Which brings us to this morning. Songbirds, as usual, were my sunrise happy alarm clock. I ventured outdoors.   The view from my house of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond was obscured by smoke. 

But those day lilies happily danced in the early morning breeze and hazy sunshine, this time doing their job and making me smile. 

The woods around my house had that beautiful, soothing deep green mid-summer lushness it always has in July. The hydrangeas were decked out in their early season white blooms, flecked with delicate pink. A couple of dragonflies did their helicopter-like aerial acrobatics, expertly removing annoying biting insects from the yard. 

Despite everything, there's still a lot of beauty out there. Enjoy it. For your own sanity. 

Vermont Air Super Polluted From Canada Forest Fires, Also Flood Update

A hazy view Saturday evening looking southwest from
Pleasant Street in West Rutland, Vermont. Air quality
alerts remain in effect in most of the Green
Mountain State today due to Canadian wildfire smoke.

 The air in Vermont was downright dangerous, at least for some people on Saturday. 

Smoke from Canadian forest fires settled down from aloft to the surface in Vermont and surrounding areas.

 Light winds through the atmosphere could not disperse the smoke so it enveloped the green landscape of Vermont.  

So much so you couldn't see the damn landscape. 

The air quality index in some part so Vermont exceeded 150, which is unhealthy for everyone. This is rather rare among the big, increasingly frequent smoke outbreaks we've had in recent years from wildfires.

An index of 101 to 150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups, and can trigger problems in people with cardiovascular disease or asthma and things like that.

Over 151 and everybody starts to feel it. Some members of the general public could feel health effects, and people in more sensitive groups might have more serious effects. 

WCAX-TV meteorologist Gunnar Consol said on Facebook Saturday that being outdoors in Vermont for three hours on Saturday had the health equivalent of smoking one fourth of a cigarette. 

It's not just us, of course. Air quality alerts are scattered across many places in the United States and Canada, including much of New York and all of Minnesota. 

At least 50 percent of the southern half of Canada is under air quality warnings or advisories. 

TODAY 

The air quality alert for Vermont  remains in effect today for all of Vermont. 

Forecasters say the air quality should gradually start to improve a little as we go through the afternoon, but the problem almost certainly won't go away. 

Northwest breezes should mix the air more than Saturday's calm winds, which would disperse some of the smoke. But the smoke itself is coming at us from the northwest, which would replenish the supply of particulate pollution. The bottom line is any improvement today will be a slow and incomplete.

According to Airnow.gov, expected air quality indexes in Vermont should on average range between 110 and 140, or unhealthy for sensitive groups.  Of course, the air quality will vary, sometimes going higher based on wind conditions and terrain and maybe sometimes a little lower, especially late in the day. 

Even healthy people will certainly notice the haze, and be bothered by the poor air quality.  Even if  you're the picture of health, this is no day to run an outdoor marathon.

MONDAY AND BEYOND

Winds should start to blow from the south and southwest over Vermont on Monday, which would help clear the air by driving much of the smoke back north into Canada. More south winds, along with lots of rain showers, should continue to help on Tuesday. 

This is a temporary solution, of course, as long as the fires continue to rage in Canada.  Northwest winds should return later in the week, which could bring the smoke back. We'll need to wait and see on that one. Updated forecasts should be available on any new smoke attacks within a couple days.

Once upon a time, we used to look forward to northwest winds in the summer. Those winds will bring clean, dry cool air into Vermont, keeping oppressively, sticky humid air at bay.

With the increase in wildfires, brought on in large part by climate change, those northwest breezes are no longer always as welcomed as they once were.

FLOODING UPDATE

We're still getting reports and updates about the flash flooding that hit parts of southeast Vermont Friday and Friday night. 

In turns out Springfield, Vermont was hit pretty hard. Video from WPTZ shows a sections of a couple gravel roads completely washed away after the downpours. Repeated floods last summer washed out one man's driveway three times. It happened again Friday. 

More soaking rain fell Saturday morning in southern Vermont. Burlington reported just a sprinkle, amounting to a mere trace of rain. It was barely enough to keep the streak going: Twenty-fifth weekend in a row with at least a bit of precipitation and 12th Saturday in a row with at least a trace of rain

It's way too early to determine whether Vermont will see any rain next weekend. 

More rain is in Vermont's forecast for Tuesday. It doesn't look like it will be enough to cause more flood damage. But we'll watch it anyway. There's always the possibility that weather systems can slow down enough to make downpours overstay their welcome in Vermont. So far, though, it looks like we're good. 

Saturday Vermont Weather Update: More Rain South, More Smoke From Canada

With all the rain we've had, some of my St. Albans,
Vermont gardens have gotten overgrown. Hope to
get outshone and thin some of that out. If we have
some rain-free time to do it. 

Friday indeed turned out to be a rather rough weather day, at least in southeastern Vermont, where we had several reports of flash flooding and one or two instances of severe thunderstorm damage.

Vermont was on the edge of much more in the way of flood and wind damage in parts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

Today won't be nearly as rough, but there are some interesting weather happenings to talk about. More on that in a bit. 

FLASH FLOODING

We noted early Friday afternoon there was a risk of possibly significant flash flooding in southern Vermont. Sometimes, significant is in the eye the beholder, but the torrential downpours caused their share of problems in and near the lower Connecticut River Valley. 

Some of the reports include a road washout near the intersection of Sioux Drive and Clinton Street in Springfield; water was over the roads on Route 106 and Tarbell Hill Road in Amsden;  and Whitney Road in Chester was closed at both ends due to flooding. 

Over in New Hampshire, flooding was more widespread, and there were also numerous reports of trees down and large hail. Contoocook, New Hampshire had 4.56 inches of rain. Hillsborough, which had flooding issues, received 4.25 inches, and 3.25 inches of that came in just an hour and 45 minutes.

Rainfall Friday in Vermont ranged from pretty much  nothing in the far northwest corner to a lot in the southeast, where we had the flooding. My unofficial rain gauge in St. Albans, Vermont, collected only 0.1 inches of rain Friday. Burlington was a little heftier at 0.36 inches. 

TODAY'S RAIN

The same rain pattern will hit today: Dry northwest, soggy south in Vermont. The far northwest corner of Vermont has a shot of breaking the streak of consecutive rainy Saturdays. It might not rain at all today in places like St. Albans and Alburgh and Richford. 

Central and southern Vermont, sorry. More wet weather. A big slug of moisture was heading into that part the state just after dawn, and a period of rain, some of it heavy should lumber through southern Vermont through the morning and probably at least partly into the afternoon. 

Far southern Vermont is not yet out of the woods for flooding.

Flood watches are in effect until mid-afternoon today for Bennington and Windham counties.

Even after the main slug of rain has passed later, a few widely scattered showers and garden-variety thunderstorms could pop up through the afternoon and early evening almost anywhere in Vermont. But again, least likely over the northwest. 

RAINY WEEKENDS

Back north, if it rains in Burlington today - and it will likely at least sprinkle there early today -  it will be the 25th weekend in a row (Saturday and/or Sunday) with at least a trace of rain or snow. The last completely dry weekend was December 14-15, 2024, according to data compiled by WCAX-TV meteorologists

That'll make it the third longest stretch of consecutive wet or wet-ish weekends on record. The two longer ones go way back, says WCAX. There were 26 consecutive weekends in a row ending on March 15, 1919 with rain or snow. The winner is 30 consecutive weekend ending on March 15, 1919.

Interestingly, WCAX found that in the list of top ten most consecutive wet weekends, the current stretch is the wettest. There's been 8.71 inches of rain and melted snow in our 25 weekends. All other long stretches of damp weekends, including 1935, had less than that. 

SMOKE AND SMOG 

Skies partly cleared Friday evening over St. Albans,
Vermont, revealing a still-smoky atmosphere from
Canadian forest fires. An air quality alert is in effect
today for central and northern Vermont due to the
continued smoke drifting down from Canada.

On top of the rain, smoke from Canadian wildfires will still harass us here in Vermont over the weekend. 

It was actually smoggy early this morning, with areas of dense fog mixed with some smoke. It smelled like a smoldering campfire around here in St. Albans last evening and this morning.  

The early morning fog will probably have lifted by the time you read this,  but the smoke, not so much.

An air quality alert that as in effect for far northwestern Vermont yesterday had been lifted temporarily overnight. 

Based on wind and smoke forecasts, the Vermont Department Of Environmental Conservation and the National Weather Service has for today re-issued the air quality alert for a larger portion of Vermont. 

The new air quality alert covers all of Vermont north of Addison and Orange counties through today. 

Heavier smoke was lurking in southern Canada and northwest breezes today were expected to drive that southward.  As of 4 p.m. Friday two of the five most air-polluted major cities in the world were Toronto and Montreal, because of all that smoke from the fires up in Canada. 

SUNDAY AND BEYOND 

Sunday in Vermont looks rain-free. Hallelujah!   It will be a nice day. Sunny for the most part, comfortably warm, humidity safely on the very low side.

The now seemingly ever-present Canadian wildfire smoke will still linger in the air, dulling the blue skies into a grayish haze. But the sun will still be out, even if the smoke gives it a bit of a weird copper tint. 

The rain-free weather Sunday and probably Monday will dry things out a bit for the next round of rain hit by around Tuesday.  It's still a bit soon to determine how hard it will rain Tuesday and who precisely will get hit by it. 

Stay tuned, as usual! 

Indirect Death Toll From California Wildfires Could Be Thousands

Clouds of smoke hang over Los Angeles earlier this
month from the wildfires in the region. Long term
effects of the wildfire disaster will kill far more
people than the actual fire. 

 At last check the death toll from this month of California wildfires stood at 28. Perhaps a couple dozen other people are missing. 

Hideous as that is, the indirect toll might end up being exponentially larger. 

Millions of people have been breathing toxic smoke and ash. 

Our health care system is in shambles, largely due to corporate greed, so the people who get sick from those toxins might not get the care they need. 

Mostly because the insurance companies will murder these people by denying coverage, deeming them too expensive for their bottom line. 

The fires had to take a terrible toll on mental health, too. Not everyone can recover from having their homes and possessions wiped out in a flash. 

THE SMOKE

As Yale Climate Connections reports, wildfire smoke is remarkably deadly. But it takes its victims quietly, gradually, in places far from the fires themselves

Per YCC:

"In a 2020 policy brief, Marshall Burke, an associate professor of Earth system science at Stanford University wrote: 'Our research suggests that many forepeople likely perish from smoke exposure during large fire events than perish directly in the fire, and many more people are made sick."

Wildfire smoke contains minuscule particles that can enter the lungs and blood stream and harm the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. 

Yale Climate Connections cites several studies. In 2018, the year Paradise, California burned down, wildfire smoke killed as many as 12,000 people according to one of those studies.

Another review said that in the 11 years from 2008 to 2018, wildfire smoke claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 Californians per year. 

Yet another study said between 46,000 and 90,000 people globally die annually from inhaling wildfire smoke and 13 percent of those deaths were attributed to climate change. 

It's probably even worse when a lot of houses and commercial buildings burn down. Think of all the plastics, chemicals, and other toxic chemicals going up in smoke. 

This will especially affect people who have pre-existing health problems. I'm thinking of, for example, news footage I saw of elderly people being evacuated and they're out there in that thick smoke and ash as they struggled to get into vehicles to get away. Or people trying to fight the fire and save their homes without wearing protective gear. 

THE UPHEAVAL

Yale Climate Connections makes the point that the stress of evacuating, losing your home, trying to recover, trying to navigate life into a "new normal" can also cause a lot of premature deaths. 

If you're mentally stressed, if affects your body, and can cause premature illnesses that seem unrelated to the original disaster. 

One study looked at deaths from hurricanes. 

Hurricanes are obviously not the same as wildfires, but they have some of the same effects - destroyed home, upheaval for families, an uncertain future.

The 2024 paper "found that the average landfalling U.S. hurricane between 1930 and 2015 caused 24 direct deaths.

However, they observed an increase in excess deaths - mortality beyond what would otherwise be expected in that period - lingered for 15 years, totaling 7,000 to 11,000 excess deaths per storm. This burden is 300 to 480 times greater than the government estimated of direct death and was equivalent to 3.2 to 5.1 percent of all deaths across the contiguous United States."

I expect we might unfortunately see the same thing in southern California.  

Northeast Wildfires Turn Deadly, And Spread, And Screw Up Air Quality

Satellite photo from Saturday shows wildfire smoke
blowing into New York City, prompting air
quality alerts. Several wildfires are still
burning in the Northeast today. 

The brush and wildfires in the Northeast are starting to become more western style.

They're now extensive enough to cause air quality problems in some areas. They've come close to mowing down houses. And sadly, a firefighter died in while battling a large wildfire in  northern New Jersey. 

Some rain might tamp down the fires temporarily on Monday, but the precipitation does not look like a blockbuster. 

At least nine fires were burning within the broad New York City metro area. At least two wildfires started in New York City itself over the past couple of days. One of them was in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the other in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx.

The largest fire affecting New York is the so called Jennings Creek Wildfire in and near West Milford, New Jersey. As of late yesterday, it had covered 2,000 acres and had spread into neighboring Orange County New York.

The Jennings Creek Wildfire resulted in one death, as a tree fell on a firefighter as we was trying to battle the blaze.  The fires across the Northeast are burning on land that is so dry that flames are reaching underground into tree roots, making those trees unstable and prone to toppling. 

This fire, and to a lesser extent other fires, drove smoke into New York City, prompting air quality alerts in that region on Saturday.

The wind shifted today, and smoke from that Jennings Creek Wildfire could make its way all the way up to us here in Vermont today. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington says some of the smoke from New Jersey will probably make its way into Vermont today.  They don't anticipate any air quality alerts, but you might notice a little haze and a little bit of a smell of smoke, especially in southern and western Vermont. 

There have been air quality problems in and around Boston as well from several fires burning in that city's western, northern and southern suburbs.

Vermont isn't immune from the fires either. A large forest fire was burning in West Brattleboro over the weekend.  The fire had spread across ten acres as of late Friday night and its as not contained, despite the efforts of numerous fire departments. 

A downed power line is believed to have started that fire. 

Today, the fire danger is regarded as very high in most of Vermont, and "merely" high in the Champlain Valley and Northeast Kingdom. Any brush fire that starts anywhere in Vermont today would spread quickly and be hard to contain. 

Forecasted rainfall, as mentioned, doesn't look all that impressive, with maybe a quarter to as much as a half inch in some areas of the Northeast this week. To extinguish the fires once and for all, the region needs a steady, long lasting, soaking rain that can get deep into the ground and moisten the earth far below the surface.

Bumpy Weather Today For Vermont: Strong Storms, Smoke And Humidity

Lighting crackles over my St. Albans, Vermont
house Wednesday evening. We'll do it again today
with scattered storms, mostly east and locally
strong, and also a batch of wildfire 
smoke to make it all the more stressful. 

 Wednesday was a sometimes noisy preview of what Vermont can expect today. 

There was a little smoke in the air, it was a bit humid, and some thunderstorms really made themselves felt in a few spots.  

Today in the Green Mountain State, we'll crank that up with thicker smoke, more numerous and possibly more intense storms in a few spots than yesterday, and higher humidity than on Wednesday. 

Wednesday's storms mostly put on a show in northern Vermont, especially the Champlain Valley. A couple  were borderline severe, with quarter sized hail reported in Georgia and penny sized hail in St. Albans Bay. 

At my place on the eastern side of St. Albans, just outside the edges of that initial severe, I had two lightning-filled storms. The second was stronger, with gusts to about 35 mph and a few pea-sized hail stones. 

Wednesday's storms were interesting too. I watched all afternoon as a cluster of storms slowly headed south from Quebec, passing by Montreal in the late afternoon and descending into Franklin County toward 6:30 or 7.  

They remained pretty intense after crossing the border into Vermont until entering Chittenden County, where they started to quickly fall apart. But then, even though we'd lost the sun that would maintain instability, new storms formed super quickly in Franklin County and headed south. 

A cold pool of air aloft over northwest Vermont was able to keep the storms going.  The lightning show was pretty impressive.

Today, Quebec will be gifting us with more storms than yesterday and a big gulp of smoke. Thanks, Canada! 

TODAY

We've still got an upper level low pressure off to our northeast that's keeping a flow from the north aloft. Meanwhile, near the surface, higher humidity is coming in from the south. 

Another spoke of energy from that upper low to our east will come south today, and the combination will set us up again for more storms.

There were already a couple spot showers in the Northeast Kingdom as of 7:30 a.m today, and those will increase as the day goes on. 

This piece of energy is stronger than last evening's and will come in this afternoon, right at peak heating. That sets us up for more pretty rambunctious storms. We're under a level one marginal risk for severe storms today, says NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. That means we'll at least have some isolated incidents of damaging winds and hail.

The storms this afternoon will be most concentrated along and east of the Green Mountains, especially in the Northeast Kingdom.  I know, I know, flood fears, after the summer the Kingdom has had. .It doesn't look like today's storms will have rain intense enough to cause any real, new water damage, which is good. 

Even though the storms will be most concentrated in the NEK, they could pop up in hit or miss fashion just about anywhere this afternoon and evening, and a handful could be briefly strong just about anywhere. 

Smoke

That north flow is also grabbing a batch of thicker smoke from Canadian fires and will bring it south into Vermont today. Much of the smoke will be aloft, but some of the smoke will be near the surface as well by this afternoon. Air quality was good in the Green Mountain State this morning, but will probably deteriorate some this afternoon. 

In any event, you will see an increase in haze and you night smell something like a campfire where someone added little garbage into the flames. 

If you have issues that affect your lungs, it might be wise to stay indoors with air conditioning today.  One note: Sometimes, smoke can suppress thunderstorms a bit. I don't know whether that will have any effect on the storms today. 

OUTLOOK

Friday will be calmer: Just mostly sunny through some smoky haze, warm and humid. There might be some isolated showers and storms over the mountains during the afternoon and evening, but they will be very few and far between if they form at all.

A very slow moving storm that I referred to yesterday as coming in from the Great Lakes will give us an unsettled, humid weekend.  Showers are possible both Saturday and Sunday, but more likely Sunday. A few of them could be heavy rainers. That state of affairs will continue on Monday before things slowly begin to improve. 

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. 

4:30 PM Sunday Afternoon Update: Vermont Flood Alert Not Over Yet

Breaks of sun interacting with the very humid air over
Vermont is firing up torrential showers and storms
Some could easily be heavy enough to renew
flash flooding in some places.

A quick update:

Slow moving showers and thunderstorms have been developing in the tropical air this afternoon. 

The heaviest ones were beginning to move through Chittenden and Addison counties as of 4 p.m. but really, showers were scattered everywhere. 

I have particular concerns for the ones in Addison County, because that area has had some real flooding problems most recently - Thursday into Saturday. Also, they're heading toward the Green Mountains, where torrential rains on steep slopes can really get some flash floods going.

Rainfall rates in the heaviest storms could approach two inches per hour, so you can see where this is going. 

On the bright side, the storms seem to be moving, at least grudgingly, and not stalling anywhere so far, so that will help. 

There won't be a statewide flood today and tonight. But we will very likely have local, dangerous flash floods. Just because a flash flood doesn't cover a big area doesn't make it any less dangerous. See: Landslide in Ripton late Friday night that could have killed people.

Or if you need a more tragic reminder of  dangerous these flash floods can be, four people died and three are missing from such a flood in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Saturday night. The same system that is now affecting New England swept through Pennsylvania Saturday. 

Already, this morning's round of rain, with embedded downpours, did cause a few issues. Flash flood warnings were issued for a time in northern Vermont. 

At least one road was closed by high water near Morrisville. Water was over the road on a section of Route 16 in Barton. Eden was drenched by 2.25 inches of rain in just a few hours. 

The threat of flash flooding will last well into the night, even after the showers and storms taper off. It does take a little time for things to run off.

As if we didn't have enough problems.......it's baa aa-aak!  We have an air quality alert in Vermont all day tomorrow for yet more Canadian wildfire smoke. Breathe that air in the very humid air tomorrow as you clean up from flood damage. Ugh.

Stay safe.

At least the chances of more flooding on Monday is low. But all bets are off Tuesday. There could be more local issues then.  

Flood Threat Over For Now; Smoke Makes A (Cough) Triumphant Return

Visible satellite photo from this morning shows
clouds still centered over Vermont. All that milky
stuff is wildfire smoke from Canada covering
most of the eastern U.S. and much of Canada.

 We in Vermont squeaked through another day Wednesday of downpours and flood threats with not that much trouble, at least here in the Green Mountain State.  

I didn't see any flash flood warnings in Vermont, but given the relatively risk going into yesterday and what radar looked like, I'm sure there were some driveway washouts, eroded back roads and other bits of trouble in parts of the state, especially in the Northeast Kingdom.

There was no widespread damage, to be sure, but there had to be a boatload of minor issues to keep town road crews really busy and owners of steep property frustrated.

Rainfall has been super variable. Some times had a few inches of rain between Sunday and Wednesday. Other places completely missed out. Between Saturday evening and Wednesday evening, my place in St. Albans, Vermont got a paltry 0.10 inches. 

The good news is the showers and thunderstorms will be greatly diminished today and tomorrow. The bad news is the smoke is back. The mixed news is that we're getting something of a break from the humidity today, but it will be back for an extended stay, starting tomorrow and then ramping up more afterwards. 

We'll deal with all three issues but let's start with the smoke. 

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

Another air quality alert is in effect for Vermont starting at 10 a.m. and lasting to at least midnight tonight. I have a  feeling the air quality alert might be extended into tomorrow. We are one of at least 17 states that are dealing with air quality alerts today. 

That smoke from Canadian wildfires is persistent. And a lot of it is trapped in a rather slow moving weather pattern, the same one that is providing all the showers and humidity to the Northeast.

The air quality was actually pretty good over Vermont early this morning, but it will deteriorate during the day as light west and northwest winds shift the smoke back into our neck of the woods. 

I don't think the air quality will get quite as bad as it was over northern Vermont on Sunday, but it will still be a bit rough for people with lung issues, asthma, that sort of thing. Unlike Sunday, the smoke will cover the entire state, not just the north. 

I'm not sure exactly when the smoke will flush out. But my prediction earlier in the spring that this summer would be smoky is coming true, and I don't see an end to the smoke risk anytime soon. 

RAIN/DOWNPOURS

The chances of rain are down today, but not eliminated. The upper level low that has been causing the wet weather is still nearby, but at least it's slowly departing. The best chances for showers and storms will be in eastern Vermont, and maybe northern parts of the state close to the Canadian border.

Even so, anything that comes will be hit and miss.  There might be one or two instances of locally heavy downpours, but if that happens, it won't last long and I'm not worried about any flooding.

Friday, hallelujah! it looks like we'll get through an entire day without rain.  It'll be partly sunny, smoky, and in the low to mid 80s with moderate humidity. So, for once, not bad!

IT'S ONLY HUMID

The high humidity, and daily scattered afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms return Saturday and stay with us through the Fourth of July and probably beyond.  It won't be that hot, as the weather pattern is shunting the truly scorching hot weather to the southern half of the United States.

Still, with afternoon temperatures in the low 80s and dew points in the upper 60s, it will be uncomfortable. 

Get used to stuffy nights and iffy afternoon weather. We won't have any days during that stretch that will be complete washouts, but if you're doing anything outdoors, you'll need to keep an eye on the sky as local downpours will be a near constant threat. 

Cold, Dreary Storm (Temporarily) Rescues Vermont From Canadian Smoke

The "view" looking southwest from South Burlington
toward the Adirondacks Tuesday morning amid
the haze and smoke from Quebec wildfires. 

 The good news is the air quality is much better here in Vermont today than it was yesterday and Monday. 

The bad news the price we're paying for the cleaner skies is cold, dreary weather, but not that much rain.  Plus, many other areas of the United States and Canada are still suffering from dangerous, smoky air. And the bad air will eventually return to Vermont as well. 

(NOTE: Scenes from a smoky Vermont are in a video at the bottom of this post).

The worst of the smoke is rotating around the edges of a cold upper level low spinning over extreme southeastern Canada and northern New England.  The upper level low is at least partly preventing a lot of the smoke from penetrating those lucky people under that atmospheric swirl.

Lucky us, that includes us here in Vermont. 

RAIN/CHILL

Under this upper level low, which is unusually strong and cold for this time of year, we get to experience some April-like clouds, dampness, chill and showers. 

This same upper low was responsible on Tuesday for some light rain in parts of Vermont.  The Champlain Valley had about a quarter inch of rain, the first raindrops we've seen since another paltry quarter inch of rain fell way back on May 24. Most of the rest of Vermont only managed a tenth of an inch of rain or so. 

This is roughly the same view as the photo above, 
except it was taken on a clear, smoke-free day. 

Some areas of eastern Vermont got zilch.  I do think speculation was right that the smoke would suppress some of the showers that wanted to form yesterday. They did form, and there was even a little thunder in northwestern Vermont, but the showers were not as vigorous as they might otherwise could have.

I think showers today will be a little more numerous than they were yesterday, but they'll be quite light. Most places should anticipate a trifling tenth of an inch of rain or so. 

We'll take anything, but this isn't exactly the soaking we need. There's just not enough moisture available in the atmosphere to wring out some nice downpours. 

We need a good inch or more of rain per week. We're still just getting those little drizzles.

Today is  also cold for June.  Highs today will only range from 55 to 60 most places, though there might be some mid 60s in southern Vermont. Normal highs this time of year are in the mid-70s.  The coldest high temperature on record for this date is 52 degrees in 1912, so we won't break that record, anyway. 

Normally this time of year, we get surges of warm, humid air.  Cold fronts or other disturbances clash with this humid air, and we get the usual summer downpours. We are not getting those pushes of humid air, so we're not getting much rain. This state of affairs will continue well into next week, even though stalled weather disturbances will continue to provide mostly light showers. 

SMOKE

The smoke really got the attention of the national media on Tuesday when it billowed into network hubs like New York City and Washington DC.

As especially thick plume of smoke from an especially violent cluster of fires in western Quebec rode the edges of that upper level low, drifting southward through central New York and Pennsylvania, then rolling east into New York City. 

The Big Apple thus became the one with the worst air pollution of any in the world. It also recorded the highest levels of pollution on record for the region. 

Judging from satellite photos this morning, those western Quebec fires belched another big plume of smoke yesterday. That plume as of 10 a.m. today was over central New York and northeastern Pennsylvania, headed toward New York City again. 

City officials were urging people with heart or respiratory problems to wear high quality N95 masks if they venture outdoors. 

In central New York, the air quality index was at a whopping 350 at mid-morning. .  It's double the level considered unhealthy for people.  Air quality indexes throughout much of the Northeast are over 150, which is considered unhealthy. 

Up here in Vermont, there's still smoke lingering, but it's in the "moderate" category as of mid-morning. Forecasts continue to bring smoke down from Quebec into the Northeast over the next several days. 

It doesn't appear as if the smoke will be as thick as it was Monday night and Tuesday morning, but it will still be a factor. 

Video: Scenes from a smoky Vermont on Monday and Tuesday. Click on this link to view if you don't see the image below, or otherwise click on the image to watch the video:

Smoke Attack In Vermont/Northeast Continues, Cough, Cough. Some Relief For Vermont?

A smoky haze enveloped St. Albans Bay, Vermont 
Monday evening. The smoke and haze from Quebec
wildfires is causing unhealthy levels of pollution
in much of the Northeast, including Vermont. 

It was a murky start to the day in Vermont and much of the rest of the Northeast.

Murky starts are common in June of course, if you have a humid morning.  But it's not humid today. And that's definitely not fog and drizzle in the air. 

As we well know by now, that murk is smoke from those fires in Canada.  Most of the smoke we're getting here is from dozens of fires in Quebec. 

Air quality alerts were widespread this morning through western and central New England, most of New York and in several other scattered areas east of the Mississippi River because of the smoke this morning. 

One complex of fires in western Quebec really flared on Monday, and that sent a particularly thick batch of smoke southward into northern New York.  Vermont was on the eastern edge of that blast of smoke, but it was more than enough to screw up air quality. 

Early this morning, the air quality index at a data site in Underhill was at 151, which is considered unhealthy for everyone. 

If smoke forecasts are right, the amount of smoke in the air over Vermont will slowly wane today, but not entirely go away. 

SMOKE SQUELCHING THE RAIN?

So the act of breathing won't be entirely healthy, and the smoke introduces another problem: Will it affect the ability of the atmosphere to generate much needed showers today?

Last evening, the smoke appeared to suppress the type of updrafts needed to generate showers, so they were much fewer and far between overnight than was hoped.

Without the smoke, today would be a classic showery June day in Vermont. A pool of very chilly air aloft is moving in. Strong June sunshine would heat the ground, causing updrafts and the billowy tall clouds that create numerous but localized showers. 

You know that drill:  It's sunny, then it gets chilly and sprinkly, then the warm sun returns, only to be replaced by a minutes-long downpour, then a little more sun. Rinse and repeat. 

Will the smoke in the air today once again tamp down on those updrafts, which in turn would make showers less widespread?

In their forecast discussion, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in South Burlington admitted they were a little stumped on this question. For good reason. 

As one of the South Burlington meteorologists wrote in their discussion: "It is worth noting that this is rather uncharted territory for many NWS forecasters across the Northeast WFOs having to deal with wildfire smoke for the first time in their forecasting careers. In other words, we are learning and adapting as the event unfolds."

The optimistic thinking for today is that smoke will diminish slowly from northeast to southwest just as the cold air aloft also comes in from that direction.  So we should see some showers this afternoon, but most places should only expect a tenth to a quarter inch of rain. 

A bit more rain could come Wednesday and Thursday. But of course those fires in Quebec will continue to rage. We're at risk for more smoke attacks this week, and possibly beyond that.

PAST SMOKEOUTS

The smoke we've been experiencing this week rivals two of the more intense smoke events that I can recall. 

The first was on July 7, 2002.  It had been forecast to be a perfect Sunday for weather. Sunshine, a nice breeze, low humidity, comfortable temperatures. 

Fires in Quebec had other plans. By mid-morning that day, haze was increasing, and by afternoon, the sunshine was gone.   . The sky looked overcast, but there was not a cloud in the sky. It was all smoke. The sun in the late afternoon looked like a faint pink dot in the sky. In the 2002 case, the majority of the smoke was aloft, so the air on the ground was only moderately unhealthy.

Another smoke attack on May 31, 2010 focused smoke closer to the ground, leading to a very unhealthy day. Visibility in much of Vermont was reduced to less than two miles in thick smoke and haze. 

The current smoke attack is more complicated than the two I just mentioned. The previous two hit during otherwise fair weather, so meteorologists then didn't have to worry about whether the smoke would interfere with rain chances. 

This one could well be longer lasting, too. Instead of lasting a day, this one could wax and wane over the course of several days.   Even if the worst of it doesn't last particularly long, we can expect many days this summer with haze in the skies, just as we did in May. 

Firefighters are battling the blazes in Canada, and assistance from other nations is flowing in. But those big blazes to our north won't go out anytime soon.

Smoke Billows Into U.S. From Canada As "Clean Air" Cities Increasingly Choke On Wildfire Smoke

Satellite view Saturday of dense smoke from fires in
Alberta pouring across the International Border into
Montana and surrounding states

 San Francisco and Seattle have reputations for clean air. Breezes off the Pacific Ocean usually sweep air pollution away and people breathe easy.  

Calgary, Alberta, Canada is also known as a clean air city. It's on the high plains just east of the Canadian Rockies, not far from Banff National Park.  

In recent years, though, those cities have had relatively brief but disconcerting episodes in which they had the worst air pollution in the world. Worse than Beijing. Worse than New Delhi. Worse than than Lahore. 

The problem is wildfires. Thanks in large part to climate change, these cities have had episodes of intense, dangerous air pollution. 

The latest victim is Calgary. The smoke from Alberta wildfires is spreading far and wide But Calgary, a major city closest to the fires, is really socked in by the smoke. 

Smoke this past week in the Canadian city was downright dangerous, even for healthy people. The smoke was double the level considered hazardous, and visibility was done to a half mile. Calgary was probably the most polluted city in the world on Tuesday. 

This is reminiscent of San Francisco in 2021, when wildfires turned the sky and air an apocalyptic orange, and created serious health alerts. 

For a time last October, Seattle had the worst air quality in the world due to wildfire smoke. Some wild fire smoke has returned to Seattle from Canada in recent days, but it's so far not as bad as last year. 

Back in Canada, the wildfire smoke problem has been getting much worse in and around Calgary. They rarely had problems with smoke before about 2015, but since then, it's been a yearly issue. 

The smoke isn't just annoying and disheartening. It's dangerous. The smoke can endanger people with lung and heart problems, and worsen asthma. 

The American Lung Association says wildfire smoke contains tiny particles that can embed themselves deep in the lungs, which is why it's so dangerous. The smoke can trigger heart attacks and strokes in susceptible people. So it's nothing to be trifled with. 

Wildfire smoke from Alberta, Canada blotting out the
sun over Vermont on May 8 

The worst spring wildfire season in Alberta continues to grind on in the face of record early season heat. Smoke from these fires have spread far and wide.  Record high temperatures continued across western Canada this week, encouraging fires to spread and new ones to start.

Even up in the Northwest Territories of Canada, where snow should still be on the ground, wildfires are burning amid the record heat. 

At least 90 fires were burning across Alberta as of this week, so the smoke isn't going to stop anytime soon. 

Air quality alerts were in effect yesterday and continue today in Montana, Washington State, Minnesota and other states as the smoke was at ground level there. 

The smoke is even more widespread aloft, streaming over much of the United States. I once again noticed smoke high overhead in Vermont this morning. That's at least the eighth day this month in which smoke dimmed the sun over the Green Mountain State. 

So far, anyway, the smoke over Vermont hasn't really made it to the surface, although a bit haze in the air this morning and on some other days in the past couple of weeks indicates a few of those particulates in the wildfire smoke is making it into our lungs. 

Still, air quality in Vermont hasn't been too bad. The air quality index in Vermont was still in the "good" range this morning, so no issues there. 

Smoke And Haze Lingers For A Bit Longer

Burlington, Vermont "haze cam" this morning. It's a little 
better than yesterday, but you still can't see the Adirondacks
because of the smoke in the air. 

 UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, the Air Quality Alert was lifted in Vermont a few hours earlier than planned. It's still smoky and hazy, but the gunk is not thick enough to create a major health concern

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Air quality alerts remained in effect this morning in Vermont and most of the rest of New England as a stubborn cloud of smoke from Canadian wildfires lingered over the region.

Some relief from a cold front bringing in air from a not burning section of Quebec MIGHT help later today. The smoke will always be close enough to return or resurge for the foreseeable future.  

The smoke will either come from Canada, or the western United States. Who knows? There might even be a touch of it from Siberia.

For the next week at least, we'll be under an air flow from the northwest. So during that time, we'll blame Canada. At least for the smoke and their wildfires. 

 On some days over the next week, our air will come from further north in Canada, which isn't really smoky, so the atmosphere will be pretty clean. Sometimes the air will come from a little further south in Canada, picking up smoke from large wildfires near the eastern end of Lake Winnipeg. 

As of Monday, at least 128 wildfires were burning in Manitoba, so you know the supply of smoke from that region will continue.  That's not even including the smoke from fires in the western United States that is also drifting east across North America.

The air had already improved somewhat overnight, at least temporarily. On Monday, amid the thick haze, the air quality index was above 150, which is considered unhealthy. This morning, it was in the 50 to 100 range, which is called "moderate." In other words, not great, but not a disaster, either. 

The amount of smoke and haze in the air will continue to wax and wane today, but forecasts call for a general decline. This will be aided by that cold front from Quebec.  Scattered rain showers along and ahead of the front will wash some of the soot from the air, and suppress the smoke from Manitoba to our south and west, at least for awhile. 

The air quality alert is currently scheduled to expire at 1 p.m. today. 

There might be some strong thunderstorms with this in southern Vermont, with the best chance of that happening along and south of Route 4 in the late afternoon or early evening.

Further north, there could be showers today, but no biggie, really. 

Showers and thunderstorms are always a part of summer. We love summer rains when they do hit. It seems like smoke is now a part of summer, too.  And will be as climate change worsens.

This is not the summers we long for. 

Statewide Line Of Severe Storms Tuesday, But At Least The Smoke (Temporarily) Cleared

Interesting visible satellite view of the Northeast U.S.
and southeast Canada this morning. You can see
the milky tone of the thick smoke in the Mid-Atlantic
states that affected Vermont Tuessday. There's clouds
over Vermont/northern New York and clear, smoke-
free air in Quebec the cleaner air is headed 
in our direction. 
Vermont Tuesday

 It's actually kind of rare that the entire state of Vermont goes under a series of severe thunderstorm warnings for a single line of storms, but we accomplished that last evening. 

Everybody from Alburgh to Vernon got a good thunderstorm out of this.  Not everyone had severe, damaging storms, but reports of high winds and flooding came from all corners of Vermont with this. 

On the bright side, everybody got beneficial rain out of it, though southern Vermont at this point doesn't really need the rain.  

The storms also temporarily dramatically improved air quality, as the rain washed the dense wildfire smoke that had been hanging in the air, prompting air quality alerts.

Fancy pants meteorologists would define what went through Vermont last evening as a quasi-linear convective system or QLCS.   A QLCS is a particular type of squall line ahead of a cold front, and they can be pretty nasty. 

For our purposes, we'll just call it a line of thunderstorms, or a squall line. It originated way up in central Ontario, Canada during the late morning and made its way southeastward into northwestern New York in the afternoon and into and across Vermont in the evening. The line of damaging storms made its way all the way across southern and central New Hampshire to the coast.

Parts of this squall line had some pretty intense lightning. I have to wonder if the smoke particles in the atmosphere encouraged some of that. 

While there was tree and wire damage reported in spots across Vermont, it appears two of the hardest hit areas were around Burlington, and around Orange County in eastern Vermont. 

In Burlington, more than an inch of rain fell in less than an hour, flooding streets. The city reported a total of 1.24 inches of rain yesterday. Right around an inch of rain fell on my St. Albans, Vermont property. Not exactly record breaking, but it was still the wettest day here so far this year. 

A large tree fell on St. Paul Street in Burlington, smushing two vehicles. Another tree fell on Interstate 89 in Burlington. 

It looks like a power outage or wind screwed up automatic weather data at the Burlington International Airport as we still don't know the peak wind gust in the storm there. Hourly Burlington weather observations were still not working on the National Weather Service web site as of 7 a.m. today, but it looks like it was fixed soon after that. 

After the storm, a brighter setting sun as the rain washed
smoke out of the air, and a bit of a rainbow, too. Photo
taken in St. Albans, Vermont 

In Norwich and Thetford  there were reports of many, many trees down, blocking roads. Some power outages lingered in Orange County, Vermont early this morning. 

An area along the squall line near those two towns seems to exhibit some rotation, but it's unknown whether any tornadic activity occurred. 

Yesterday's storms might be the end of the decent rains most of Vermont has been getting lately.  

In northern Vermont this morning, it was murky with fog and drizzle. Showers and a few thundershowers will blossom and be scattered about this afternoon, but no severe weather is forecast. 

North winds over the next couple of days is bringing much cleaner air in from northern Quebec. At least for now, air pollution from western wildfires shouldn't be nearly as much of a problem as it was on Tuesday. 

We'll go into a northwesterly flow for the next week or more. That means frequent quick moving weather systems will come through, each of them with their own batch of showers and storms. But they won't have all that much moisture to work with, so any showers will be quick hitting and not amount to all that much in this upcoming weather pattern.

Smoke From Wildfires Chokes Much Of Nation, Including Vermont

Much of the nation, especially areas in red, have smoky,
hazy skies today due to smoke from western forest fires.

 As I expected all along, waves of smoke and haze have been crossing the nation due to wildfires in the western United States and Canada.

Sometimes, the haze and smoke will get thicker, and this is one of those times. 

The air quality noticeably worsened yesterday in much of the Northeast and southeastern Canada as a wave of smoke came through. 

Here in St. Albans, Vermont, what would have been a pleasant summer evening of watching thunderheads majestically rise over the mountains was ruined by the haze obstructing visibility. Unfortunately, wrecking visibility is not the worst aspect of these episodes.  There's a bit of a health concern as well

Sometimes in these episodes, almost all the smoke goes high overhead, giving us a hazy sun but no real health concerns, at least locally. Other times, some of the smoke is at or near the surface. This is one of those times. 

An evening thunderhead rising in the sky is barely visible
through the smoke last evening as seen from St. Albans, Vermont.

You can tell just by going outside. Last evening, the usual organic aroma of a mid-summer evening outside my house had an added ingredient - a whiff of smoke.  I can smell it a bit this morning, too. 

Visibility is down to a few miles in the haze this morning, and that state of affairs will probably continue all day.  Air quality is not great, that's for sure. 

So far, Vermont health officials have not declared any air quality alerts as of this writing at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. But there were already pockets of Vermont where the air was considered "unhealthy for sensitive groups." 

To be on the safe side, I wouldn't exactly go outside and run a marathon today. You won't keel over if you do, as long as you're healthy to begin with. But it's probably not the most fantastic idea to breathe in all those tiny particulates from the smoke that will lodge in your lungs. 

Local  conditions can vary in these situations as well. Up in Montreal, Environment Canada has the air quality at a rather high risk.  There is actually a smog warning for poor air quality today in Montreal and much of the rest of Quebec.

We'll have to get used to hazy skies more often than not for the rest of the summer and much of the autumn, since the air usually comes generally from the west, where most of the fires are.  With climate change, huge western fires have become the new normal. Which means smoky haze across much of the nation is also the new normal. 

Luckily, most of the time, almost all the smoke is high overhead, so air quality for us breathing down here on terra firma don't have to worry too much about health effects. 

This time, however, a fair amount of smoke is near ground level. This will happen from time to time. This won't be the last occasion we have to deal with breathing smoke from distant fires.

Some showers, and possibly a couple of strong thunderstorms later today and this evening will probably help wash some of this pollution out of the air to make things improve at least somewhat overnight.