Another Super Wet, Possibly Flooding and Chilly Storm In the Northeast

Payback is a bitch.  

A predicted rainfall map from the National Weather Service
in South Burlington, Veront shows totals
of between 2 and 3 inches in the areas shaded in red

Most of the Northeast has had a great stretch of summer weather over the past few days, but that's ending now.

Yet another strange, deep dip in the jet stream is about to cause yet another very wet, chilly storm system, and flooding has become a threat again.  

No good stretch of weather in New England goes unpunished, and this just helps prove that case.

Flash flood watches are up for most of southern New England, New Hampshire and far southern Vermont. 

The heavy rain will push west to east across New England late tonight and Wednesday. In southern New England, embedded thunderstorms could cause rain to come down at a rate of two inches per hour at times in some spots, leading to urban and small stream flooding.

In northern New England, strong southeast winds, laden with tropical moisture, will sweep heavy rain in. South and east slopes of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Green Mountains in Vermont, especially in the southern reaches of that state, could get some flooding.

As the wet southeast winds rise up the slopes of those mountains the rising air will squeeze out even more moisture, so heavy rain could cause flash flooding, especially along brooks and small creeks.

Many areas could get two to four inches of rain out of this. 

Northwestern Vermont will have some of the moisture blocked by the mountains, so there will be a soaking rain there, but probably not much in the way of flooding.

Those southeast winds will also cause a phenomenon most familar to us in winter, not summer. As they come over the top of the Green Mountains, the gusts will gain momentun as they come down the west slopes of the mountains.

Strong gusty winds, possibly enough to bring down a few branches, trees or power lines, could hit those western slopes of the Green Mountains on Wednesday.  This kind of set up is more common during winter nor'easters, not summer storm systems. 

We've had a lot of these weird, intense storms this summer. I'm not sure why. I guess it's the luck of the draw. 

The weather has been summery the past few days. It's August, after all. But this is the time of year where we often get our first hint that fall is coming, and we will really get clubbed over the head with that hint this week.

The worst of the rain will depart Wednesday night, but the storm that will have caused the heavy downpours will stall in Quebec.

That means cool weather. In much of northern New England, daytime highs won't get out of the 60s Wednesday through Friday. The last time Burlington, Vermont had three days in a row that didn't get above 70 was May 17-19, so there you go. 

Don't worry, this doesn't mean summer is over.  (We can ignore those few somewhat sickly sugar maple trees that already have fall colors) 

It just means the end is near, and we'd better get used to cool spells coming up as we head toward September. Still, it will warm back up into the 70s next weekend, and I'm sure we'll have a couple of warm to hot spells before summer gives up the ghost.