As Expected, Strong Storms Raked New England, Including Vermont

Storm clouds move into Sheldon, in northwestern Vermont shortly
before noon Wednesday.  

The storms in the Northeast on Wednesday pretty much played out as expected: Almost everyone in Vermont, northern New York, much of New Hampshire and Maine got some pretty good thunderstorms today.

The storms developed during the morning in northwestern Vermont, and moved rapidly eastward, as the line the storms were traveling along slowly sank southward across the state during the day.

Also as expected, only a handful of locations got storms that could genuinely be described as severe and damaging.

Most of that happened in central Vermont, where there were reports of trees down and power failures.

Storm clouds near St. Albans, Vermont Wednesday.  

Other areas with severe weather reports were western and northern New Hampshire, western Maine, western Massachusetts and an area east of Albany, New York.

One of the things I noticed in particular with the waves of storms that crossed Vermont during the day was the large amount of cloud to ground lightning and super loud thunder.

There were quite a lot of lightning strikes across most of the state.

I was also struck, no pun intended, of people out in the storms during the worst of the lightning strikes as I traveled through western Vermont today.

Storm clouds darken the sky over Hinesburg,
Vermont Wedneday afternoon.  

In Sheldon, a guy holding a "Slow/Stop" road construction sign stuck it out through the lightning in an open, exposed area.

In Georgia, a guy stubbornly rode his bike through the lightning and downpour. Another guy in Milton mowed the lawn in the lightning. A couple women in Bristol enjoyed their outdoor swimming pool as the sky flashed overhead.

As far as I know, nobody got struck. But still.

The storms were tapering off, as expected Wednesday evening.

More showers and storms will return by Sunday in New England, but at least for now, I'm not expecting severe weather.