Another Severe Weather Threat Today Vermont, Rest Of Northeast

A severe thunderstorm looms
over Starksboro, Vermont last month.
More severe weather is a a good
bet in parts of the Green Mountain State
today. 

Another sunny, humid dawn greeted us in Vermont this morning, setting the stage for some more severe thunderstorms today.

Yesterday, we had a bit of a warmup. A few areas in the North Country managed to pick up a thunderstorm. None were severe, but some were strong with gusts to 40 mph and brief, torrential downpours.  

I noticed the National Weather Service at South Burlington, Vermont picked up a quick quarter inch of rain or so with a thunderstorm. Here at my weather hacienda in St. Albans, Vermont, just 25 miles north of Burlington, we got just, like, three raindrops.

Today will be much more active than Wednesday, as I expect most people in Vermont and surrounding areas will get a thunderstorm.

Some storms will be severe.  The area NOAA's Storm Prediction center is targeted today is northeastern Pennsylvania, most of New York, all of Vermont, most of New Hampshire and the western portions of Massachucetts, Connecticut  and Maine.

The biggest threats from any of today's storms are strong, damaging winds and torrential downpours.  Even though it has been dry, the air is so humid that the thunderstorms will take full advantage of the available moisture.

That means it will rain so, so hard in some storms, raising the risk of local flash floods.

Often, an approaching cold front bumping into humid air touches off severe thunderstorms. But the nearest cold front is way west over the Great Lakes.

Today's it's a combination of an upper level disturbance in the atmosphere, lots of humidity, instability encouraged by strong morning sun today and some relatively strong winds aloft that are creating the chances of bad storms.

As with most episodes of severe storms in the Northeast, most people won't get damaging winds or flash floods. It'll just be a random smattering of locations.

Areas in yellow have the best chance of severe
thunderstorms today, but the severe ones
will be hit and miss.  

Most of the time, you can't tell much more than several minutes ahead of time who will get the severe weather, so keep your weather radio handy and take shelter if you get a severe storm warning, or go to high ground if you get a flash flood warning.

Most of the rest of us still have to be careful. There will probably be a lot of lightning around during the storms, which of course you don't want to be outside in the middle of.

So, cancel your hiking trip, your fishing trip and your boating trip today, and probably your picnic,too.

Better weather will be coming.

Although not tomorrow. I expect more thunderstorms scattered around the region Friday, though few, if any will be severe. Friday's storms will be touched off by that cold front I told you about that's over the Great Lakes today. It'll finally get here on Friday.

There might be a lesser coverage of widely scattered storms Saturday, but no big deal.

Sunday at this point looks gorgeous