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