Heat, Strong Storms, Local Flash Floods. It's Summer

Some thunderstorms today in Vermont could have torrenetial rains,
and might cause local flooding like this storm did last
August in Burlington

After a night that proved increasingly muggy, we've got a classic Vermont summer day coming up today. Not classic as in beautiful, like, say Friday afternoon and Saturday were.

I'm talking oppressively hot, with lots of afternoon showers and thunderstorms around. Forecasters still think some of the storms might be strong to severe, and there is a risk of one or two towns getting a flash flood today.

First, the heat. Temperatures won't be too extraordinary, but hot enough. The humidity is what's going to make today nasty. There is a heat advisory up for the Champlain Valley and southeastern Vermont. Afternoon readings before the storms will get up to near 90 degrees, but the humidity will make it fell like it's in the upper 90s.

Today is not the day you want to move that big rock pile or run a marathon. Save it for another day, bub.

There is a cold front coming in from the northwest, which means this heat and humidity is here just for today. It'll be gone tomorrow. Of course, we have to get through lots of showers and thunderstorms ahead of the cold front this afternoon and evening.

Most of us will just get garden variety storms, except many of the storms will have some torrential rain.

Early this morning, there were already some showers and storms in the Northeast Kingdom, and also just north of the Canadian border above Highgate, Vermont.

The storms will increase in coverage and intensity this afternoon. Some storms will contain microbursts, which, as I described yesterday, are intense blasts of wind and rain coming down from a collapsing thunderstorm. Microbursts cover only a small area, but the wind in these things is dangerous, and can cause a lot of damage.

We could use the rain, as it has been dry. Yet, forecasters still say one or two towns could get a flash flood out of today's weather pattern.

Most of the storms will be moving right along, so they won't sit over any particular area for a long time. That means they won't have time to dump enough rain to cause much more than some minor street flooding and a bit of erosion on your hilly driveway.

However. There's always a however. A few places might get what are known as training thunderstorms. The storms will be lined up like boxcars on a railroad track. Which means one storm after another would hit a particular place. That would be enough to cause flash flooding in the spots where the training thunderstorms hit.

The weird thing about training is one town might have some damaging flash floods while communities just a couple miles away, outside the storms, are just fine. You don't know much in advance where this will hit.

So, the best thing to do today is take it easy. Stay in the AC if you can. Listen for severe thunderstorm  and/or flash flood warnings today, and if you're area is covered by one of these alerts, get inside a nice sturdy building. Unless the nice sturdy building is in a flood prone area. Then go up to higher ground.

At least the storminess we're getting today is not nearly as bad as it was in places like Wisconsin and Michigan. There, the flash flooding was pretty extreme. As an example, here are some scenes from hilly Houghton, in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan:



Another dramatic video from Michigan: