Storm Recap: No Tornadoes, But Definitely Scattered Vermont Damage

Flooding after a torrential thunderstorm in
Burlington, Vermont on Tuesday. 

As expected, several lines of storms swept through Vermont, New York and the rest of the Northeast on Tuesday.  

Seems like the hardest hit places were the western Adirondacks, Addison County, Vermont, northeastern Vermont and the far southern counties of the state.

There had been a tornado watch for northwestern Vermont and much of New York state.

I'm not aware of any twisters in Vermont, but meteorologists will inspect damage in central and western New York to determine if any tornadoes touched down.

There were quite a few reports of wind damage. Most of it involved trees and wires down, but in a couple places things got even more extreme.

In Vergennes, a barn roof blew off and other outbuildings were damaged. Green Mountain Power reported about 1,200 customers without power.

In Burlington, the wind wasn't too bad. It got windy and there were some small branches down. Winds at the National Weather Service office in South Burlington gusted to 47 mph, which is pretty decent for a summer storm.

But the highlight was the torrential rain. Given the high humidity in the air, the downpour was absolutely wild. Some streets were flooded and I saw at least one car stall out when the motorist foolishly tried to drive through deep water on Lakeside Avenue.

I made a rough cut video of the torrential Burlington rain and flooding. I didn't bother with nice production values, so excuse the amateur nature of the video, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

One interesting phenomenon I saw with these lines of storms was they'd be very powerful and severe as the got most of the way through Adirondacks of New York as they rumbled eastbound.

On the eastern slopes of the Adirondacks, the storms would all weaken incredibly rapidly to just broad areas of moderate to briefly heavy rain.

Taking some street flooding in Burlington, Vermont too
fast after a torrential thunderstorm Tuesday/ 

The storms would then start to quickly regenerate over Lake Champlain, and become locally severe again as they headed toward the western slopes of Vermont's Green Mountains and beyond.

I asked a National Weather Service meteorologist in South Burlington, who said when there's an overall southwesterly airflow, as there was Tuesday, thunderstorms will often weaken in the eastern Adirondacks.

As air flows over the mountains, in descends on the east slopes. Descending air is killer for storms as they need strong updrafts to survive.

Once the remnants of the storms got over Lake Champlain, the air was once again unstable and rising, so the storms could begin to form again.

The storms are obviously over, so we don't have to worry about more severe weather. We've now launched into an extended period of dry, cool weather. Basically a fall preview.

Temperatures will be near normal today, but several towns won't even break 70 degrees Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday.

Humidity will be low, and nights will be noticeably chilly. Look for lots of 40s at night, with some upper 30s in the cold spots over the next few nights.

Autumn is on the way.

Here's the storm video from Burlington Tuesday: