Not Many Severe Storms, But Cool Pictures

Storm clouds over Georgia, Vermont
Tuesday looked tornadic, but there
was no rotatio. This was a shelf cloud
with a scud cloud beneath it.  

The strong storms in Vermont and New York on Tuesday didn't turn out to be too widespread in terms of severity, but at least they were photogenic.  

You can see some of the photos I took of the storms over northwestern Vermont in this post.

Click on them to make them bigger and easier to see.

We expected some strong to severe storms to develop Tuesday and they did, here and there. Most of them were in New York State, with very few if any of the strongest ones making it into Vermont.

There were, as expected, scattered reports of flash flooding, too, especially near Saranac Lake, New York and near Eden, Vermont a little southeast of Jay Peak.

We knew the cold front causing the potentially rough weather would slow down as it approached Vermont.  It actually stalled for a little while over New York, delaying the arrival of what would have been the strongest storms from arriving in Vermont.

By the time a lot of them did, they were weakening as the sun was going down. Sun adds energy to the atmosphere, and makes storms potentially stronger.

During the hottest part of the afternoon, some thunderstorms would turn at least potentially severe and try to run out ahead of the New York State cold front.

Roiling storm clouds over a Fairfield, Vermont
farm house on Tuesday. 

There were a couple severe storm warnings in parts of northwestern Vermont, but these storms weakened a bit as they exited New York State and got to the Green Mountain State.

That's because the storms ran out ahead of the best atmospheric energy and upper level wind fields as they got more and more away from the cold front.

Still, in far northwestern Vermont, in Swanton, I did experience a rather dramatic thunderstorm that featured and awesome shelf cloud, dime sized hail and wind gusts in the 50 to 55 mph range, I'd guess.

That storm did cause a little tree damage in some parts of Swanton.

Dime sized hail was also reported in South Hero, Vermont on Lake Champlain,

Some of the storms really were big rain makers. Around Saranac Lake, New York flash flooding blocked part of Route 86 and had Route 3 down to one lane, the National Weather Service office in South Burlington reported.

Storm clouds approach Swanton, Vermont Tuesday.  

In Eden Mills, Vermont, not far from the Canadian border, a whopping 2.9 inches of rain fell in an hour and 15 minutes, and a storm total of 4.8 inches came there in just three hours. That's as much rain as normally falls in five weeks this time of year.

The storm total came to 5.3 inches in Eden Mills. Woodstock, New Hampshire got 5.92 inches of rain. Wow!

The heavy rain was spotty. Radar estimates of the rainfall perhaps just ten miles away from Eden Falls put the rainfall total and less than a quarter inch.

Radar estimates of the rain show spot totals of over three inches east of Rutland and south of St. Johnsbury, but nearby areas had as little as a tenth of an inch.

By late afternoon at my St. Albans, Vermont house, about a half inch of rain had thankfully soaked my gardens. Meanwhile, just two miles up the road to the east of my house, everything was still dry and dusty.

Storm clouds over Milton, Vermont Tuesday  

It just depended on where the thunderstorms chose to roam, I guess.

Today, there will be more scattered showers and thunderstorms across northern New York and northern New England. There will be little if any severe weather.

However, storms in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, northern New Hampshire and western Maine might have small hail and gusty winds.

More scattered severe storms are possible with another cold front in northern New England Friday afternoon, but at this point I'm not expecting any kind of widespread outbreak of severe weather then.